7/31 GOD DOES HAVE TIME FOR A SICK SHIH TZU!

I cannot tell you all how humbled I am by the out pour of love and encouraging thoughts and words. I cannot in a million years tell all of you how much it meant to us. I believe God heard each and every one of you because Bailley started to show great strides towards improvement last evening.  All of your kind comments and words touched my heart so much yesterday, I felt like all of you genuinely cared. I felt like my head was a great big helium balloon that was going to explode all day yesterday. As I read each and every comment I started feeling relief. In a world full of strangers and so much hate and fighting, Its so nice to know there are people out there that will pause their day to send loving thoughts and kind words to someone hurting.

BAILLY’S CURRENT CONDITION

Last evening she was still panting and shivering, with a bit of whining here and there. But she did respond when Steve came home. I am not certain she is seeing as she was but I think her vision has restored enough to calm her. She walk past Steve and seemed to smell him and circle around wagging her tail, so happy Daddy was home.  I did give her another dose of Hydrocodone before bed because she was coughing and still a bit nervous. I think the panting she did over the last couple days may have made her trachea a bit agitated. This morning has been like a normal morning. She is not panting and pacing, no more crying. She is resting and seems relaxed.

I feel in my heart that things are headed in the right direction. Praise God and thank you all for banding together and making our voices loud! This could have been so much worse and the outcome could still be very gloomy. God is amazing. I know Bailley is his and he will ultimately make the decisions about her health and future but, she is here with me now and she will continue to fill my heart with a love so deep and amazing, its scary.

I post mostly every day on Bailley’s blog. I will continue to update as to her progress.  I will also continue to share information about Shih Tzu.

07/30 DOES GOD HAVE TIME FOR A SICK SHIH TZU?

Yesterday afternoon after returning home from the vet, about 4:00 Bailley started screaming and running through the house. I liken the sound that was coming out of my sweet tiny girl to an ambulance racing to an emergency. Steve and I were running through the house, terrified to see her so distressed, trying to catch her. Steve finally caught her and gave her to me. It was all I could do to hang on to her. She seemed to not even know who I was. I swaddled her and rocked her trying to calm her, she continued to thrash around screaming. I felt a warm sensation on my stomach and knew she lost control of her bladder. I told Steve to get the car and in the pouring rain we rushed her to the closest vet in town, which I had never seen before. She continued to scream.

It was vey close to closing but they opened a room as soon as they could. We finally got in a room, I think her screaming, panting and shaking and again, loss of control of her bladder may have pushed them a little. I called her usual vet’s office and had her records faxed over. The vet came in and examined Bailley, which was very difficult. He found that she was suddenly blind. Her pupils had no reaction to light and she had no flinching response to his hand. She wanted nothing to do with anyone except me and Steve. She did seem to calm when I held her and talked to her. The vet said she was basically in a state of panic because her world had gone dark suddenly and she did not understand. She was afraid.

They believe it was one of many things that caused this to happen. A small stroke, a small blood clot, a mini seizure, or the tumor in her brain due to Cushings is growing and pushing against a nerve. None of which is minor. The vet prescribed Xanax to help with the anxiety and basically said just hold her and stay with her and do anything you can to keep her calm. He said it could be temporary or permanent. We left the vet office holding Bailley tight. She had calmed a bit but was still crying, just a bit and much less urgent. Just letting me know she was not in a good place.

We sat in the parking lot at the pharmacy and when Steve got out of the car I noticed she appeared to be looking at him. Not knowing if it was the sound of him getting out I told him to walk around the outside of the car. We were inside with the car running and air on so I knew sound would not play into it. She tracked him all the way around the car, turning her head all the way. I started to feel a bit of relief and I believe this is why she was calming, she was getting her vision back. We came home and she did not want me to leave her for a single second. We gave her hydrocodone and she slept through the night without any issues. She did get up a couple times and put her face in mine just making sure I was still there.

This morning started like any other morning, until we settled in the office with coffee. She started acting fearful, pacing, panting, wanting to go somewhere else. Im not certain if her vision is fully restored? Maybe she is very traumatized by last evening. I know I am! My vet says not to give the Xanax because it could make her liver worse. So I gave her another dose of hydrocodone. Im hoping it will help settle her. Im also worried it will happen again. What lies ahead?

