Oh Spare Parts Dog....

Flea fell down the stairs on Saturday.

My WORST nightmare!

Cuz see - here's the thing. Flea is the clutziest dog you've ever seen. Chachi
- he's all purebred and solid and strong. Nothing is ever wrong with him. Flea, on the other hand - all spare parts. She falls every day. Many times a day. She's got a condition called 'luxating patella' and her knees are really not good (debating surgery for this one - anyone have experience?)

But not only that - she'll bonk her head on the coffee table leg, jump for the couch and juuuuuuust miss it - banging into it with her chest instead and falling like Wile E Coyote off a cliff. (thing is, there are DOGGY STEPS to help her get on the couch, but instead of using them properly, she'll launch herself off the lowest step to the couch). She'll wobble on the arm of the couch just so I have a heart attack.

She falls when she hears a loud noise. When she's excited to eat. When it's Tuesday. Falling is as natural to her as breathing and eating shit. And she's never phased by it. she picks herself right up and keeps ontruckin'. Dumb, loveable dork of a dog.

Still, I should have known better.

We have 2 levels in our condo and Flea was following me downstairs.
Suddenly, I heard scrambling and turned around in time to see this tiny
white ball rolling down the last 5 or 6 steps. Hardwood steps. Tile
landing. Nothing forgiving about that. She is epileptic, so - I guess
there's a chance she had a seizure en route - but knowing her history
of falling all the time - I think she just lost her grip.

She landed lying stomach down on the floor and stayed there, dazed for a
few moments. Then, slowly, she picked herself up. Moving awkwardly
towards me. I'm sure she was in a lot of pain. I was absolutely beside
myself. But kept it on the inside. Because she picks up on all my
emotions like a mirror. Thankfully - she could walk. That was good!

So, I kept her still the rest of the night. Heating pad, the works. The next morning, I noticed she was lookin' at me funny. Really funny. With only ONE EYE. The other was puffy and closed.

My first reaction was - EMERGENCY VET! All the freaky-outyness
I kept on the inside the night before came out - Her brain is bleeding!
Her skull is cracked! We need x-rays! Her eye is gonna fall out! What
if she's blind? But Corn kept me level-headed and said - "she's
walking, eating, wagging her tail. Let's just wait".

So we did. I gave her painkillers (from another incident where her knee
popped out recently. Yeah, good times) And by Sunday , she had her
peepers back.

This little dog - I swear. Is gonna give me an ulcer if she doesn't give herself one first.

"I tripped on my matching baggy rap-guy pants"



However - almost hesitant to say it, but she's doing great w/ the seizures. The last one was Feb 4th. And we had been up to 3/month beforehand. She's on meds and a new diet to control them. So - so far, so good.

But - the stairs are now blocked off to dogs, permanently.

The Results...

The vet called Corn this morning to tell us that - FLEA IS FINE! Her liver is functioning as it should - no shunt, no weirdness - it's all on the up and up. And this last test (bile acid) is the one that would find absolutely anything wrong. This finding is such good news, since her urinalysis found bilirubin crystals (again)..which is indicative of liver problems.

He said that we need to keep an eye on the seizures (they seem to be getting more frequent) and that if they become all too common, we will look at medication.

Well colour me RELIEVED. And still...what's the deal with the bilirubin crystals? I am (mostly) relieved but at this point, I have done all I can. I hope I'm not being a dogachondriac (hell, I NEVER get this way with Chachi..it's just that Flea is just so spare parts and who knows what her medical background is..we already know she came from bad breeding *except in the personality department*) I have a few residual questions for the vet and then - it's take it one day at a time, I guess. Thanks for being patient. This has been top of mind for the last few days!

Now back to our regularly scheduled stupidity...

And the answer is...

Flea is okay!

Got the blood test results yesterday. And you may remember that a preliminary urinalysis found some bilirubin crystals in her pee - which is related to liver function (or lack thereof). So, the vet anticipated finding something amiss with her liver or kidneys.

But nope! Nothing..her innards are working just fine. No diabetes, no disease. What they DID found however, was a slightly low white blood cell count. The vet suggests that the machine that counts blood cells may have miscounted, since Flea is pretty asymptomatic aside from her drinkin' n' whizzin'.

So why is she peeing so much? Well, he says it's due to the weather (drinking more and therefore peeing more) which I noodled around too. But, my gut feeling is that something else is the reason. I dunno. I'm not sure how to explain it - but I just don't trust that it's the heat...I mean, she can pee 5 times in an hour. That ain't right.

But I guess for now - the basics are all accounted for, and her organs are happy and healthy. Everything else is gravy. Thanks for your thoughts and kind words. My little spare-parts dog moseys on.

p.s. I linked a bunch of your asses. If you no likey, just let me know. BTW, CQ - the reason you can't see my links is because of the browser you are using. If you use FIREFOX, you can see everything in it's place. Otherwise, on Explorer, you have to scroll right to the bottom to see any links.

Flea and her pee and the big VEE EE TEE.

Just a quickie. I know those of you who've never had a pet probably won't 'get' this - but I also know there's a lot of you out there who DO!

Flea's pee/drinking habits have been 'off' as of late. Actually, the last 3 weeks or so. Because she's had UTI's in the past, I thought I'd keep an eye on it. But because it was so hot - I suspected that might be the cause for increasing her water intake and therefore she'd be peeing more often.

I just suspected something was wrong, so I brought a urine sample in (hers, not mine!) to be tested. Actually, Corn brought it in. God love him, he puts the PEE in U.P.S!

Turns out she has what are called: bilirubin crystals in her urine and the vet wants to do bloodwork. This was told to me by the vet tech, so I didn't get to speak with the man himself to ask him what this could possibly mean. I got off the phone and did exactly what you SHOULD do when you're a bit freaked out: GO TO GOOGLE, BABY!

Well, I found out that bilirubin crystals are related to liver function. And can indicate a whole garbage bag of afflictions: liver disease, gallbladder disease, gallstones, cancer....or just the simple ingestion of a toxin. And, I'm sure OTHER stuff. Then of course, you look up the various symptoms and mentally check them off in your head: lethargy (sure), bloat (she's kinda fat?), seizures (yes!), constipation (bingo!).

SIGH. So, we go for bloodwork tomorrow (and a handy dandy anal gland expression while we're at it). Wish us luck. Happy thoughts for the Fleabag, the sweetest, gentlest dog you ever did see.