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Bed rest must be getting to Darwin. While she's been pretty good about not being a total nut and actually has been pretty mellow since last week, she must have some pent up energy that she needs to get out somehow.
Too bad she's decided to take it out on her new toy she just got from Nala.
This was the toy Tuesday night:
Cute pink intact piggy.
Darwin loved it! She's been playing with it non-stop.
This morning I woke up to a mess in the living room.... no not a poop mess, but a pink pig mess!
Darwin's hate of eyeballs in new toys struck again! This time with a vengence.
Poor piggy:
{must remove the eyeballs!}
{is there something on my face?}
{mom, but look how cute i look and it makes my back feel better... really...}
Sorry Nala! She thoroughly enjoyed the gift!
Literally.
(skip the next paragraph if you're not up for a poop story)
We came home from work today and as we approached the door Jason said, "why does it smell like poop?". I told him to keep his voice down in case it's the neighbors cooking. We walked in and what did we find? Poop... 2 piles in the kitchen. Seems like the Rimadyl was making her have diarrhea. Gross. At least she did it on the tile floor and not on the carpet in the living room. I took her out again where more poop came out, this time with a little blood in it. So we called the vet to tell them about the diarrhea and the blood, and they told us to stop the Rimadyl, bring in a stool sample and they'll switch her medication. Hopefully her fecal float test comes back negative for any worms or any other problems, we'll hear from them in the morning. Oi.
So Dar is on Tramadol (still) and she now has to start taking Metronidazole.
We're still hoping her walk will stop looking so gimpy and the W word will be ruled out.
In less poopy news, I must say our blogging friends are the best! Besides all the fingers and paws that are crossed for Dar and the well wishes coming our way, our blog friend Nala sent Darwin a get well gift!
Darwin was quite eager to get at what was inside.
A piggy bottle buddy, Zukes treats and a sweet card! I was trying to take pictures, but Darwin really wanted to play with her new toy...
{
ooooh, I love it, I love it}
Thank you Nala and Amber! Hopefully Darwin will heal up soon and be able to have a play date the next time you guys are back in Seattle!!
Call from the vet at lunch today... not great news. Radiologist confirmed compressed disks on Darwin's spine (T-12 and T-13) and being that she's still walking funny (we're starting to call her gimpy butt) our vet recommends we go in for a consult with a neurologist to see if he thinks she needs an MRI and if it could be Wobblers (**shudder**). I'm really hoping it's not Wobblers and just out of line disks that can be fixed by rest, acupuncture or a chiropractor. Ugh. I'm waiting for a call back from the neurologist's office to see when we can get in to see the doc. We'll keep you posted.
To wrap things up on a more positive note here's a couple pictures from Jason and my vacation:
Bayon Temple - Siem Reap, Cambodia
Victory Gate - Siem Reap, Cambodia
First off, thanks for everyone's comments and concern regarding Darwin's injuries! We're on day 2 of trying to keep a 13month old puppy as nonactive as possible and so far so good. I'm not sure if she's just plain pooped from 2.5 weeks of nonstop play time with her parents or if she just isn't that comfortable to be a bouncing nut, but she's been pretty good about just spending her time laying around and mouthing her toys. She hasn't been as nutty (yet) as we were worried she'd be so let's hope she keeps calm herself and we won't need to get sedatives from the vet.
We're waiting to hear back from the vet once they hear from the radiologist to get an official diagnosis... should be today or Monday. I don't think her back/spine injury is too much to worry about. It should heal on it's own as long as we keep her resting... the vet did say she if she did not recommend we restrict Darwin's activities the worse case would be her disks would get more out of line and could lead to surgery or paralysis. Eek! I ration her injury out to be similar to a case of whiplash I had a couple years ago, where a sudden crash just threw her back out of whack. We'll keep you all updated on the vet's call and how things go with Trupanion.
Second update has to do with Darwin's brother Kona.
In my last update of him, Kristie (mom of Darwin's other brother and playdate-mate, Boo Radley) was taking him in to foster. Well after a month and a half of socializing, training, and getting him neutered, Kristie was able to find him his new forever home!!! And doubly good news is that his new family is a coworker of Kristie's husband, and we'll still have playdates with him and meet-ups at Marymoor! Yea for happy endings!
... and it feels so good!
We're back and Darwin's back too!
