A message to Cleo and Thank You's

Cleo,

It’s Momma………

It is so hard to believe that it has been one week since we helped you with your journey to the Rainbow Bridge.  Winston is having a pretty hard time with you being gone.  He looks for in all your little hiding places, he keeps wondering why I leave and you don’t come back with me.  He cuddles with your blanket every night so he can smell you.  He sits in the back yard and stares off to space and looks at us with such sad eyes, like he is saying “WTF have you done to my life”.  I tell him how sorry I am that you have left us, but you must have been needed really bad at the RB for your life to be taken so sudden from ours.   Amiee is being strong but she has a hard time in the mornings as you are no longer there for her to bark in your face, to make sure you get up and get things rolling for them in the mornings.  Amiee is much more vocal and really speaks her mind a lot more.  Neither one will eat right know, I just hope it is their way of dealing with you being gone and that will soon change.

The house is a very different quite with you not here.  What I would give to hear that annoying bark you use to have.  It use to drive me crazy but I miss it so much know.  Cleo we want you to know how much joy you brought to our house and so glad you were able to show us the true meaning of "LOVE A RESCUE".  You presented some challenges for us when we first brought you home that day in February 2006.  You were 18 months old and had a death sentence at the shelter due to your aggression.  What the heck, a basset with aggression NO WAY.........OH YEAH, but you soon learned how to appreciate the finer things in live and learned to LOVE right back.

I would have never imagined that within 15 months we would be from 4 fur-kids to 2 fur-kids.  When we lost Tabby a year ago in June, I never thought you of all my hounds would be next to get sick and sick you were.  You had some tummy issues that we were working on then the Auto Immune Disease and then finally that horrible diagnoses on September 1st that rocked our world to its inner core.  They said you had the C-Monster and it was so far advanced that we had limited time with you.  WTF are they talking about?  You were just outside in the back yard in the 100 degree days walking the yard looking for snakes, running and playing with Winston, going for walks and golf cart rides.  This could not be possible, not my Cleo.

I pray that we gave you the best 5 years of your life while we had you, it was 5 more years that you would not have had if our first basset Precious - ATB did not lead me to start volunteering for our Humane Society.  I pray that I was able to make your last days as comfortable and enjoyable as possible.  I pray that one day I will see the sign that you are okay and having lots of belly rubs, treats and wonderful sunshine to run free in everyday.  I pray that you have found Tabby, Precious, Elliot and all the other wonderful fur-babies that were taken from us to soon.  I would pray for you to come back to me, but I just know that is not possible. 

Oh and Cleo, you would not believe the support that I have received from our dear blogville friends.  Mango/Dexter but a very nice post about you crossing the bridge.  You even have some great Cat blogging buddies as well, as CB but up a very nice post as well.   And then our dear friends over at SAS created this beautiful memorial picture for you.

 I have been overwhelmed with the sweetest comments and have yet to respond to everyone, but I have read each one over and over.  I just can't get over the support from our blogville friends that have never even met us in person, but just from reading our silly stories.   It brings us comfort to know that you were so loved by so many and will be missed by so many.  You have lots of fur-ends at the RB so just remember to play nice and mind your manners.

Cleo, please know how much you touched our lives and how very much we miss you each and every day.   Until we meet again, we will love you to the moon and back and treasure our memories of you for a lifetime.

Until we meet again, my Sweet Cleo.

Love, Momma

Cleo - ATB

Cleo

2004 - September 20, 2011

 

 

 Run Free Cleo

Gone from our lives, but never from our hearts...

Love ya forever

Mom, Dad, Winston and Amiee

Note:  We will post more later but for know our hearts are aching.  HDM

This and That

Well it has been a little since we have posted any thing but Wordless Wednesday pictures.  We decided to not attend the 2011 Illinois Basset Waddle this year due to Cleo's illness.  We felt it would be to stressful for her and frankly last week we thought she was running out of steam.  But on Wednesday (Sept 14th), my birthday she perked back up and began eating again.

