My Lottie Girl

My sweet Lottie girl doesn't seem to be doing so well lately. About a month ago she threw up several times over the span of 2-3 days. So we stopped feeding her dog food and switched to bread, pasta, etc. for a couple days. She got better. Then for the past week or so she hasn't been eating much. Her bowl would have food in it from breakfast all the way to dinner. If you know my girl, that has never been the case. She has always eaten her bowl of food immediately. She isn't the kind of dog that nibbles on her dog food throughout the day. So it kind of bothered me that she wasn't eating normally but I tried not to worry about it. Yesterday Lottie threw up again in the morning before school. Two different places. So I've cut the dog food again. Gave her some bread, pasta, and a plain baked potato over the last two days. I just don't know what is going on with her. She sure has me concerned. I don't know what I should do. Everything else about her seems normal.

Poor Lottie

Yesterday Lottie went back to the vet to follow-up on the last appointment. She got her teeth cleaned and thankfully none of them were rotted so no teeth pulling! They did have a lot of tartar on them and 1 is slightly loose. She had her tumor removed from her eyelid which was really rough on her. She has stiches and is having to wear a cone so she doesn't bother the stiches. It's pitiful! She is on pain medicine, eye drops, ear drops, and another pill. Poor thing! In the picture her right eye is the one that had surgery. It's shaved a little around the top and kind of droopy. When she walks around the house it is pitiful, she runs into everything with her cone. She is breaking my heart. But I know that this will help her eye to not be so irritated. Dr. D checked her leg while she was under anesthesia and she does seem to still have a slight tear in her ACL. Good to know that we're in the same place as last year, doesn't seem to have gotten any worse. She's resting on one of Tyler's blankets right now!

My Girl

So yesterday was Lottie's annual vet appointment. I had been dreading it because I knew it wasn't going to be good news. She's been limping for a year. Last year we found out she had a slight tear in her knee. She had some pain medicine for a couple weeks and was doing ok. Now, in our new house the steps are bothering her so she is limping a lot. I got a lot of not so good news about my favorite puppy.
* She has a benign tumor on her eyelid. Needs to be removed because it is irritating her eye. Now I know why that eye is red. It could be surgically removed. Not sure of the cost.
* She has a lot of tartar on her teeth, about time for a teeth cleaning. It's been 3 years since her first one. $160ish
* Dr. D isn't sure if the ACL is torn or not because Lottie was resisting his checkup on her leg. She was nervous and wouldn't relax enough for him to be sure. He recommends sedation to find out if it is torn or not. $250
* Blookwork to see if she can handle pain medicine for a couple months to check her liver etc. This would be done once at the beginning and once halfway through to make sure her body was handling it ok. $200
*Treatment options if she has a torn ACL- rehab, nutritional route (anti inflammatory, joint vitamins etc), surgery $2500, 2 months of pain medicine paired with rehab or the nutrition program, or nothing. He said dogs have 4 legs and they really only need 3.
*Poor thing also had an ear infection. Her left ear was super dirty and had an infection and a yeast infection. Had to get drops for that and he recommends ear cleaning solution.

So, a lot to think about. Dr. D is so great because he is very understanding that she is just a dog. Not a human! He did not apply any pressure, said I know you have 3 kids and life is expensive. He was just laying all the options out there for me. I know we don't have to do all of these things. At this point I'm leaning towards pain med, nutritional program, and surgery to remove the benign tumor. Possibly the teeth cleaning. The ACL surgery would allow her to hike, camp, go on walks with us etc but we don't feel that it's an option for us. Too expensive. She'd have to go to another city to have it done due to her size. She's 7 1/2. She just seems like she's aging so quickly.

If you're still reading I feel kind of like the worst pet owner ever. My dog has been having trouble for a while and I haven't done anything about it. I felt really bad. I knew the news wasn't going to be good. Poor thing hasn't had a bath in I don't know how long. At least I got her nails trimmed while we were there because again, I don't know how long it's been since that happened either. I'm sorry Lottie! We love you!

Mmm...Mmm...Good!

Doesn't this make a mama happy?! To see her boys eating a healthy vegetable and actually wanting to finish all of it!! Woohoo! The corn really was delicious. If you don't remember what I'm talking about go here!

Last night we decided to take Lottie swimming. We like to take her to a pond in Wilmore so she can fetch her floating kong. She loves it and it totally wears her out! It had been a long time since she had gotten to go swim in the pond. She swims in the backyard more because it is easier that treking to Wilmore! Here's a shot of her swimming back to shore with her favorite water toy!

Tonight we went to my niece, Madelyn's birthday party. It was lots of fun and I'll have more to share on that soon!