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Today's my birthday and people are being very nice. I've gotten some great entries recently for the contest and more people are talking about entering. I've said nice things to all of the nice people. I had even had a very nice extended conversation with someone about quotations and college majors and creative writing. And yet I'm sitting here and trying not to cry.
The dog went to the vet this morning. The X-rays found some sort of mass in my dog's abdomen, which is why he's been whimpering and had digestive problems. And this afternoon he collapsed and my kids called my husband (who works closer to home than I do) and they rushed the dog to the emergency ward of the animal hospital and we won't find out what's wrong till tomorrow.
He's a good dog. We got him when he was already a year and half old, because the kids were already in school and both parents worked and it's not right to expect a puppy to stay in a crate all day. He fit in right away though, and I knew he was a very good dog when my son (age 8 at the time) decided to play with the new dog by pretending to bite at a chew toy the dog was working on. This was a male dog only recently neutered. Some dogs would have taken off the kid's face for that, or at least snarled. Lonnie looked confused and then got up and moved away, because if the boy wanted the chew toy then it was okay with Lonnie, maybe it wasn't supposed to be his after all.
He was from a show breeder who wanted to reduce her stock. His "real name", on his AKC papers, is Candray Silver Screen, and his "call name" is Lonnie. We didn't ask why but afterwards we wondered if it was from Lon Chaney, the actor who played in the old werewolf movies (so, "silver screen" wink . Getting a dog from a show breeder is supposed to be the best way to get dogs, because show breeders are supposed to care very much about the quality of the breed and make sure not to breed unhealthy animals. He's been very healthy, except when not. The "not" has been two catastrophic illnesses already.
When he was 4-1/2, he was suddenly hit by a paralysis of his whole rear section, including back legs. A fibrocartilaginous embolism, FCE, a sort of stroke of the spinal cord. The vet at first thought it might be a ruptured disc, and off to the animal hospital for x-rays, a CAT scan, IV-fluids... they treat animals as well as people can be treated, when they can. They decided it was the FCE, and after that it was just waiting to see if the nerves would recover. It took days for him to walk again, and weeks and weeks before he didn't need to wear a doggy diaper. We were very lucky, some dogs never recover. But Lonnie did, and he was fine after except for a slight weakness in his back legs, so that if he was running around corners too quickly he might "wipe out". He never seemed to mind it, though.
Last year, about this same time, at age almost 10, the vet found his calcium levels were very elevated. This time it was hyperparathyroidism, where the parathyroid glands put out too much of whatever it is they put out. This leaches calcium from the bones into the bloodstream and ruins the kidneys. So off to the animal hospital again, for surgery, to have the glands removed. He looked very odd when he came back with the front of his neck and chest all shaved and this big incision along his throat. And extra vet visits for calcium level checks for weeks after, and extra pills to take. But he was very good about it.
Now there's something else wrong. He'll be 11 in mid-November. That's not a bad age for a dog to reach, but we're not ready to let him go yet. So we'll cross our fingers and hope the vets can fix it, and pay another few thousand dollars if needed. But it's worth it, because Lonnie is a very good dog, and we love him.
This is Lonnie, and my daughter, too:
Cimeara · Fri Sep 08, 2006 @ 04:00am · 1 Comments |
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