Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Under the Weather


So we had a little health scare last week - Makai stopped eating for several days. No interest eating in anything at all, not even snacks or the ever-adored apple slice. He also couldn't care less about going out for walks, he just wanted to sleep. I immediately started preparing for the worst. I assumed it was something like organ failure or cancer. I was scared to take him to the vet, fear of a horrible diagnosis or endless expensive tests that tell me what's wrong is too expensive to fix.

I tell ya, having an old dog (or Elderbull as I've recently learned) comes with a whole new kind of scary reality. I hate to think this way, but I'm aware of what's coming down the pike, and I'm constantly second guessing what the right choices are to make, and it completely sucks. I've become paranoid. I'm doing too little, doing too much, not acting fast enough, overreacting, all of the above. With Bitty, at the end I was sticking her with an IV needle twice a day forcing fluids into her body to try and fix something unfixable. It was the suggested treatment - and not to slight the vet, they were just trying to help me - but she hated it and was scared and I still feel terrible about it. After that I told myself I wouldn't put my dog through anything extraneous for my own benefit.

Anyway, of course I took him in to get checked out. Luckily (!) it turned out to be a common parasite called coccidia that was the culprit. I've never been so happy to hear the word "parasite" in all my life. It's very treatable, and after a couple of pills he's already eating like a maniac again, so WHEW with a capital whew!

Even though it turned out to be something not serious, it really scared the shit out of me and reminded me that he's a fragile little man. But seriously dude, let's just be healthy for a while and enjoy the snuggles, okay?

On another note, I know it's been a ghost town around here the last few months. Everything's going great, thank you for the emails and tweets. There's been a lot going on in Pickle Town, jobs getting more jobby, life getting more lifey, and the blog had to be back-burnered a bit. You know how it goes. I'm hopeful the rainy fall will bring new inspiration, a bit of calm, and an abundance of free time. Thanks for sticking with me, all five of you (well, six if my dad still reads it to my Grandma over the phone). We'll be back on schedule soon!

6 comments:

Two Pitties in the City said...

I can't imagine how scary this must have been. If either of our pooches denied food I know I would think there is something terribly wrong. We try not to think about the age number too much (one benefit to not celebrating our pooches' birthdays), but I will say one great thing about entering the Elderbull years is that they are so much calmer and relaxed and we can do so much more with them.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Two Pitties - anytime our dogs refuse food, something is up! You're doing a great job - all of us dog mamas and daddies worry about our babies and wonder if we're doing enough. Sounds to me like you are doing just great and Makai is lucky to have you for a mama!

Mrs. V said...

I'm SO glad schmoops is better!

Vicki said...

Thanks ladies! :)

Again, whew!!

Lindsay said...

Make it 6 :-) Call me the creepy lurker... Hopefully not too creepy though.

I can only imagine how hard it is to watch your precious Makai age rather gracefully. We lost one of our kitties nearly 4 years ago early in his life at 8 years of age to feline leukemia. Now that our big orange boy is turning 8 this year, I still worry about losing him too early - he's totally healthy but still! They are such a part of our lives, you just can't help but love them!!!

Vicki said...

Not at all creepy, Linds! :)

Oh our little furry family members... they are just the best. I'll take em anyway, for however long, I can get em.