We were away in Denali for a couple of nights, and upon return found that she had not stood for 2 days, and barely ate (our dog sitter should have called us to tell us this, but did not). We took her to the emergency vet, since one of our favorite vets was on duty. We decided to euthanize her that night, since there was no clear sign of why she had the sudden “crash,” but we didn’t think it was fair to do more testing and treatments, since she had been through so much.

Scully was a super sled dog, but kept getting beat up, especially by Pumpkin and Monkey. We moved her inside after a particularly nasty set of injuries, and she lived inside happily for a few years. One particularly valuable role is alarm clock for Ilana, helping with bits, paws and barks when it was time to get up and go for a walk.

I’m writing this because Scully is in bad shape again (and Dutchess just started yelping).  Two weeks ago Scully started to crash. Greg brought her to Mt. McKinley on a Sunday (McKinley is the only open vet on the weekend). The vet wasn’t sure why Greg brought her in, but told us to give her the antibiotic amoxicillian for infection.  Not wanting to be a hypochondriac momma, I waited around five days to see if the amoxi had any effect. Nope. I brought her to Aurora a few days early for her biweekly hematocrit check– which was 20%. The vet tookex-rays to see what was going on in her gastrointestinal track. The ex-rays were inconclusive. I brought her back the next day for an ultrasound. The ultrasound told us that there was something either on her spleen or intestines. I brought her back the next day (Friday, Dec. 11) for surgery (note to self– never have major surgery on a Friday, when the vet is closed on the weekend), with the understanding that if it was a tumor on her intestines, we wouldn’t wake her up. If it was on her spleen, she’d get a splenectomy.

I was quite happy to hear that he had splenectomy and didn’t have to die. Scully had a 5″ tumor on her spleen. Apparently one theory of hemolymic anemia is that it is caused by a failing spleen.

Scully isn’t doing to well, she’s eating very little, can’t walk, and looks miserable.  Greg keeps reminding me that she’s in post-operative mode and she just had major surgery.  She has a vet appt. tomorrow to check her Hematocrit.

—-
Duchess has been yelping all weekend.  She’s the girl who has had two tumors removed from her neck, as well as mammary cancer removed a year ago.

I’m preparing for Scully and Duchess, by practicing singing Silent Night.  I hope it doesn’t  come to that, but it’s always good to be prepared.

In mid Sept. 2009, Scully was diagnosed with chronic IMHA. I was sure she was a goner.

For several months Scully seemed “not her usual self,” but was going on walks, eating, and waking me up by pouncing me and biting my next (a perfect alarm clock).  I kept telling Greg that she seemed a little off and that I was going to take her to the vet. I put off the vet visit because she wasn’t really exhibiting anything too wrong. I should have trusted my doggie-motherly instincts.

One day Scully stopped waking me up and she couldn’t keep up on walks. It was a Saturday of course, and all of the vets were closed except the most expensive in town. I managed to get her an appointment (with a $65 bonus charge because I didn’t have a scheduled appointment that day), and I brought her in.

Scully HATES the vet’s office because she’s been there so many times after being beat up by munkin (munkin are the evil sisters– Pumpkin and Monkey-Tail). I explained the Scully’s situation to the vet and she dragged Scully away from me, promising Scully that she wouldn’t stay the night. Ha.

I came back later that day to find out that Scully had rocks in her stomach, hence the occasional vomiting, but the vet wasn’t concerned with her belly full of rocks. She was concerned with her Hematocrit – (HCT) was 12%. Normal is between 37-55%. Scully needed to stay the night.

Needless to say,  I was freaked out because of Nonny. I was sure that Scully was a goner. The vet explained that in a chronic case, the dog’s HCT slowly decreases. Eventually, if untreated the dog will die. We agreed that it would be a peaceful death…because you sort of just lose energy, slip into a coma, and go to sleep.

Scully was treated with a blood transfusion from the vet’s dog and huge amounts of steroids (Prednisone) and fluids. The next morning her HCT was 16%. This was an improvement–but not by much. The vet said at around 12% she’s the “walking dead,” and 16% isn’t much better. She stayed the night again, and her HCT increased a little more.

