Dog updates

I meant to post this Friday, but I spaced it out. 

Lucy, as you may recall, was having some serious seizures about 10 days ago and I took her to the vet, where she was prescribed phenobarbital to control them. Doc warned me that she'll be seriously subdued until her body becomes accustomed to the downers, and that it'll take several days before she stops having fits. 

I dosed her as soon as I got home and she hasn't had a major seizure since. There were some very minor ones where she was panting real hard and lost control of her bladder which pissed her off to no end, but nothing scary. That lasted a couple days, and she hasn't had a seizure of any size since. 

As far as her being doped up..... that never happened, in fact her activity level is where it was about 5 years ago. Her new favorite thing to do is wait until that asshole dog Jack starts snoring, then she jumps right in the middle of him to get him to play with her.

The one thing that's really startling is her appetite. Now, she's on a special food because of her kidneys, and that shit's expensive, running me 35 bucks for an 8 pound bag. Luckily she doesn't eat much so a bag lasts for a month or more.  It's nasty as hell, so I was taking some canned chicken and putting that in there to sweeten it up, and feeding her twice a day to keep her weight up. At feeding time, I'd have to chase her around the house (her little game) and then physically put her in front of her dish to make sure she ate. Most of the time she'd finish it, but occasionally she just didn't have an appetite. 

Now? I'm feeding that little cracker dog 3 times a day and twice the amount as a normal feeding. If I don't, she'll start whining and bitching about 2 PM until I do. I bet she's gained 2-3 pounds in the past week. And I'm not having to chase her around - she goes straight to her dish and scarfs every bit of it down every time. 

I can't believe I'm serving one of my dogs 3 meals a day. 

That asshole dog Jack... I took him for his shots the other day with no problems or fights, but as long as I was there I had Doc look at a small growth on the inside of his right rear leg, just above the foot that I noticed a month or so ago. 

It was a little weird looking, with the same pink color and texture as the pads on the bottom of his foot. It's not painful and it doesn't appear to have roots, but I figured it needed to be checked. 

Doc told me it could be a reaction to an allergy or..... it could be a form of a nasty skin cancer, but we won't really know until it's removed and sent off for testing. He advised me to keep an eye on it for a couple weeks and if it got any larger or changed color or texture to get him in right away, otherwise he'll do the surgery early next month. Luckily my Social Security starts next month so it's not going to cause any financial hardship to us. 

I checked it again last night and it appears to have gotten smaller, but I'm still going to have it removed, provided it doesn't go away before then. Even if it does go away, I'll still have Doc check though, just to be safe.

I do thank each and every one of you for your kind comments and emails about Lucy, but she's doing really, really good.