Today’s regularly scheduled blog post will be appearing next week instead as our main character in this particular series, Chaplin, decided to demonstrate how accurate his characterization is by eating something he shouldn’t have and landing at the emergency vet. 🚨🚑 After Chaplin spent most of the day and evening in the vet, the final verdict (via ultrasound) was that there’s no blockage, and so surgery was (narrowly) avoided. But the weekend was definitely shot even more than most weekends are these days …
Tune in next week when the tale of the ice cream cup will continue!
Lately we’ve started thinking of Dennis’s conditions as being in a race to see which one is going to get him first. There are five major ones: Anxiety, Heart Murmur, Hip Dysplasia, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and now, Osteosarcoma. Anxiety was the first out of the gate, but the others have long since left that one in the dust. We imagine them standing around talking to trash to each other. Well, I imagine it, anyway.
Anxiety: “I’ll make Dennis so scared and nervous, he won’t be able to enjoy his life at all. Mwah ha ha ha ha.”
Hip Dysplasia: “Pfft. I’ll make it so he can’t walk.”
Heart Murmur: “You’re both amateurs.”
Inflammatory Bowel Disease: “You think you’re so bad, Heart Murmur, but they have medication that works on you. There’s nothing that works on me. We’ll see how long Dennis lasts when he can’t digest his food.”
Osteosarcoma: “The big C is here. The rest of you can leave.”
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (to Anxiety, Hip Dysplasia and Heart Murmur): “Hold my beer.”
So, yeah. At this point we are several days into a severe flareup of Dennis’s IBD that we have not been able to get a handle on. At all. Dennis has just started on a course of Metronidazole to try to get this flare-up under control, but the really big gun―Prednisone―is largely ruled out because of his heart murmur. (Way to keep yourself in the game, Heart Murmur.) This flareup is hitting harder than the one from the summer; he has already lost a few pounds that he can’t afford to lose, and is now on the “Give Dennis anything he’s willing to eat” diet. Which he thinks is wonderful, at least until he decides after a few meals that this food, like whatever the previous food was, makes him sick. (This even happened when we got desperate and started giving him ground sirloin. Sirloin.)
Digestive issues aside, Dennis’s pain from the osteosarcoma seems to be much reduced; he has been getting around better and even putting some weight on the bad hip, and has been better able to get onto the furniture and into bed. He had his first radiation followup earlier this week. The oncologist was encouraged by Dennis’s progress, and said his hip should continue to feel better over the next couple of weeks. (Dennis goes back for another follow-up in three weeks.)
Dennis’s prognosis hasn’t changed; we just need to make some headway against the IBD, and soon, so that he can spend a few more comfortable months here with his family of humans, Hipster Kitties, and imaginary friends, and all of his nice reederz out on the Interwebs. So please, keep the power of the paw, the tail wags, the purrs, and the nose bumps coming Dennis’s way. He needs them.
hello nice reederz its dennis the vizsla dog hay wel as my frends wot ar on the faysebuk may hav herd alreddy on munday i hert myself trying to jump onto the bed i eeven yelpd for like the first time ever and then i cud not put enny wayt on my left leg and so krool krool mama and dada tuk me in for xrays!!! i got to ware trixies kool handels on akkownt of i cud not wawk on my owtchie leg so that was nice i cud preetend to be brayv like trixie but on the other hand the vetnameez peepul yoozed my handel to strap me into a gurnee and kerry me off to the xray tortcher masheen!!!
Hello nice readers, Dennis’s Dada here. Unfortunately the news on Tucker is not so good — he has not wanted to eat much since yesterday afternoon. Today has seen a worsening in GI symptoms from both directions, to put it delicately. After consulting with his internist, the conclusion is that the new treatment is not working. We are pulling Tucker off most of his other medications except for Cyclosporine and Soloxine and starting him on Prednisolone tomorrow in a last-ditch effort to get his IBD back under control. The internist is giving this a 50-50 chance of working in Tucker’s case. We should be able to tell within a few days if there’s any positive movement. Tucker is a little fighter and has bounced back so many times from health scares that it’s been said he has more lives than a cat, so we’re all hoping he can surprise us one more time. If any dog can do that in this situation, it’s Tucker! But if anyone has a few tail wags and purrs to spare, the whole gang here in the mythical land of Oceanside would appreciate it. 🙂
hello nice reederz its dennis the vizsla dog hay wel tuckers lab wurk came back gud and the ultrasownd showd nuthing noo sinse the last ultrasownd they probably didnt eeven need to shayv him agin sinse his furs hav not grown bak frum that wun and their is nuthing to be done abowt the lung nodjools so tucker wil be staying at the vet hospital overnite to try and beet the aspirayshun noomonya he wil be tayking it evry day by day by day just like the faymus minstrels the hooters sang abowt bak in the mithikal dekayd of the nineteen aties i wil let evrywun no how he is dooing then!!! ok bye
hello nice reederz its dennis the vizsla dog hay wel i hav always herd that aspirayshuns ar a gud thing but apparently that is not always troo becuz my brother tucker has had aspirayshuns into both his lungs and now has wot they kall aspirayshun noomonya plus in the prosess of figgering that owt they hav also fownd that he has two smal nodjools in wun of his lungs!!! he is in the hospital gitting more tests dun and mama and dada ar trying to figger owt wot there nekst moov shud be in the jenga puzzel wot is tucker but ennyway tucker cud reely yooze sum tail wags rite now i think!!! ok bye
hello nice reederz its dennis the vizsla dog hay wel just wen mama and dada wer happee that tuckers toe ishyoo seemd to be likkd he seems to be in the middel of a meltdown with his gast … gastro … wel ennyway he seems to be having a lot of trouble with his tummy!!! he wil not eet much at all and has thrown up most of wot he has eeten and sumthing calld his liver enzimes ar way way up!!! i am not shoor wot liver enzimes ar but i bet they are delishus!!! he is going in to the vetnameez playse layter today for an emerjensee ultrasownd to see if the enzimes hav mayd his liver big or if its just that his pilz need to be adjusted or wot!!! or maybe he overinduldjd at see wurld!!! ennyway we ar all hoping for gud nooz!!! i wil be bak to leev a komment heer to updayt evrywun wen i find owt mor!!! ok bye
The Oceanside Animals 