In the last week or so I my anxiety was finally starting to fade, she was doing very well, she was looking healthy and acting healthy, the door to her decline in health has opened up again. Our anxiety is through the roof again. The pain a mother feels when one of her children is hurting is indescribable. Its a helpless feeling. Life is so fragile. I am amazed she can endure so much and still be with us. Oh, my sweet girl, you have to get better.  This world will not turn without you. My world will not turn without you. Somehow, I have to push forward. This is part of living, right?

I hate to say this because I do think it is over used but, if you pray, maybe just stop for a second in your day to ask God to let her be better. If you dont pray, maybe you could send good thoughts her way. I know God has big things to do, I know it is selfish of me to always ask for more time with her. But if by chance, God does have time for a sick Shih Tzu, maybe he will place his healing hand on my baby and just give us a little more quality time.

7/29 VET VISIT

Just got home from the vet. Doc thinks Bailley may be having a reaction to all the allergens in the air. They did x-ray and exam. The exam revealed her heart was the same with clear lungs and no fluid sounds. Her liver is soft and normal, no swelling or hardness in the belly. The x-ray showed gall stones which Doc said there really is nothing they want to do at this point. X-ray also showed her lymph nodes were a bit swollen which she thinks may be an infection due to the allergens so heavy right now. Bailley is now on a broad spectrum antibiotic, Baytril. For ten days.

Due to the increase in cough and the rough night we had I will be giving her Hydrocodone tonight before bed.

Tank you all for keeping Bailley in your thoughts and prayers. Seems like this was something small caught very early before any damage was done. Praying for more good days soon.

7/28 BAD DAY

Bailley is having a bad day. Will be going to vet first thing in the morning. She is now not eating at all. She did take two Vienna sausages tonight. No chicken, no cheese, no turkey. Noting off my plate. She seems to have a bit of labored breathing and seems frail.  I know I am a paranoid Mom but I know something is not right. I know they have good days and bad. Hoping its better in the am. I will be taking her at 7:30 am if she doesnt wake u bright eyed and busy tailed. Please, if you pray, pray for my precious angel. I will post as soon as I know more.

7/28/2015 FRUSTRATION DIGGING IN DEEP

Yesterday was an emotionally tough day for me with dogs. It seems my life is becoming all about dogs lately. I currently have three show dogs I am caring for. Two are mine, I am baby sitting the brother because his handler had a baby and does not have the time to care for him.  So I have to split three show baths, which take at least four hours from start to finish, making sure each dog gets a bath once a week. Every morning I brush and change pads under pens and let them play, every evening I feed, do a deep brush and clean pads. Evenings take at least an hour and a half.

Sweet, sweet, Emmy. Here is a photo I took after she her bath and dry

In the mean time I have five in the house that need care (Hah, I originally wrote car instead of care. So dogs need cars now?). A five month old puppy, who is to cute for his own good, KC, a one and a half year old, I am looking for the perfect home, Phoebe, Peyton and Bailley, who constantly needs something. I also currently have Maggie which I placed several years ago. I was baby sitting her and her daughter Izzy last week and noticed an eye problem. I found a small ulcer in her eye so she has to have medication at least once a day, but twice a day is best. Until her eye gets better she will be here with me.

Once again dinner did not go easy, Bailley ate a tiny bit of her food. With me chasing her and begging her. I got so upset I put the bowl on the floor and said eat what you want. I prepared everyone else’s food with Bailley showing interest in theirs the whole time. I put all the bowls on the floor and bailey decided she wanted to eat. So she hate about five bits of Peyton’s food and walked away. I have been managing to get all her meds down and she is eating. I guess I need to just try everything I can and hand the rest to God. Stressing out over it is obviously not the way to go. Some nights I get so angry with her I tell her, Im angry  with you, just go. Such horrible words to say to my precious little dog. One day I will regret it. I just love her so much Im worried she will lose weight. In the time of doing well, I want her to eat. I want her to put weight on so she has more weight to fight later when she needs to fight.

I know today is a new day with new possibilities. I pray to God in Heaven, today will reveal a path towards peace in me, peace with how things are, not how I want them to be.

07/27/2015 DISCOURAGED MOMMY

Bailley seems to be doing well. When I say well, I mean she has a good quality of life, and seems happy. She goes outside to do her business and still tosses in her blankets for happy time. Me being a realist knows very well in deep parts of my soul that she is still sick and not healed. Which in a perfect world She would be healed, not just managed for the time being.

