Finally Friday

HAPPY FRIDAY!

We are just chilling today enjoying some nice weather and some great sunshine.  We hope everyone has a Safe and Happy Memorial Day Weekend.

How dare someone interrupt our suntanning......

See I told you it was nothing, how do I find that nice spot I had again.

Slobbers,
The Hounddogs (Cleo, Winston, Amiee)

(HDM Speaks:  Tabby continues to hang in there.  Still eating about 1/4 cup of prescription dog food 3-4 times a day.   And yes, she is taking in all them treats she can get.  Actually have to run to the store to buy some more to get us through the weekend.  Thanks, HoundDogMom)

Tabby - Thursday Update

Hello to my blogger fur-friends,

I just wanted to say "THANKS" to everyone for sending me drool, sniffs and prayers while I was at the doggie hospital.  I spent three whole days there and two nights, and it is not my favorite place to go and have to sleep.  See Mom really didn't think I would be there overnight and she failed to bring my bed with us, then failed to bring it each time she visited.  Does she not know a "GIRL" needs her own bed especially in a strange cage, that I am not use to being in.

I know HDM has kept you all updated on my status and progess, which I hear is not the best.  But, I just pretend I have not heard that and I just keep on going like the engergizer bunny.  They say my liver is giving out and there is nothing else that can be done for me at this time.  After Mom got done talking with Dr. T (whom I like but I don't like), they decided that I should just come home and enjoy my surroundings and my fur-siblings.  I like the home part, but being slobbered and mauled by fur-siblings is a little much for me.

So, finally I got to bust out of the Vet hospital and come home yesterday afternoon (Wed).  Oh my GOSH, I have never been so happy to be home.  Even if I was slobbered on from ear to ear by Amiee and Winston, it was just nice to see them.  And, oh my bed feels like cotton with the fan blowing on me to keep me cool.  Life is good here at home.

I was a good girl last night and even ate a little L/D precription food (2 tablespoons) and about 10 soft treats for supper.  That is the most I have ate since Saturday night so I got lots of praise and good job Tabby from HDM and HDD.  I then tried about 4 more treats before going to bed at 10:00 with HDM.  And then this morning (Thursday), I had about 1/4 cup of food with about 5 treats sprinkled on top.  I am still just trying to figure out this little "HAPPY" dance HDM does after I eat, not sure what all the hoop-la is about.

But for know I am just so happy to be home with my family getting lots of hugs, kisses, tummy rubs and oh those famous butt-rubs that I love.

Again, "THANKS" to everyone for your support while I work through my ikies.  Here are a few pictures that were snapped last night.  You can tell my fur-siblings missed me they couldn't get close enough to me.

Tabby

(HDM speaks:  Tabby is in full blown liver disease at this time and unfortunately, there is nothing else we can give her to make it get better.  No "magic pill", this time around.  We decided to bring Tabby home and just enjoy her for as long as we can.  We have no time-table, just taking it day by day.  We are excited that she eats a little today, but know that tomorrow she may not.  We believe this was the best thing to bring her home for a while to spend time with her fur-siblings 4-legged brother and Mom and Dad and we could treat her more like a QUEEN.  We feel that we will know when the time has come to allow Tabby to be with her fur-siblings Precious and Elliott at the Rainbow Bridge.  And we will know in our hearts we have done everything possible for Tabby.  She is in no pain and appears to be very happy at home.
Thanks for your support,
HoundDogMom and Family)

Tabby - Tuesday Health Update

First off, I would like to say THANKS to Martha & Bailey, Mango and Droopy & Callie for offering their well wishes and prayers and lots of slobber to Tabby. I believe she is getting it all in and she feels the LOVE you are sending her.

This morning (Tuesday) when I got my update on Tabby from Dr. T he said, She is holding her own and seems to be in good spirits.

He said there are two liver counts (enzymes) he is looking at and normal range is 120-130, one of Tabby’s is at 1400 down 200 from last week, but the other one is up to 4000 from 1600. Is said that is not good, but she doesn’t seem to be ready to give up yet so he wasn’t either. He says she is not in pain, which is important to me. So we decided to go ahead with another 24 hours of IV fluids (more PEE, Mango ) So, Tabby will be spending another night at the Vet hospital. I plan on going to see her tonight and take some chicken/rice for Dr. T to try to feed her tomorrow, but it may take me going in to try to get her to eat. She is not fond of all the time she has had to spend at the Vet office, even though they love her and treat her good. And when we get her home and eating we definitely are going to the sweet potato idea that Droopy & Callie suggested. We know she doesn’t like cottage cheese, yogurt at all, so we are open for suggestion.

