Bailey's kidney problems finally caught up with her last night. She still had not been eating or even been remotely interested in eating all day. So I had been giving her some liquid food with a syringe, just to try to get something in her. But late last night, she was having a hard time getting comfortable, kept fidgeting around. It must have been something going real bad, because later on she started to have heavy, labored breathing, and it was clear she wasn't going to make it like that until Monday when she could get to see her vet.
So we headed off to the Emergency Animal Clinic to see if anything could be done to stabilize her, to which the answer was no. As it turned out, her tongue was blue and swollen, and besides her breathing issues she was also having heart issues. It basically was just a matter of too much toxins in her system - once the kidneys stop, there's not much to be done. The doctor on duty called me over to say it was time, and she passed away pretty quietly with me next to her.
I know she had a happy time around here, but it was too bad she had so many health issues. Eight is way too young for the kind of problems she had. But I know she made the most of what she had, and I'll miss her.
Showing posts with label Bailey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bailey. Show all posts
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Bailey
Another medical crisis for Bailey, and this time it may be terminal. Her last blood test came up very poorly, and it sure looks like her kidney issues have finally caught up with her. She's not eating much of anything, and what little she does eat she's throwing back up. I'm about to take her to the vet for some subcutaneous fluids, but I'm afraid the next time I take her to the vet, I might not be bringing her back.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Fierce Issues
Bad news on the Fierce Corgi front: Bailey's latest blood test shows bad BUN levels, which means kidney failure may be on the horizon. She had been stable for a while late last year, but we may be entering the endgame now. And I may get to learn the wonders of subcutaneous fluid administration! We'll be back for another check in July, so then we'll find out if this was just a temporary spike or an indication of things to come.
On the positive side, she's doing much better on her Utility training, so if she stays physically up for it, we'll be entering the upcoming trial in Dallas over the July 4th weekend. She's been working on Utility for so long, it'd really be a shame if she had to stop showing before getting a leg, so I'm really hoping for some good results this time around.
On the positive side, she's doing much better on her Utility training, so if she stays physically up for it, we'll be entering the upcoming trial in Dallas over the July 4th weekend. She's been working on Utility for so long, it'd really be a shame if she had to stop showing before getting a leg, so I'm really hoping for some good results this time around.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
The Sign Of Spring
The sure sign that we've crossed over to spring is the appearance of bluebonnets along Mopac, and today I saw my first little clump of blue over at the corner of Duval and Mopac. It remains to be seen how this year's crop will turn out.
But it gives me an excuse to post this picture from last year.
But it gives me an excuse to post this picture from last year.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Happy Birthday...
...to Bailey. The Fierce Corgi is eight years old today. Pretty remarkable, given that she was diagnosed with kidney problems a year-and-a-half ago, and given a prognosis of six to twelve months. But thanks to her vet Drs. Schroeder and Anderson at Milwood Vet Clinic, we've managed to find a combination of medicines that have kept her various internal numbers stable, if still not in the "normal" range.
Her day-to-day is pretty much normal for a Corgi of her age - still real active, alert and vocal - but she is showing some signs of aging. For one thing, she's going gray - noticeably gray - on her head and a bit on her back. But she's also slowing down a little bit - her play sessions last a little less time, and her training sessions are a little less active by the end.
Her birthday present was a squeaky toy, which she managed to destroy in about thirty minutes. It would have been less, but there was a rope portion of the toy that had to be unraveled first, and that took up some valuable time. She goes through squeaker toys like a hot Corgi through butter, so it's a rare treat for her. I hope she enjoyed it, although I know it's already out of her mind - with the toy remnants in the trash, she's already back to her trusty Nylabone.
I don't know if she'll be around for her ninth birthday or not, but I sure hope in a year, she and I will be celebrating it - and it would be nice if she had a Utility degree, too.
Her day-to-day is pretty much normal for a Corgi of her age - still real active, alert and vocal - but she is showing some signs of aging. For one thing, she's going gray - noticeably gray - on her head and a bit on her back. But she's also slowing down a little bit - her play sessions last a little less time, and her training sessions are a little less active by the end.
Her birthday present was a squeaky toy, which she managed to destroy in about thirty minutes. It would have been less, but there was a rope portion of the toy that had to be unraveled first, and that took up some valuable time. She goes through squeaker toys like a hot Corgi through butter, so it's a rare treat for her. I hope she enjoyed it, although I know it's already out of her mind - with the toy remnants in the trash, she's already back to her trusty Nylabone.