I took her home and had an appointment to bring her back in a week for a blood test. She seemed to be getting stronger every day. Her gums were still extremely pale, but she wasn’t sleeping all the time.  Her blood test revealed that her HCT was 18%. The increase meant that the blood transfusion helped and she was generating red blood cells on her own. Yippie. I was very happy.

Two days later she seemed very sick and was sleeping a lot. I noticed a HUGE area of swelling on her right elbow. It looked like an abscess.  Of course, it was at night and the vets were closed. I called the office of the vet where she was treated and spoke to the answering service. I wanted to see who the vet on call was. They told me it wasn’t a McKinley vet, but an Aurora vet. I told them I’d call back. I had wanted to bring her to McKinley since her records were there. I called the After Hour Emergency vet, but they were closed. I called the vet who was treating Scully at home to ask her if she thought Scully should be seen. Normally, I wouldn’t be concerned with an abscess– but being that Scully was so sick, I needed professional advice. The vet said yes, I should take her in.

I called the answering service and made an appointment to bring her into Aurora. After looking at Scully and doing aspirations and blood tests, the vet told me it was a good idea that I brought her in.  She had some type of infection, possibly staph, in her elbow. She was treated with a dose of Baytril via IV.  When the medication hit Scully, she fainted. Both the vet and I thought that perhaps she had a reaction to the meds and that she was going to die right there on the table! I remember saying “Oh Shit,” and the vet said, “Don’t do this.” Scully came to a few minutes later, but was just laying on the table, not moving.  I hung out with her while the vet tended to some other cases. After the IV fluid was all gone, the vet came in and Scully was a little more perky, but not too much. The vet told me that this would be a critical time, and that if it was a staph infection, it could be bad.

I took Scully home with Baytril, Cephalexin (two antibiotics), and her demeanor and health improved! When the results from the vet came back, the infection wasn’t Staph, but e-coli. I always thought e-coli was a gastrointestinal disease, but apparently not.

Since Sept. we’ve been taking Scully to the vet every two weeks to check her Hematocrit level. She’s been at 30% for a while, and just last week (Dec. 7) we started to decrease her Predisone to 20mg 1x a day and stopped giving her the Azathioprine.

Today, around 2am I was awakened by an overwhelming smell of poop. My first thought was that Buckwheat must have pooped on his bed made of old blankets which is located right next to our bed. I turned on the light to find that Buckwheat wasn’t in the room. Chez was sleeping on Buckwheat’s bed.

As a side note, Buckwheat is around 112 years old and has been losing bowel control. He often leaves a present and doesn’t even know it.

Back to the story…

I went into the office room to see if the Buckster left me a present. Nope, it didn’t smell like shit in there. I went back to the bedroom in search of the cause of the foul smell.  I around looked for a frozen poopsicle that someone may have brought in through the dog door. I didn’t see anything. The smell was truly overpowering. I though maybe Bruno was having bad gas, and sniffed his bum. Nope. It wasn’t Bruno. Neptune’s tumbly had been growling, so I sniffed his bum. Yuk. Neptune smelled like shit. But wait, I looked at the bed and there was a brown turd sleeping next to me. Geez. Gross. Nasty. Barf. How could this happen?? Neptune wouldn’t shit in the bed? Would he? How come I didn’t smell it until now? Where did it come from. Help. I’m sleeping next to crap.

Okay. I got a hold of myself and began to clean up. I pushed all of the dogs off of the bed, pulled the sheets off, brought the nasty ones outside, and put new sheets and blankets on the bed. I walked by the office room to find that in all of the excitement, Buckwheat left me a warm present. I cleaned this up and was ready to get back into bed, but it occurred to me that both Neptune and I were sleeping on a turd. I began to sniff Neptune, and sure enough, he smelled like shit. I escorted him into the bathroom and began to clean the parts that smelled bad. It wasn’t working. I put him in the shower. At first he was whining, but then realized that he was going to get to take a shower with me, so he didn’t mind. I washed the both of us and then used the hair dryer to dry Neptune off because I didn’t want a wet dog to jump into bed.