I want HEALING for her so desperately because this disease is a constant state of worry I keep myself in. I notice she sleeps a lot more than she used to, its hard for her to get up after sleeping. She is very wobbly and normally breaks into a coughing spell. She has always been very independent, she loved to be with me but seemed to go out of her way to prove to me, she didnt need me, I needed her! Now she follows me everywhere. When Im not here she looks for me. Even when I am here and I leave a room to do something else, she will get up and look for me. Sometimes she will pass the room I am in because she doesn’t see very well anymore, she relies on her sense smell and will circle back and find where I am. If I leave for errands or to spend the day with my grandmother, she does fine. She curls up in one of the beds and sleeps until I return. SHe usually doent hear me come home unless it has been a while and she is waiting.  She greets me with a wagging tail and will run down the hall for me to follow. She is telling me she is ready to spend time in the office under the desk which is one her most very favorite spots in the world. Her other in bed. If 9 o’clock passes and we are not headed in the direction, she becomes very uncomfortable and will start whining. If we ask what wrong she will jump up and head that way. If we don’t follow she turns around, comes back to where we are and starts the whole process over. Its stressful to me because I hate to hear her whine.

SO the discouraging part is, she is getting picky about eating again. In the morning she gets canned food. Wellness core 95% chicken, turkey, or beef. I am usually rushing out the door. She has to take her SAMe with nothing to eat for at least an hour so by the time it comes to giving her breakfast, my day has started to a low roar. She is not  big breakfast girl so I have to wait a little later in the morning. For dinner, she gets home made food. The last recipe I made was with beef liver and she really didn’t like it. She would take a couple bits and walk away. SO I made a small batch of the chicken liver recipe and she was so happy! She ate it for about three days and is now starting to turn her nose up at it as well.

So last night I added some of the chicken juice from our dinner to it. Well, she ate that. I have been doing a very bad thing lately and I think she is coming to expect it.  I have used chicken vienna sausage in the past to get her to take meds and eat. She loves them, adores them, is always happy to take them from you. But they have lots of salt in them. I was mashing one up in her food to entice her to eat. Last night I said no more. She will eat what she is served or not at all. Well, I have to say, she makes me feel very bad. She was very upset when we were eating our chicken that she was not offered any. It was not until about 9:30 I finally got her to eat the majority of her dinner.

I am so frustrated about meal time with her. ANY dog on the planet would love all of the meals I cook for her. NOT HER! She is by biggest critic. So here I am, with several containers of dog food in the freezer that will be fed to the other dogs because I will be going shopping to find new ingredients to make exciting meals for B.

What am I going to do? She has me over a barrel. Nutrition is the most important thing that will keep her going. If she does not get nutrition she could stat failing. Slipping back is not an option. I don’t know that she is strong enough to make a comeback. Besides, how can you say NO to that face. It breaks my heart!!!

7/23/2014 QUALITY CONTROL

Bailley is head of quality control for Simply BePaws. She does many jobs which include inspecting the peanuts and packing material as well as making sure noting gets thrown in the trash that is not supposed to be there. Who says cushings and heart disease has to slow you down. Life is good at this moment in time because Bailley is stable.

7/22/15 – FLEAS & TICKS AND LYME…. OH MY!!!

Since we are in the throws of a Florida summer I have decided to address the issue of fleas and ticks. Once you get them, they are very difficult to get rid of.

We have a zero tolerance for fleas here. I have older dogs that will get sick and have terrible reactions to just one flea bite, I also have dogs in full coat. One flea or tick on a coated dog could mean coat loss from matting caused by scratching. Hot spots start from the scratching. It is not a fun thing to have Shih Tzu and fleas or ticks. It is actually the equivalent to the next world war!

I believe all of this bug prevention is poison. Vaccines, flea prevention, heart worm, etc These are all poison. I try to weigh out the dangers of not using these products with the dangers of the issues you can have if you dont use them. That being said, here is what I do to stay on top of the war with fleas and ticks.

We have found you have to wage war on all fronts. Home, yard, pets – wash rinse and repeat!!!

I have found over the years that topical flea control does not work.  It is a complete joke. I have used them all. We live on just about an acre that is a bit of a rural part of Clermont where there are wild animals. Lots of squirrels (little salt and pepper shakers for fleas) we also have cats. (flea heaven) We treat our cats. Cant treat all the squirrels. Tried it, for some reason the pesky guys could not understand I was trying to help them.