I don't know if she'll be around for her ninth birthday or not, but I sure hope in a year, she and I will be celebrating it - and it would be nice if she had a Utility degree, too.
Monday, November 26, 2007
fUtility Reloaded
Spent the weekend in a cold, rainy Waco, having paid $40 (and another $85 for a motel room) to watch Bailey wander around the ring sniffing things again. It got so bad on Sunday that I gave up and left the ring before trying the last two exercises - it just wasn't going to happen. Not five minutes earlier, Bailey was watching me, heeling quickly, grabbing articles and running back - but when we get in the ring, it all just goes away. It's either something I'm doing or something she's doing, but either way, it isn't happening.
I'm entering Bailey in a show in Hutto in a couple of weeks. If she doesn't show me something positive there, she's retiring.
I'm entering Bailey in a show in Hutto in a couple of weeks. If she doesn't show me something positive there, she's retiring.
Monday, July 9, 2007
(Non-)Obedience In Dallas
Well, another dog show, another set of failures. And not just ordinary failures - no, these were the "well, I'm sorry, it's just not her day you'll need to leave the ring now please" kind of failures. The kind that have her wandering around the ring, pointedly ignoring me. You can get away with that kind of stuff for a little while in Novice class, but not in Utility.
So after five more months of training, Bailey isn't any more ready to show than she was back in January, when she was, errr, wandering around the ring, pointedly ignoring me. She never was great in the ring, but she could at least make it through a couple of exercises before drifting off - now her attention span is measured in picoseconds.
And now I have to decide if we are going to continue. We can't just keep doing what we're doing, because it isn't working. And I don't know if we can just take some time off and come back later, because medically she could be gone at any point. So I don't know if that means we've reached retirement time or not. It would be a shame, but it's something I'm considering.
So after five more months of training, Bailey isn't any more ready to show than she was back in January, when she was, errr, wandering around the ring, pointedly ignoring me. She never was great in the ring, but she could at least make it through a couple of exercises before drifting off - now her attention span is measured in picoseconds.
And now I have to decide if we are going to continue. We can't just keep doing what we're doing, because it isn't working. And I don't know if we can just take some time off and come back later, because medically she could be gone at any point. So I don't know if that means we've reached retirement time or not. It would be a shame, but it's something I'm considering.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Turning Around
Well...I guess she wasn't on death's door. She sure had me fooled, though.
She bottomed out on Wednesday morning - basically, no interest in any food, barely wanting to open her eyes, just about able to stagger outside to go pee and get back in to lie down. I was half-expecting to get back home from the office to find a dead Bailey.
But since then, she's slowly getting back. A trip to the internal medicine vet showed no physical issues with her kidneys or with fluid build-up. We kept her off some of her medications, and that seems to be helping her appetite some. It's still not back to normal - that being, all of her food inhaled within five seconds of her bowl hitting the floor. It's taking some chicken-and-rice to encourage her back to her bowl, and while she does eat it all, she still isn't wolfing it down as she would have in the past.
She's also back to watching out the window and barking, and playing with some of her toys. Again, not to the level she was at before - there's still more sleeping going on than there was before, and her active periods are shorter, but at least she's back up and around.
There was a period of a couple of days where she was getting a lot of mucous build-up around her eyes and nose, so maybe this was just some weird allergy reaction. Hopefully the cool front that came through helped clear out whatever it was. At any rate, she's still on the mend, but not on the death-watch list anymore.
Of course, this is just a delay in the inevitable, since those kidneys will still likely get her, and probably within the year. Man, after what happened this past week, I'm not looking forward to that.
She bottomed out on Wednesday morning - basically, no interest in any food, barely wanting to open her eyes, just about able to stagger outside to go pee and get back in to lie down. I was half-expecting to get back home from the office to find a dead Bailey.
But since then, she's slowly getting back. A trip to the internal medicine vet showed no physical issues with her kidneys or with fluid build-up. We kept her off some of her medications, and that seems to be helping her appetite some. It's still not back to normal - that being, all of her food inhaled within five seconds of her bowl hitting the floor. It's taking some chicken-and-rice to encourage her back to her bowl, and while she does eat it all, she still isn't wolfing it down as she would have in the past.
She's also back to watching out the window and barking, and playing with some of her toys. Again, not to the level she was at before - there's still more sleeping going on than there was before, and her active periods are shorter, but at least she's back up and around.
There was a period of a couple of days where she was getting a lot of mucous build-up around her eyes and nose, so maybe this was just some weird allergy reaction. Hopefully the cool front that came through helped clear out whatever it was. At any rate, she's still on the mend, but not on the death-watch list anymore.
