I know it’s been since May, and every week on my to-do list, I have “update blog” I guess I just needed a reason to reach out to everyone, and unfortunately now I have one.
Blarney is very sick. I thought he was getting better, but I was wrong. Wheatens are susceptible to a protein losing disorder. This all started Labor Day. He had diarrhea & vomiting, so I took him to the vet after a week. He was also very sluggish. They put him on an antibiotic and said it was a mild stomach issue, boil chicken & rice. Blarney has always been a picky eater and pukes if he gets any people food in his system. A week and half later, still not much improvement, so we went in for bloodwork and xrays. Xrays were mostly normal, but blood work for his protein level were extremely low. Off to the specialist at the emergency animal hospital. Ultrasound, stomach scope, anesthesia, tons of bloodwork, a few biopsies, $1,900 and an overnight stay later, he in fact has inflammatory bowel disease in conjunction with lymphangiectasia. The first vet said 1-2 years, the internal medicine specialist said he can live a long healthy life with medication & a special diet. I pulled his registration papers and called his breeder – according to him none of his wheatens have ever had it and neither do his mom nor dad. Anyways…. So he’s now on a special diet and was put on a $15 a day antibiotic. He seemed to be doing better, really liked the food and ate it with gusto. Now another week or two later – he does not eat the food, is extremely sluggish, you can see his backbone and his ribs. He’s wasting away to nothing. He’s on 7 pills a day too, and a weekly B12 injection. Now, since he’s so malnourished, his body is using his muscle for energy so he’s like a bowl of jello. He can no longer walk stairs, up or down. He tried getting up the 4 stairs from our family room to the kitchen and he made it up 3, then slid down on his belly. He just didn’t have the strength and muscletone to get up. If on hard surfaces, his feet just slip out from under him and he looks like Bambi on the ice. He doesn’t have the strength to get up on hard floors anymore. So, now my foyer and bedroom are covered with all miscellaneous bath rugs, and old carpet remnants. (side note, if anyone has some old rugs they can let me borrow, I’d really appreciate it!) And the baby gates are back out so we can confine him to non staired rooms (again, if anyone has a gate I can borrow, I could really use another one). We have 3 staircases, and 2 door openings to the kitchen, so it’s a challenge. It is a horrible situation. I am a total wreck, just seeing him waste away is killing me. On carpet, he is kind of okay. He still struggles standing from a laying position, which is laying down at least 90% of the day. He still does come to the door when we get home from work, or if someone comes to visit, but it’s short-lived and he goes back to laying down. He goes in on Sunday the 16th for a follow-up visit. I hope he makes it that long, and I don’t have to carry him into the vet because he can’t walk at all anymore. I have a feeling that will be his last vet appointment. I do realize it could be worse, it’s just my dog – not an immediate human member of my family like some people I know have just gone through. I am just not equipped to deal with these situations – I just am not. I wish I was, but I am not. I am not.
