So, first, I have to tell everyone about my new friends. One of Jeff's very good friends, Daniel, is engaged to a vet tech, Lui. I am happy because they are over often, and are both extremely nice people and fun to hang out with. It's cool to have a couple friends who actually really like my dogs, because some people come over and we have to leave the dogs outside the whole time. Daniel and Lui are really awesome people, though, and they bring the dogs treats and don't mind them hanging out with us when we're eating dinner or watching a movie.
One thing I did not expect from having a vet tech friend were the awesome animal perks that she freely offered once she saw how many dang mongrels I have. Lui made us enough heartworm mixture to last more than a year, which is amazing. She can also order medications, or pretty much anything animal oriented, at cost.
Anyway, I didn't realize that Lui works at a specialty clinic that does neurology. There are some crazy things that are readily available in Houston, and there are plenty of people here who will apparently spend upwards of $20k fixing up their dogs when they get hurt. Anyway, she saw me popping a rimadyl into a very cranky Lucy when she was over a couple weeks ago, and started asking questions. Last week she called and said if I could bring Lucy in today, one of the residents would take a look and give her a neurological exam. Obviously I can't afford to do back surgery on my dog, but she thought having a more difinitive answer on things would help in knowing which meds to work with, etc.
It was a really cool exam, I have never seen anything like it at the regular vet. All the things you would expect- checking to see if they focus their eyes- and also some things I have seen Mandy do with Marcy to see if her nerves were damaged. The vet flipped Lucy's feet over one by one. fronts were fine, back right she took a long pause before correcting her foot and setting it down on the pad. Her back left she never did correct, she just stood there with the top of her foot facing down. She said without the MRI and stuff it would not be 100% difinitive, but she is very sure it is degenerative disc disease. That's already been brought up as a probability to me... I really am starting to think that Mandy DOES know everything about dogs... but this just solidified it for me.
What does this mean? Well, I guess it gives me some peace of mind feeling like I know what I am dealing with rather than guessing. I really cannot justify a $5000 surgery and a dog with staples up her spine for a couple weeks, and a long recovery time. I think I can justify buying some tramadol and rimadyl at cost and making her feel as good as she can feel for a while, and continuing to be cautious with her around the other dogs. She's been enjoying herself here in Texas, with nice weather and a big yard. She runs around and plays a lot. They say to keep her crate rested a lot of the time, but where is the joy in that? Part of me just wants to let her enjoy her doggy life to the fullest and if she wrecks her back completely then it will be her time. Going down her spine today the vet found 2 spots that are painful for her, when a couple months ago she just had one spot.
Anyway, it was really nice of Lui to get us in for the exam and it does help to know what we're dealing with and having a stock of pain meds to deal with it. Honestly, having doggy pain meds around is wonderful. There are days where Marcy is having a rough time and I pop a quarter rimadyl down her throat and her day gets a lot better very quickly.
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