We hope that she will be feeling well enough to come home at least by the Weekend. Cleo, Winston and Amiee are definitely wondering where she has gone. Last night when I ran to the store, I think they thought I was going to get her and bring her home. Winston I believe misses his Big Girl the most, he wondered, paced and whined all night long. And if you have ever heard Winston Whine, it is terrible. His nickname is Whinny Winston because he does it so much.  He sits and stares out the window hoping to see Tabby come up the drive. Amiee just missing picking on her and being in her face all the time, I am sure Tabby doesn’t miss that.  Cleo, she doesn’t seem to notice much different in house.

I know there is no good outcome, but we will at least get some more time to spend with her. No matter if it is just a few more days, week or months. At this point, I am happy with any additional time I can have with her (without being selfish). We do know that if she has another set pack after this we probably will have to allow her to be with Precious and Elliott. It will be hard but, know we only have them for a short amount of time. BUT with that said, WE ARE NOT GIVING UP HOPE on Tabby. 

HoundDogMom, Cleo, Amiee and Winston

Tabby - Update

Tabby Updates - The Weekend

Friday/Saturday

We got Tabby home on Friday and she began to eat very good.  We are feeding her hamburger/rice or chicken/rice.  Sometimes with yogart, cottage cheese to change it up a little.  She is taking 4 different meds twice a day right know eating 2 cups 4 times a day.  I think that is a pretty good appetite.  Hard to tell if she is gained any weight.  We go back to Dr. T next week for a follow-up to see about weight and liver count numbers.  She is very social with us but sleeps a lot. 

Sunday

On Sunday Tabby decided to take a step backwards on her recovery.  She stopped eating again and began getting sick and having running poops.  We were able to get her meds in forcing them down and she continues to drink lots of water.  Seems to have some congestion in her lungs, but not sure if her breathing is heavy because her liver is working so hard.

Monday

Called and talked to Dr. T about Tabby's status.  Wasn't what he wanted to hear today about her not eating and getting sick.  These are very bad signs for a fur-kid with Liver issues.  We have had some hard decisions to make today.  We decided to go ahead and try IV treatments for the next 24-48 hours to see how she does.  We know there is no magic pill and she will never get over her liver disease.  We are just trying to decide what the outcome should be.  This morning when I took her to the vet she jumped right up barking and her tail wagging, so I don't think she is quite ready for me to give up on her.  I must know in my heart that I have tried all the options to make her comfortable as possible.  Don't want to watch her suffer and feel she deserves to keep her dignity.  She lost another 3 pounds over the weekend so she is now down to 73 pounds.  Dr. T will give me a call later today with how he thinks she is doing. He was going to recheck her liver counts to see if they have went down any.  If they shows signs of elevation, we most likely will bring her home for a few days and enjoy her before making any final decisions.

Been a rough week and don't look for this one to be any better.  The other Hounds are just going with the flow of things, not getting many walks becuase it is so HOT here.  And having 2 that are mostly black fur they get overheated very easy.  They continue to enjoy the special food treats that Tabby has been eating and they continue to clean up her leftovers when she doesn't eat.  I have found that they really LOVE vanilla yogart on their food and waste no time eating it all.  It use to take Amiee like 1/2 hour to finish her 1 cup of food but with yogart, it is gone in like 5 minutes. :)

Thanks for all your prayers for Tabby we truely apprciate it and we will keep you posted on her health.

HoundDogMom and The Hounddogs.

Tabby - Health Update

HoundDogMom here,

It appears that my Tabby Girl is giving Dr. T a run for his money.  He said that her X-rays all looked good and she does not have any tenderness or swelling of her belly, no fever.  She is in NO pain, but very obviously that she doesn't feel good at all.  He went ahead and sent the blood work off and we should get the results today (5/19).  He also took some samples from some lumps that she had just to make sure that they were not cancer, those results should be back by Friday.  He made several attempts to get her to eat, but she would not eat anything and he said she just doesn't seem to give a "hoot" about anything.  He gave her a B-12 injection and a steriod injection before sending her home with me.  We were told to try whatever we can to get her to eat.

When I got home with her we cooked up some hamburger (boiled) with rice.  Gave her about 1/2 cup of this along with her meds, I couldn't believe it she ate all of it.  Not sure if she tasted any of it as it went down, but at least she ate.  I did not want to overwhelm her with food, so that is all we gave her for the night.

This morning (5/19) I gave her another 1/2 cup of her special food, which she again ate immedately then proceeded to get about 10 pieces of regular dog food from Cleo's bowl which she hate fine.  She is keeping everything down and no running poo either.  These are 2 things Dr. T has me watching for know that we have her eating small amounts.

