On Friday she threw up. Oh, I should warn all readers that more gross details follow. ... Back to dog vomiting. It was easy to clean up and I didn't think much of it. Dogs eat weird random things that disagree with their systems.
On Saturday Stella wouldn't eat in the morning, which always means something is wrong. Stella is the most food-loving, food-motivated dog I know. She will eat anything edible. Anything. And even some things that are inedible. So for Stella to refuse her breakfast is an immediate red flag. She proceeded to vomit drool/bile a couple of hours later and dry heaved several times after that. She wouldn't even eat peanut butter! By the end of the day on Saturday she finally ate one meal.
Sunday was a breeze, and I assumed everything was back to normal. She was her normal exuberant, hungry self.
And then this morning, once again she wouldn't eat. There was no vomiting, but I was so worried about her. She laid on her bed or moped around the house all day. And if you know Stella, you know that she does not mope.
More than anything else I am worried that this is the end for Stella. A year and a half ago we found out that Stella has chronic renal failure, translation: kidney failure. And it's generally down-hill from there. She's exceptionally young to have it which may mean that she survives longer than the average dog (2-3 years from diagnosis, and yes I cried when our vet told me that), and she has responded beautifully to treatment. With her stupid-expensive prescription dog food and high blood pressure medicine (yes, my dog takes amlodipine), the average person would have no idea Stella has chronic renal failure.
Stella's symptoms when we first discovered her disease were not eating and moping. And when her disease can't be managed any more she'll most-likely start showing those symptoms again. And that time around there won't be anything we can do, or at least afford..
That's why I'm scared.
Stella finally ate a bowl of food around 4pm today. She seemed to perk up a bit, so I thought we might as well go on a walk. She's been cooped up all day so why not have her get some fresh air and get Auggie out too. .... And then she pooped the most wretched poops I have ever seen in my life. I actually took a picture of the first one for the vet. It was absolutely vile. Without getting too disgusting and making you all gag like I did while cleaning this up from my neighbor's grass, let's just say it was poop soup with a very distinct red color in part of it. And the second poop was just red poop spray. I'm guessing the red was blood. :( ... I called Stella's new vet immediately and made an appointment for her tomorrow.
And yet, my dog is throwing me for a loop once again. This evening she's been acting normal - playful, energetic, interested in running around in our backyard. Mixed signals my goodness! I'm going to take her to the vet nonetheless.
Please pray that all is well with my sweetie dog and that she gets better quickly.
...
If you swapped out months for years, Auggie would be a teenager today
That thirteen-month-old boy of mine! I'm not sure how long I'll stick with the monthly Auggie updates now that he's past a year, but I'll at least update when new exciting things happen... Although that's pretty much all the time!Auggie is so incredibly wonderful! He's constantly smiling, and gives Dan and me hugs all the time. It's too cute! He picks up my cellphone and holds it to his ear and then looks up at me and smiles. I'll say, "hello," and he'll chirp something back. I love it!
That boy climbs on everything, and as he gets taller his climbing feats grow along with him. He can get on our ottoman, the kitchen chair, and the giant stair/seats at the library. He climbs on top of his toy basket at least once a day..
His explores nonstop. Opens this, touches that, tries to turn the burner knobs on the stove (against my will!), can reach and open kitchen and bathroom drawers. We now keep the DVD player unplugged because Auggie presses the buttons on it at least once an hour.
Vocally Auggie is sticking with 'da' sounds. He uses the word "dog" in context multiple times a day. When we leave the house he looks up at our neighbor's balcony and says "dah" even before Murphy the dog gives us a bark-hello. If dogs pass on the street, Auggie says, "dah." Stella is "dah." I love it! Auggie also has a version of "banana" that sounds more like "inineh."
Sleep continues to be a luck-of-the-draw kind of thing. I know I've only written about sleep on this blog a few times, but I thing Auggie is fairly typical. He still wakes up twice a night, and I usually nurse him once. I started a no-nursing-before-2am policy in order to encourage Auggie towards sleeping till anytime past 2am. It worked at first but doesn't seem to be sticking. Auggie just wakes up now anyway and wails until I come get him and help him fall back to sleep. And it's usually at 11:30pm after I've been asleep for maybe thirty minutes to an hour. Delightful, right? Auggie's *amazing* pediatrician did say that he'll likely start sleeping through the night on his own soon enough.. Well, I'm still waiting. And yet I just can't bear to let him cry it out. Auggie has been teething again so I imagine there's a connection to all of this.
Speaking of teeth, Auggie cut the slightest little edge of his second molar just 3 days after I discovered the first molar: top, on his left.
Auggie continues to love reading and exploring, and is a really well-attached, healthy one-year-old. And I can't imagine life without him. :)
2 comments:
Poor Stella! I hope she's okay. From the title of your post, I was waiting for you to say that you found Auggie covered in dog vomit. I'm glad that didn't happen!
Hahaha... Oh my! That would have been horrible! :)
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