Soya, our 12-year old Boxer, is in pretty bad shape. Yesterday morning she came down the stairs, albeit sideways, and went out like usual. But while she was out there, she really looked wobbly in the back legs. She did not eat breakfast.
By noon she was pretty much unable to walk at all. Her back legs were not working. She was unable really to stand or lower herself to sit. I called the vet and started preparing the family. Speculation was internal bleeding. Her test results last week showed she was anemic. The vet recommended we do a quick red blood cell count and see if the anemia had increased significantly. So in we went. We had to carry her on a blanket.
The blood test actually came out better than last week. So we did an x-ray. While not conclusive, they look a lot like she might have a slipped or compressed disk in her back. We could take her to a specialist, have them inject die and do more tests to see exactly what the problem is. But instead we decided to treat it as a slipped disk and put her on Prednisone. I'm not sure if we'd do more testing anyway, unless a diagnosis could be fairly simple to treat. Surgery is not an option, we feel, due to her advanced age.
She's confined to the office and we have to help her walk outside by slinging a towel under her stomach. She had her first dose of Pred at 6 pm last night. When we tried taking her out around 7:30 or so, she didn't do any business, but she was able to get her front legs going enough to get back into the house. She also was able to stand on her own, just not walk.
So Taylor slept on the floor in the office with her last night and this morning I gave her another dose of Pred. She's pretty alert. She's still not moving at all, and not eating or drinking unless we can coax her by dipping our hands in the water and then having her lick them. She really doesn't want to get up. So we've not taken her out again this morning. Of course, since she's not eating, and barely drinking, that helps with her not needing to go out.
So, things could be rather rocky for the next few days. If she doesn't respond by Friday afternoon, we may have to go through the whole preparation of the kids again. I'm worried about going into the weekend with her like this, as the clinic will be closed and she'd have to go the emergency clinic, where they don't know her or have her files. I'll have to talk to the vet about that Friday.
Soya has the natural ability to win over everyone she meets. And I learned a valuable lesson about telling others of her situation yesterday. I learned that I need to be sensitive to the feelings of others about my dog. I must admit, when someone tells me their dog is terminally ill, or that there's been an accident, I feel badly for the person. But I don't usually bond with other people's dogs. And I've known many of them. I really don't bond with other people's pets, but other people do bond with Soya.
I mentioned to Tony yesterday, before the vet appointment, that Soya might need to be put down. I was surprised by his reaction. He became quite concerned, ended our conversation, jumped in the car and came over here right away. He wanted to see her one more time. He said there are only two pets in our congregation families that he's close to. Soya is one of them. I also have a friend in the neighborhood, Jesse, that is very close to her. He is very clear that he wants to be kept apprised of her situation and he wants to help me get her in and out and visit with her as much as possible.
So there you are. We're sticking close to home, specifically in our office, for the next couple of days.
Without much zeal this morning, but to keep my promise to trash them for 30 straight days: Don't buy Benchcraft Furniture.
7:52:05 AM 
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