It’s Been a While

Or at least it feels like it’s been a while.

I was visiting with my cousins on Scott’s End in early October when we all started to have some serious concern about Harlow. She really just wasn’t eating. I’d gotten to the point where I was trying to jam her pills down her throat. Don’t wanna eat? I’m not forcing you. Don’t want to take your meds which include steroid for your IBD, prozac for your anxiety, and chemo for your bladder cancer? I’m gonna start forcing you.

It was not fun. And not very effective.

I had been emailing with my vet a few times over the previous week, discussing her behavior and calling them also for suggestions about things that could be safe for her to eat. Yes, I’m sure I can get my dog to consume yogurt. Not.

From Harlow’s puppydom, she had Dr. Chase as her vet. We LOVE Dr Chase. She is just the absolute best. During the pandemic we got switched over to another vet because you needed to go with whoever could help you. He was fine enough.

Dr. Chase caught wind of Harlow’s recent struggles and sent me an email “With Harlow not feeling well or eating well for this long, I’d really prefer to get her in for weight check, exam, lab work, etc.  I have openings on Monday at 10:30, 11, and 2.  Can you please let us know if you can make one of these appointments?”

Yes we can. And thee days later, we did. I was truly beside myself at this point. Knowing your dog is feeling so yucky that she’s retreating for long periods of time to the garden to burrow herself behind a trellis is unnerving. I could start to see she was getting skinny. It’s just extremely upsetting to see the being you’re suppose to keep alive and happy not thrive.

When we arrived at the vet and the tech got me into the exam room, I burst into tears, trying to collect myself enough to articulate what’s been going on. Then she left I cried some more, collected myself, and started up again when Dr. Chase came in. “It’s OK,” she said, patting me on my shoulder, “We’ll figure out what’s going on”

And boy did she ever. That angel sat on the floor for at least a half hour, asking a variety of question, finding the results from her latest blood work at the oncologist, as well as the ultrasound results.

She studied everything “OK, I have thoughts and feelings” she continued, “The ultrasound results don’t mention any issue with her gallbladder so we’re going to stop that medicine for a while, we’re going to increase her steroid, get rid of the Dasuquin because her joints aren’t the priority at the moment, stop the Cobalequin for a bit, and I agree with the oncologist that she may have chemo nausea and you should move forward with reducing the dose of chemo.” She then left the room and returned with a can of prescription wet food to try that is a carbon copy of what I’ve been unsuccessfully using with a different name on it, and then suggested I try adding white fish (I started with cod and then discovered tilapia is half the price. Tilapia it is!). “I’m going to give her a shot of B12 to make up for stopping the Cobalequin, as well as an anti-nausea shot. Then you’ll give her one kind of anti-nausea med for a little while till it runs out, and I’m giving you a second kind that she can get twice a day”

Dr Chase is a woman of action and I left there feeling buoyed. Harlow has improved a ton. The white fish did the trick, and I add it to her food. She does still occasionally throw the kibble out of her dish in righteous indignation when I am not home, however. I still don’t know what that’s about.

For a short while she took her medicine in a ball of the gross, prescription carbon copy wet food that I paid a fortune for, but then she decided that was crap and for the first time in her life started picking the meds out and spitting them out on the rug.

So now I mix the fish and wet food into a pasty creation and she likes that fine, thank you very much.

For real this dog.

(click to enlarge the pics)