She is know taking her meds again twice a day, but she will only eat scrambled eggs and ham at this time.  She eats about every 2 hours to help keep the acid in her tummy down.  The vet suggested today that we add a little bread in between meals to help with acid control.  She does not appear to be in pain, but gets very tired when she goes out to potty.  She still greets you in the morning or at the door with her tail held high and waggin.  She is a fighter and holding strong.

So we have included a few pictures of Cleo enjoying some sunshine and just chilling with her fur-siblings.

I think I can, I think I can........

Is this not a girl with some Attitude or what

Okay, just this once I will share the bed with her

We hope you all are having a great weekend and enjoying some sunshine with your fur-kids.

Sniffs, The HoundDogs and HoundDogMom

Cleo Update - 9/6/2011

First off, I would like to say “THANKS” to everyone for all the nice comments on our post for Power Of The Paw for Cleo.  I am sorry that I was not in a position to give more details that day, but as you read through our update you will find out that we were pretty devastated with the news that we were dealt last Thursday (9/1/2011).  Please bear with me while you read through my post, it was hard to right and sometimes I seemed all over the place but I tried to give you a picture of what happened since her last chiropractor appt and how we got to where we are today.

The week of August 24, Cleo had another Chiropractor appointment and also received Acupuncture as well.  She had held her adjustment from the previous time pretty well but had slipped out alignment in a few places.  She was adjusted then Dr. A thought maybe Acupuncture in the right areas might stimulate her Immune system.  Cleo does so well and just seems to melt in Dr. A.’s arms.  She pretty much rested during the acupuncture treatment.  Here are few pictures that I could snap before the batteries went dead.

You can see the little needles sticking out of her

The little machine that super charged her

Cleo had to lay still for 15 minutes while this treatment was taking place

Cleo held her own, began to eat like a horse (normal for them steroids), happy girl even was getting out for a few short walks on the cooler evenings.  All until Wednesday evening, when she decided to stop eating all together.  I had just gone to the vets on Tuesday and picked up a whole new case of I/D soft dog food for her, told the vet how she was a munch hound and seemed to be doing well. 

I did notice on Sunday/Monday evening when she would lay flat out you could begin to see her belly bulge; well this didn’t appear normal to me since she has lost so much weight.  Also on her left side there appeared to be a very distinct knot and when I would touch it Cleo would get up, like it hurt. As you can see in the pictures below what I am talking about, with the amount of weight Cleo has lost (12 pounds) we had not been seeing the "pot belly" effect until just late last week.

I really could not feel anything in her tummy, but that was just not right looking to me.  She had an appoint already scheduled for Thursday afternoon for blood draws so I thought we will just make sure that Dr. T checks it out.  Wednesday evening she said NO to food, meds, cheese, treats.  I did have some chicken in the freezer so I cooked that up and boiled that for and she did eat that, of course.  Well I went ahead and called Dr. T Wednesday before he closed and informed him I was bringing Cleo in first thing and not waiting till the afternoon.  I told him she wasn’t eating and something just isn’t right. 

Cleo got some very extensive testing done Thursday morning, blood draws, x-rays of her tummy, back, chest, pretty much her entire body was x-rayed Thursday (9/1).  Unfortunately, all these test have finally found the under laying problem to why she has developed the Auto Immune Deficiency.

Our family received the shock of our life Thursday (9/1) and our world was rocked to the core.  Cleo has been diagnosed with a very fast growing CANCER (Metastatic Hemangiosarcoma) that has been found in her Spleen, Liver, Spine and Lungs.  This form of cancer is usually so far advanced before it is detected, that there is little hope for any options after it is found.  We were told on Thursday that we may have 4-6 months left with her IF we removed her Spleen and started Chemo.    We have decided that that is not something we want to put Cleo through just for a few extra months with her.  We feel that her quality of life is more important to us right know then putting her through a surgery and drugs that would make her feel horrible for the remaining time we have with her.  We will have good days and bad days, but will enjoy every one of them to their fullest and we will know in our hearts when the time has come to let Cleo rest.  But for the time being we take it day-by-day and thank God for everyday that we can continue to enjoy her.

