Month: February 2017

Mosby is home! I got a call from the vet this morning saying he was doing well, had eaten overnight, and seemed perky, and another call mid-afternoon saying he was still doing well, had eaten again, and was cleared to leave. No visit to the oncologist needed. So I left work early (my bosses and coworkers have been soooo understanding, bless them all), picked him up and took him home. And was he READY go to home. He took a moment to look around his yard (see below), had a nice long pee, and then marched up the steps to the door and waited for me to let him in.

He ate a can of food for dinner (I got some cans of what the vet gave him, although I think he’ll be ready for something else soon), picked up a bone to play with, and has generally been bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. How do you know your dog is feeling better? When you are sitting at the dinner table (ok, I was working) and your husband makes the traditional “finishing up dinner” noises with his plates, and THIS comes sniffing around.

Confession: Sometimes we call Mosby the “pre-wash” cycle on the dish washer. But if you are reading this, you are a dog person, so I assume you understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with letting your pup help tidy the dishes.

We had a mostly stress-free pill session (three pills coated in peanut butter, down the throat in one move). And have been basically letting him do his thing tonight. Tomorrow I’ll be working from home to keep him company. We are going to try to get him to daycare at least a few days next week (they love him and will be super careful with him), which is his normal routine, and the more he can do that, the better. Now, whether mom can be stress-free is another question. He hasn’t had a drink since he got home, so I am busy trying to turn off the “worry” signals … after all, he had 24 hours of fluids it’s ok that he’s not thirsty, right? But I’ll monitor it and make sure he has lots of easy access to water.

As noted, today is Mosby’s 9 year adopt-aversary. I brought him home from a shelter 9 years ago today, after stopping at Tractor Supply for a crate and some food. I lived in a tiny apartment and was in law school and working a part time job, so it was a terrible time to get a dog. But he was the Right Dog, and I knew it. Even though the entire time we lived in that apartment he refused to use the bathroom within 200′ of the building and forced me to take him to the walking trail, even in snowstorms. Luckily, he and I bought our first home – with a YARD – not too many months later.

Now, Mosby was not always named Mosby. It’s a unique name and follows a naming tradition in my family. No, when I saw Mosby on Petfinder, and then met him at the shelter the first time, and then came back after buying a crate and food, his name was BOOTS. Boots. Which, no offense to cats, is a CAT name. It did not last. As soon as I put him in my car, he was Mosby, and still is, to this day.

We are so happy to have him home.

I took Mosby in to see his regular vet today to get some blood work done, because he and the oncologist were concerned that Mosby still had no appetite and was very depressed and lethargic. He was such a good boy while they took his blood and we waited. The blood work came back “perfect.” The vet did notice a tiny spot of blood on his incision, but it didn’t look infected and Mosby has no visible or chemical signs of infection. Still, the vet took a sample and will have it cultured. I asked a million questions of possibilities. I asked if he saw anything in his mouth that might be causing him pain. The oncologist had been worried about possible pancreatitis, but his blood work rules that out, plus he has no visible discomfort or issues in his abdomen. The vet and the oncologist consulted by phone, and the oncologist asked him to take x-rays of his lungs, so he did, and they came back clear of any visible metastasis (both by our vet and the oncologist and her radiologist). Which left us with a whining, unhappy dog who refuses to eat for no visible reason.

The vets decided the best plan was to hospitalize him this afternoon and overnight so that he could get IV fluids. The thought is that he might have become really dehydrated, and sometimes it doesn’t really show up in the lab work. Not sure what I expected when I took him in around noon, but not going home with him definitely wasn’t what I expected. They took me back to say goodbye and showed me where he’d be spending the night, and I *barely* held it together until I went to sign the hospitalization authorization at check out. That’s the second time I’ve cried there, the first time being when I was checking out after Mosby had unexpectedly been diagnosed with bone cancer.

I am hopeful that dehydration is all that it is. The plan is for the vet to check on him in the morning, and if he isn’t better, then I will pick him up and take him to the vet clinic where my oncologist is, because she is in town tomorrow, and they will probably do more tests there, probably including an ultrasound I assume.

Our house is full of Mosby’s beds, the toys he hasn’t touched, a counter top full of medicine, bags of healthy treats we tried to bribe him with, all kinds of people food we tried to bribe him with — and no Mosby.

The vet just texted me and said that it may be wishful thinking, but that Mosby seemed brighter and stronger when he went to check on him tonight, and charged out of his kennel and dragged him out the door for a walk. I agree it’s wishful thinking. On his worst day, Mosby would still charge out of a kennel and drag you out the door of a vet clinic. I’m sure he thought he was being rescued! But that is better than a report that he seemed worse or weaker.

I read a lot about other tripawds that go through this journey, and there’s a lot of mention of dogs’ happy go lucky nature and cheerfulness, etc., and Mosby is definitely not that kind of dog. Mosby has always, since day 1, taken things Very Seriously. He is a creature of habit and likes his routine and does NOT like having to go outside of his routine. He is the kind of dog that will refuse to walk on my right side, simply because I trained him to walk on my left. He panics a little bit on the right and just keeps trying to get back over to the left. He is not what you’d call adaptable. An incredibly good dog, and a sweet dog, but a creature of habit.

With that kind of nature, I know that this whole ordeal, these last 6 weeks, has been immensely hard on him emotionally. We have asked SO many things of him and he has been such a trooper about it, but he always has this look on his face like “ok, Mom, when do we go back to the way it was?” Chris and I have tried everything to make him happy again and that’s been the hardest thing for us. If Mosby could only address one issue at a time, or two, we could get him back into a routine, and hopefully he’ll settle more.

I’m hoping that he does ok tonight. I’m hoping that he feels much better tomorrow. I’m hoping that it really is something as simple as dehydration. I’m hoping so many things but mainly hoping that we’ll get to see Mosby happy again.