Artie is getting old. She just doesn’t know it yet.
Since July, Artie has been to the vet 3 times. Twice in this month alone. She’s going back on Tuesday.
I can’t really say that the last two are definitely due to old age, but I can’t rule age out as a factor, either.
In July Artie started having trouble with incontinence. Blood work showed that she has too much protien in her blood. It was caused by a problem with her kidneys and required that she go on a special diet and take medication for the incontinence. She had to be taken off the steroid she was given to deal with the effects of flea allergy.
Two weeks ago I took her back to the vet because she was shaking her head almost constantly and losing hair. I knew that the hair loss was due to the flea allergy. We’ve been fighting this battle since she was a puppy and it always gets bad this time of year.
Artie had lost 3 pounds since the July visit (mostly likely due to all the itching and head shaking) and the vet gave her a half dose of a steroid to help her out. Everything else seemed normal.
Roughly this past Wednesday, she started shaking her head again and itching more. Not as bad as two weeks before but I didn’t want things to get too bad so I took her back today.
In two weeks she had lost 3 pounds even though she was eating as much as normal for her. The head shaking and scratching only started back up this week. She really shouldn’t have lost so much weight. So a visit to try to nip the head shaking and scratching in the bud turned into a 45+ minute visit with the vet to try to figure out just what was wrong with the dog.
Two things we figured out for sure, she has a kidney infection (again) and may have a yeast infection in one of her ears. Anything else will have to wait for the results of blood work. The blood, though, can’t be done until Tuesday. Due to my work schedule, I’ll have to leave her at the vets so they can draw blood about 6 hours after she has the medication. I’ll pick her up on my way home.
Another thing we discussed but didn’t address is the fact that Artie is becoming clumsy. She still runs and jumps but she doesn’t always land well. More and more often her legs go out from under her and she ends up hitting the ground. I know this is due to old age and there isn’t much we can do about it. I just wish Artie realized that she’s getting old and decided to take her energy levels down a notch. I worry that one day she’ll hurt herself.
So that was my somewhat depressing visit to the vet. I don’t blame the vet for Artie getting old. Plus everyone in my vet’s office love Artie. Whenever I take her the vet techs will come from where ever they are working to stop and say “hi” to Artie and pet her. She’s probably been treated by all of the vets there at one time or another as well. By the time we left today she had filled up on treats by various members of the staff.
It looks like we will be seeing more and more of the vets as things go on. I guess it’s a good thing she loves to go there and they all adore her.
Jocelyn says:
Poor artie
9/29/2008, 2:27 pmSally says:
Artie is getting old. She just doesn’t know it yet.
A lot of humans are the same way!
I have another friend facing the same dilemma with her dog…it isn’t easy!
9/29/2008, 10:03 pmlefty says:
my wife and i just got our first puppy. we’re in love.
i hope artie feels better soon.
9/30/2008, 2:23 pmChunks of Reality says:
Your post made me quite sad. I have a toy poodle named HoneyBunny and dread when she gets older. She’s the light of my life. I love her so very much!!
Good luck to you and Artie!!
9/30/2008, 3:32 pmLaura says:
Thank you all for your kind thoughts. Artie is still blissfully unaware that she’s 12 years old and not 12 months old. I’m sure she’ll be around for some time if we can get the weight loss pined down.
jan says:
What a very hard time this is for the humans who love the aging dogs. I know you will do the right things for her.
9/30/2008, 7:30 pmJenn says:
Get them to do an x-ray. If I’d had an x-ray done on my Diggz earlier he may have lived another couple of years. He was VERY healthy otherwise.. little flea allergy he always had. But he too started losing weight. I just chalked it up to old age. It was a tumor. Not trying to scare you but I’d check it out.
He was however almost 15 so the surgery may not have made much of a difference but at 12 I’d say that’s still not so old. Good luck to dear Artie.
10/1/2008, 4:45 pmLaura says:
Thanks Jan.
Thanks for the advice, Jenn. If the blood work doesn’t give us an answer I’ll ask about doing x-rays.
Cali says:
I’m sorry to hear about Artie’s problems. Be careful with the possibility of a yeast infection – those are really hard to get rid of in dogs.
10/3/2008, 12:27 amDoug Colthar says:
I’m sorry to hear about Artie being sick, its painful to have pets get ill because they truly are more than pets after you have them so long
My Xbox 360 blog
10/3/2008, 12:30 amhttp://360gamersparadise.blogspot.com
Eric Sanders says:
Just last Saturday our 5 year old German Shepherd, Sammie, died when she ran into the road and was hit by a passing car. My daughter took it a little better than most kids might. My wife and son, however, were totally devastated. This dog was truly like a family member to them. Sammie would lay in the floor and let my son use her as a pillow while he watched TV. My wife actually had this dog somewhat speaking English. Sammie would repeat certain words after my wife. I tried to brush it off at first, but Sammie became clearer and clearer with her “speech” until I could no longer deny it. We live out in the country in Alabama, so I was able to bury Sammie on our property. My wife is from northern NY state and loves Maple trees. I built a small garden area and planted an October Glory in the middle of it beside Sammie.
I really hope you are able to help Artie enjoy a few more years.
10/3/2008, 11:05 amBusana Muslim says:
hope feel better soon..!
10/8/2008, 4:35 am