its (sort of) a dogs life

Missy Gracie loves her tummy rubs more than anything! She runs outside and promptly lays down on her back and starts happily wiggly around, asking "please please please, surely it's tummy rub time NOW"?!

She had a trip to the vet yesterday - she had to be knocked out for dental work. WAH! I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to anesthesia for anybody!

Missy has always been a ravenous eater until recently and now she's really really picky.  And worse. To the point of refusing to eat. Unless you give her biscuits. She'll eat those by the bushel. ARGH.  

 

She has terrible allergies and has to take Cyclosporine for them - otherwise she chews on herself to the point of injuring herself. 

If your doggy has allergies you may know about Atopica and Cyclosporine - Atopica being the brand name and Cyclosporine the generic. Atopica costs a Kings Ransom and cyclosporine is about 1/3 or 1/2 the price? They are supposed to be the same and yet, the generic has problems that supposedly Atopica doesn't have.

One of the problems with either is an overgrowth of the animals gums, good googly moogly. And a problem with the generic can be loss of appetite, change in appetite, etc. 

Oh! and also tremendous hair growth ... Missy looks like a clydesdale or a hobbit now, she's got so much hair bwahhahahhahaha ... but then that's what you want in a Golden Retriever. She's Miss Fluffy Feathering now.

On top of her allergy meds possibly being the source of her eating problem, she has Cushings Disease and she was just tested and it was found her current dosage is way too high. WHAT?!

And the vet eyeballed her teeth while she was there for her Cushings test and found that one tooth looked problematic. So yesterday she went to be knocked out so the vet could ascertain what all was going on with her teeth. Turned out the one tooth that he thought was a problem, wasn't. But she had two other teeth that her gums had completely grown over. So she had to have her gums cut back and those two teeth removed ACK! She came home with antibiotics and a much lower dose of her Cushings meds.

So there are three things that could be causing her poor appetite - the wrong Cushings dosage, the Cyclosporine and her teeth and gum problems. Poor baby! 

Makes one feel like a horrible doggy parent and we take her to the vet (she has two vets now since she has a dermatologist too ay yi yi) at least four times a year. sniffle sniffle hanging my head ...


Still sick over here but inching towards better. Was supposed to go to the eye doctor for follow up today but changed it until next Wednesday, wanting more time to feel better for myself and not wanting to give my eye doctor this lousy bug. 

 

Doing a little bit of light puttering around the house since boredom is running HIGH.

Reading "Olive Kitteridge" ... fantastic writing but oh good grief this book is bleak. Don't grab this if you want a feel good book. Holy moly.

Loved binge watching "The Honorable Woman" over the weekend!

And loved Emma "Hermione Granger" Watson's speech at the UN assembly and He For She Campaign. Speech on You Tube here. Full transcript of speech here. No one, no one, should be thought of or treated as less than, ever.