Of course, this is just a delay in the inevitable, since those kidneys will still likely get her, and probably within the year. Man, after what happened this past week, I'm not looking forward to that.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Just Like That
Sunday morning, she's running around and playing with her friend, Mac.
Tuesday evening, she doesn't want to get up off of the pillow.
Sunday morning, she runs into the kitchen when she hears the cereal box open.
Tuesday evening, I'm having to hand-feed her dog food to get her to eat.
Sunday morning, she's alert to every sound there is, barking at any intrusion in her neighborhood.
Tuesday evening, she stays back in the bedroom when I come in from jogging.
Just like that, I think Bailey's kidney problems have taken a turn for the disastrous, and I don't know if she's going to make it through the week.
Shit.
Tuesday evening, she doesn't want to get up off of the pillow.
Sunday morning, she runs into the kitchen when she hears the cereal box open.
Tuesday evening, I'm having to hand-feed her dog food to get her to eat.
Sunday morning, she's alert to every sound there is, barking at any intrusion in her neighborhood.
Tuesday evening, she stays back in the bedroom when I come in from jogging.
Just like that, I think Bailey's kidney problems have taken a turn for the disastrous, and I don't know if she's going to make it through the week.
Shit.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
fUtility
Bailey (the Fierce Corgi pictured at right) is a smart dog. She's been to obedience training for several years. She's gotten her AKC Novice and Open degrees. She's gotten AKC Rally Novice, Advanced and Excellent degrees. She knows how to do the exercises that make up the AKC Utility class.
But she sure can't demonstrate that knowledge in the show ring.
This past weekend, she busted three times in a row in the Lone Star Classic show in Dallas. She didn't come close to passing anything except for the Moving Stand exercise. She gets in the ring, and she focuses on everything but me - the smells on the mats, the old guy driving around the exhibit hall on a golf cart, the janitors wheeling around garbage cans, the birds up in the ceiling....everything but me. She's had nine utility trials and only really passed any of the exercises twice.
Since I know she is capable of doing the exercises, it follows that we are doing something wrong in the ring. There is such a thing as ring anxiety, where the dog recognizes the ring as a new, different environment and acts differently. And it probably means we haven't been going around to work in different places than our normal training areas. So we need to find new places to train, and then try entering shows after she's gotten over her issues.
But unfortunately, Bailey has another problem - she's been diagnosed with kidney problems. She's on a few medications to try to adjust her blood protein levels and keep fluids from accumulating, but I'm beginning to see some respiratory problems. When she was originally diagnosed, her prognosis was for about a year, so I'm starting to think she isn't ever going to pass Utility.
Obviously, this is a completely selfish thing. Bailey doesn't care if she passes Utility - she has fun at training, and seems happy otherwise (except during thunderstorms). I'm the one that wants to see the training we've done show up in the show ring. But I still find myself apologizing to Bailey for not getting her through Utility. I hope she doesn't have to retire - I hope this isn't the start of the end for her. She's only seven years old - it's just a shame.
But she sure can't demonstrate that knowledge in the show ring.
This past weekend, she busted three times in a row in the Lone Star Classic show in Dallas. She didn't come close to passing anything except for the Moving Stand exercise. She gets in the ring, and she focuses on everything but me - the smells on the mats, the old guy driving around the exhibit hall on a golf cart, the janitors wheeling around garbage cans, the birds up in the ceiling....everything but me. She's had nine utility trials and only really passed any of the exercises twice.
Since I know she is capable of doing the exercises, it follows that we are doing something wrong in the ring. There is such a thing as ring anxiety, where the dog recognizes the ring as a new, different environment and acts differently. And it probably means we haven't been going around to work in different places than our normal training areas. So we need to find new places to train, and then try entering shows after she's gotten over her issues.
But unfortunately, Bailey has another problem - she's been diagnosed with kidney problems. She's on a few medications to try to adjust her blood protein levels and keep fluids from accumulating, but I'm beginning to see some respiratory problems. When she was originally diagnosed, her prognosis was for about a year, so I'm starting to think she isn't ever going to pass Utility.
Obviously, this is a completely selfish thing. Bailey doesn't care if she passes Utility - she has fun at training, and seems happy otherwise (except during thunderstorms). I'm the one that wants to see the training we've done show up in the show ring. But I still find myself apologizing to Bailey for not getting her through Utility. I hope she doesn't have to retire - I hope this isn't the start of the end for her. She's only seven years old - it's just a shame.
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