By now it was 2:30am and I felt compelled to call Greg, who was in Texas, and tell him the news. He didn’t seem to mind being woken up at 5:30am to hear about shit in the bed. It’s not the first time we’ve been woken up do to some type of excretion.

We all went back to sleep. But the question remains, who shat in the bed? The suspects are Neptune, Bruno, Scully, Chez, Sam, Chester, Sugar, Buckwheat, and Ilana. We were all in the bed at sometime during the night.

• Sugar was sleeping just outside of the bedroom– in a location where she normally doesn’t hang out. Could she have been in the bed just before I went to sleep?
• Earlier in the evening, there was a turd in the hallway, which I suspect was from Buckwheat. It wasn’t a full turd though. Could Buckwheat have been in the bed, shat in the bed, and then leave additional stuff in the hall? But why didn’t I smell the shit when I first got into bed?
• Chester was in bed, right before I climbed in, and Scully was in be right before Chester.
• Sam and Bruno were in there usual spots, curled up on top of me.
• Chez was on Buckwheat’s bed, but could have been on the bed earlier in the evening.
• Neptune was sleeping right next to me.
• Ilana sometimes dreams that she has to take a dump. Could she have shat in the bed while dreaming about taking a dump?

Who do you think shat in the bed? You can take the poll on the right of this page to voice your opinion.

This morning Greg woke up and found Wild laying in pee and she couldn’t stand up. Even with the help of a towel, she couldn’t stand. She was like this once before around a year ago, after she got beat up by the sled dogs, she couldn’t stand for three days. Her temp this morning was 103.

Bosco is bones and fur. He isn’t interested in eating anything. Magic is sick. He has diarrhea and a temp of 103.5. He isn’t eating. Roo isn’t eating. Storm isn’t finishing her food.

On Monday, we came home and there was diarrhea all over the house. Greg thinks it was Buckwheat, but I’m thinking it was Scully, because she didn’t eat dinner and was looking sickly.

Bosco/Dudley: We came home a few weeks ago to find a big gash on Bosco’s back. At first we thought that Wild, the evil-creature-dog-from-hell, fought with Bosco. I scolded her and told her how evil she was. But then I noticed that Dudley had a small scratch and blood spot on the area surrounding his right eye. Could Bosco and Dudley have been fighting? It’s possible, Dudley is afraid of Bosco and Bosco growls at Dudley, however, Dudley doesn’t have any teeth.

We decided that we’d tend to Bosco’s wounds ourselves– clean the wound and give him some antibiotics. This was a bad move. Bosco’s cut got totally infected. Green oozing gobs of pus were leaking from his wound and the infection burrowed through at least two inches of skin. We took Bosco to the vet and he was put on very strong antibiotics and the vet cut out the infection– which was a good chunk of his back. He’ll be okay.

Scully: Scully got her ass kicked by Monkey and the Monkey Gang (Pumpkin, Chez, and whoever else). It was a horrible fight. For the last year we’ve been having puppy parties where everyone runs around and gets along– but not this night. Monkey was trying to fight with everyone and eventually Scully was her target. Scully ended up with a 5 inch skin avulsion on her neck, a ripped anus, and miscellaneous punctures and tears all over her body. We’ve been keeping her inside for her recovery and she is working out to be a great pet.

Magic: Magic got beat up by Chez and some other StinkyPups. He’s okay, but he got to spend a couple of days inside due to an injured leg.

Buckwheat: Bucky is an old pup– around 12. He hasn’t been pulling that well this year, but that’s okay because I’ve been taking the geriatric team out for short 4 – 7 mile runs, 1 – 2 times a week. We were on a 7 mile run and Bucky collapsed. We were just trotting along and he fell on his side. I stopped the sled and helped him up. He seemed okay. I knew he didn’t want to ride in the sled so I left him hooked up and we went home at an extremely slow pace. Buckwheat is now officially a retired sled dogs and has taken up residence with us. His status has changed to “Pet” dog– which is fine by us, however, he is extremely stinky and pees on everything in the house.

Besides all of the fighting (I didn’t mention all of the little fights), mushing has been going well. It’s finally getting cool enough to run.