Well just got off the phone with the vet this morning (5/19).  He got the blood panel back but not the information from the slides he sent from the lumps.  He said that the blood panel indicates very "HIGH" liver counts, higher than when she was in there in March.  We thought we had it under control because she was eating and doing everything great.  It just shows me how quickly the liver can regress back.  So after seeing these counts he went and re-checked her x-ray and he said that he could see some roughness around the edge of the liver.  He said this could be some signs of cancer but the only way to know is by doing an ultra-sound.  Which we may consider once we get her feeling a little better and get some meat back on her bones.  They only have one lady in our town that goes around with the Ultra-Sound machine, so it would need to be scheduled in advance and costs around $250.  I think it is worth it, just to have an answer one way or another.  Not that we would necessary put her through all the treatments for this if it was found out that she had cancer of the liver.  With her being 12, I really have to look at the quality of life she has had and what it would do to her to go through treatment with no guarantees.

So for know, we are going to feed her 3-4 times a day very small meals of her "special" feedings.  Boiled hamburger/rice, chicken/rice or similiar things that are easy on her tummy.  Dr. T is going to give her some steriods to help with inflamation and we will take it one day at a time.  Once we get some weight back on her we will schedule the ultra-sound to make some final determination on her health.

I have already been through Liver disease with one dog (my 2nd basset Elliott) passed away from Liver disease 3 years ago.  Unfortunately this is a very hard disease to watch your animal go through.  They can basically waste away to nothing right before your eyes.

We will continue to treat Tabby like a queen and hopefully keep her pain free while we work through her course of treatment.

Thanks to all for sending prayers/drools to Tabby.

HoundDogMom, Tabby, Cleo, Winston and Amiee

Tabby - Needs Some Prayers/Drool

HoundDogMom here,

Our bloodhound Tabby (12) needs some doggie prayers, drool anything sent her way.  She suffered some issues with her Pancreas back in February and we thought we had her over the hump.  But last week she decided to stop eating and she went to the vet on Friday and got a shot and some meds.  She ate fine all weekend until Sunday night and she has not ate since then.  She went back to the vet today (5/18) for additional testing.  The vet called at 1:00 saying he is very concerned for her and she lost another 5 pounds, she is at 75 know.  She is normally at 80-85 which she looks very good at that weight.  I could tell she was loosing weight, because I don't have skinny hounds. :)  So at this point we are waiting to hear from Dr. T on what the new x-rays and blood work show us.

So if you could say a small prayer for her, send her some drool to get better it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
HoundDogMom and the Hounddogs

HSCI Alumni Days - Dog Park

HSCI Alumni Days - April 17, 2010

A Girl's Day Out At The Dog Park

This was a very busy weekend for HoundDogMom. We blogged about her abandoning us to go to the Paws Pageant, but she did take me (Cleo) and Amiee to the HSCI Alumni Days at the local dog park. Winston stayed home to whine because he isn't one of us special Alumni Dogs. :)

Actually we have our very first slide show to present to our blogging buddies. This was our first attempt at creating one of these. We don't have music but we do have some captions. HoundDogMom has been trying to learn a few more tricks to this blogging world so I hope you enjoy our Girl's Day at the Dog Park.

Cleo and Amiee

HSCI Paws Pageant Fund Raiser

HSCI Paws Pageant – April 16, 2010

Last year HDM entered herself and I (Cleo) in the Pageant. She went as some dude from the 50’s and I was her date. Here is a picture of us in last years’ Paws Pageant. We didn’t win, but I sure had fun walking the red carpet. Even though I fell up the stairs flat on my face, how do they expect a girl with short legs and a basset hound skirt on to walk up stairs. That is okay it didn’t stop me a bit and I was pretty darn proud of myself. And Mom made my costume for me and had a customized basset hound skirt.

HoundDogMom and Cleo - Paws Pageant 2009

Here are a few pictures from the HSCI (Humane Society of Central Illinois) Paws Pageant that Mom went to this year, without us.

Lacy - Halloween Redone

Sioux - Bling Catagory

Piper and His Mom - Winner Owner/Pet Theme

Lacy "The Diva" - Bling Catagory

Mimosa - The Christmas Story - Winner Halloween Catagory

White Thunder/Owner - The Phantom of the Opera

Ritz "The Chug" - Halloween Catagory

I hope Mom decides to enter next year with me again.  It was fun in 2009 and looks like all the fur-kids had a great time at the 2010 Paws Pageant.

Cleo and HoundDogMom

Sorry We Have Been So Laxed In Posting

First we must apologize for taking forever to document what we have been up to. See our “Secretary” HoundDogMom is still trying to get the ring out of the bath tub from Amiee’s bath for her photo shoot. No actually she has been busy with fundraising things for Animal Rescues and she told us she just has not had the time to blog in the evenings after working on the darn computer all day at work. I then proceed to ask her if she wanted some Cheese with that Whine of hers.  She actually does pretty good with documenting everything it is the picture thing that slows her down. She becomes frustrated very easy with putting pictures in her blog sometimes. I sure feel sorry for that little mouse that tries to help her out, I hear her banging that thing around all the time. Anyway back to catching up the blog.

HoundDogMom and
The HoundDogs