We spray or sprinkle our yard every other week to prevent bugs. It starts as soon as the night temp raises above 70. We use Conquer. We will also use sevin granules just to alternate so bugs dont get immune to one product.

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Our home gets treat once a month with Ultracide, in the summer months when bugs are active. I have found this is the only thing that really works.

All of the dogs in our home that are breeding age get Bravecto. Its a fairly new drug that has been proven safe for breeding dogs. All of the altered dogs get Comfotis. Both drugs knock out fleas and ticks. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I only give these drugs when I start seeing fleas. Bravecto is every 3 months. I give once and wait to see when I may have an issue starting. I have noticed it lasts a bit longer than stated on package. I also gave the small chew for up to 9.9 lbs. Most of my dogs weigh 10 – 12 lbs. The comfotis Is a once a month flea preventative. I start hen I notice there may be a problem and I give about once every other month. I have found it is very adequate. I stop giving when the weather cools and fleas are not as bad. Seems a residual from everything carries me through the winter months.

I do use a topical on my cats. I buy ff of ebay and get the largest vile I can find of advantage for dogs. I give each cat a little over 1/4 cc out of the vile. Works like a charm and way cheaper than buying cat advantage. (not advantix)  Its the same chemical just packaged in larger quantities. I normally get at least 4 – 6 treatments from one vile. If you have questions about this just send an email.

Summers are very busy for us fighting our little war. As long as we initiate the war every year and keep the battle fronts strong, those nasty bugs stay at bay. If we get lazy and relaxed about it, false sense of security, it never fails, they come in with a vengeance!!!  I find flea control to be one of the most expensive parts of having fury family.

7/20/15 – WATER, HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

I thought since July is National Pet Hydration awareness month I would talk about how much our pets drink. How much is enough? Too much?

Water consumption can give signs about our pets health. Keeping an eye on your pet’s water consumption is important because too little can result in dehydration, urinary tract issues like kidney stones, and organ failure.

Too little water can be signs of  pancreatitis, parvovirus, or leptospirosis

Too much water can be a sign of Cushings or diabetes.

Dogs can drink to much water and get water intoxication. Symptoms include staggering/loss of coordination, lethargy, nausea, bloating, vomiting, dilated pupils, glazed eyes, light gum color, and excessive salivation. In severe cases, there can also be difficulty breathing, collapse, loss of consciousness, seizures, coma, and death.

Hydration test – Lift the skin at the back of your dogs neck and then let it go. If your dog is well hydrated, the skin will fall quickly back into place. The skin of a dehydrated dog will fall more slowly and form sort of a tent.

Click on this link for a handy calculator that gives you a general idea of what your dog should be drinking. http://troffpouch.com/hydration-calculator/

WHAT IF YOUR DOG DRINKS TOO MUCH?

Over consumption of water is most often seen in dogs who like to stay in the lake or pool all day lapping or bite at the water continuously while playing or dogs that swallow water unintentionally while diving for a ball. An over amount of water in the body results in inadequate sodium content in the bloodstream. Make sure to monitor your pet for symptoms of water intoxication and take frequent breaks form the water.

Of you notice your dog is drinking to much water on his own from the bottle or bowl, a trip to the vet is in order for evaluation by a professional. Be sure to make note of other weird things going on with your pet like urinating on the floor, for a dog that is previously house trained. Bloating, not eating, over eating?

WHAT IF YOUR DOG DOES NOT DRINK ENOUGH WATER?

Be sure to praise your pet when he or she drinks from the bottle or the bowl. Make water easily accessible by placing water in the areas your pet is most often. Add sodium free broth to your pets food or just to a bowl to make drinking more appealing. Make sure your feeding a balanced diet and not just dry kibble. Try adding canned food to your pets diet with water like a gravy. Try some of my recipes and cook for your pet adding water as you go.

Water is the most important thing you can do for your pet. Be conscience of how much they are drinking.

07/19/15 – ITCHY SKIN

Anyone who owns a Shih Tzu knows from time to time they get itchy skin. Sometimes a little yeast starts on the skin. This concoction can be used to restore skin pH, soothe itchy skin, calm rashes and welts, and has some added ben…efits for keeping biting flies, fleas and gnats at bay.