She had a rough start to vacation. When we dropped her off at her mom and dad's we noticed her ear was bleeding... somehow at some point during the week a chunk of her ear got taken off and we never noticed. We had found some random blood spots around the house and couldn't figure out what it was or where it came from. Then when we dropped her off and she was playing with her dad I noticed her bloody ear. We all quickly wrangled her to clean it, and it seemed like an old wound (what awful parents we are to not have noticed it earlier). Poor girl.
We checked up on her a couple times while we were gone and things were going well, though she had picked up a few more battle wounds from her mom.
{after the big battle between Misty and Darwin, they all cuddled up on the couch}
Tom brought her in yesterday and she was one scraped up pup! Lots of little scrapes and scabs and a couple bigger ones too! She was totally worn out after 2.5 weeks of constant play (and some fights) and actually slept a little in the office (she never sleeps when she comes in).
You can barely see it from this angle, but right behind her shoulder there's a white bald patch... that's her big battle wound. I'll try to get a better picture later.
While we were out walking her at lunch we noticed she was walking funny... her back legs and hips seemed to swing funny. Jason and I were slightly concerned so we took her over to the vet after work to get it checked out.
After the vet watched her walk, and palpated Darwin's back legs and spine she thought it could be compressed disks. So she took Dar back for x-rays. They had to sedate her to get the shots they needed and it looks like it could be compressed disks in her spine but they will have to have the x-rays checked out by a radiologist to confirm. We'll hear back from them by Monday at the latest.
For now she's got a couple of pain meds and on a strict no playing/running/jumping/rough-housing plan for 2 weeks unless the radiologist thinks otherwise. The vet offered sedatives if we need them to keep her mellowed out for the next couple weeks. We'll see how it goes.
We took her home and she was so sad. She was loopy from the drugs and would whine if we weren't right at her side. The drugs made her so out of it, she had a couple of pee accidents while laying on her bed, and she didn't even seem to notice. Heartbreaking. This morning when we woke up she was back to her usual self and even went to inspect her bed. She sniffed it a few times and seemed to be confused as to why her bed was dirty... we'll have to find a laundromat that can fit her giant bed in their machines.
I'm so glad we have pet insurance. It made it so easy to say, "yes, do whatever you need to do to find out what's wrong with our pup." without having to think "can we afford this?". It'll be our first claim to file with trupanion so we'll see how it goes, but I'm positive it should be a breeze.
So, while we were looking forward to some fun park days this weekend to get back into our normal routine, it looks like we'll be laying low for a bit. It may be time to bring out the brain game again and stock up on raw bones!
We'll be on a blogging break for a bit as Jason and I are going on vacation!
Darwin will be hanging out with her doggy daddy and mommy and some of her favorite people!
On a completely non-dog/non-blog related subject I'm curious on people's takes on the iphone. I have a blackberry now and am tempted to switch to the iphone. Anyone that's used both and have an opinion on it? Thanks! :)
See you all later!
After Twinkie's visit to the PNW we decided maybe Moose needed to come up for a visit from the Florida Keys, afterall (I think his name is)Clive could be his long lost relative.
When he first showed up at the park, I think he thought we were going to a costume party because this is what he looked like:
Or maybe his mom just thought he'd be cold coming up from sunny Florida to rainy Seattle and this was the warmest thing Moose had on hand.
Poor guy. We quickly got him out of his outfit so he could go run with (I think his name is)Clive and Darwin.
He quickly went up to (I think his name is)Clive to see how he sized up next to a real dane/lab mix to see if maybe he has some dane in him.
While Moose is a tall guy, I don't think he was quite as tall as Darwin and (I think his name is)Clive.
Once that was settled it was time to play some ball. Luckily Moose brought his own ball to play with.
No matter how much he tried the other two to play with him though they were too obsessed with (I think his name is)Clive's green cuz.
Moose was starting to miss his mom and the warmth of Florida, so we packed him up, costume and all, and got him on the first flight back on Pet Airways.
It was a super quick visit so we'll have to plan for another one in the future!
Twinkie commented on our last post how she had fun "virtually" playing with Remi Nala and Darwin, so I figured, she may want to really play with them. So we transported her up from LA and here she is getting a ride on Darwin in the middle of the fun:
And also getting in on the action at Marymoor!
For a tiny dog she sure can keep up with the big ones!