We at the The HoundDogs household, appreciate all our thoughts and prayers and continue to send us the Power of the Paw because we sure could use it about know.

Sniffs,
HoundDogMom, HoundDogDad, Cleo, Winston and Amiee

Cleo Needs the Power Of The Paw

Power Of The Paw, PLEASE

Cleo is needing some serious Power of the Paw right now.  Unfortunately, I am not at a place I can blog about it right know.  I hope to have my thoughts together for a post next week.

Thanks to everyone in blogville for sending Cleo good vibes and keepiing their paws crossed for her.

Sniffs,
HoundDogMom and The HoundDogs

Thankful "Cleo" Thursday

Today is Thankful Thursday at the HoundDogs House

Today, Cleo had a follow up appointment to have her blood rechecked to see if the Predisone (steroids) have jump started her again to rebuild her RBCs.  She is always such a trooper, she is always ready to go for a BUV ride, I can distract the other two hounds where I can just have Cleo walk out the front door with no collar or leash (we live on a dead end road/last house) so this is okay.  She no longer attempts to chase the outdoor cats that are lounging on the porch.  She walks right out to the BUV and waits for you to open the back end and lift her up.  We have a new/used folding ramp coming next week from a friend that is going to be great for her.  She lays down in the BUV so nicely, waits to get out of the BUV, walks with her tail held high as we enter the vet office.  Heck she doesn't even need to have a bandage on any more after her blood draws, such a big girl.

 Note:  This is a re-enactment from a previous vet visit. :)

We are not out of the woods yet, but we have poked our head around a bush

and

we can see a few flowers

between the weeds today

Oh, ya'll are going ya come on HDM tell us the results....

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.

.

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Cleo's blood work from today

Has you can see we are ready to call "Houston" and let them know we are moving closer to the launching pad.

I am sure all are blog friends have seen a blood test or two on our fur-kids.  Well as you can see last Saturday (8-13-11), Cleo almost crashed due to her low, low RBC.  As you can see from today's (8-18-11) Cleo has increased her RBC by several percentages.  The numbers you are seeing are a percentage of the RBCs that are in her system, today Cleo is at 27.5%.  A normal range for a dog is 37-50%, Cleo has a long way to go to "normal" range but we are so "Thankful" for the gain she made to day.  Dr. T was quite impressed with her gains, but said she is still considered an "Acute" case at this point and we may see the numbers go back down again.  She will remain on the same amount of Steroids she has been on for the last week and we will recheck her blood in 10 days.

And also, Dr. T said that after this weekend we can begin to take Cleo on short little walks when it is cool in the evenings.  Cleo wants to let the vet know that is all fine and dandy, but she will prefer to stick to the golf cart rides.

We want to say "Thanks" to everyone for all the wonderful comments, POTP and good healing vibes.  We know they are doing their work on Cleo for sure.

Cleo and HoundDogmom

Cleo Update (An Adjustment Doesn’t Fix It All) New Diagnosis

Well once again here I sit typing and reaching out to my blogging friends in blogville for some much needed Power Of The Paw and some words of advice for Miss Cleo and myself. I believe I “jinxed” myself and got way too excited about the great improvements that happened with Cleo. I guess this time I may have counted my chickens before they hatched.


For starters my husband and I hardly ever go out and do things, but this past weekend was his birthday so I splurged for a movie and hopefully dinner for us. Our fur-kids eat supper between 5-6pm every night. Well we decided to go to a movie at 5:00pm so I decided to wait and feed the dogs after the movie was over. I gave Cleo her meds for her tummy acid, thinking this would keep her tummy calm so she would be ready to eat when we got home. It was only going to be like 45 mins after their normal feeding time that they would eat, I felt this was not a big deal.


Well, we received a very frantic call from our son around 6:30 just as the movie was getting over. He stopped out at the house to pick up his laundry and found Cleo laying there unable to get up and move. He is total panic which places me in total panic and we rush home, to find Cleo barking, jumping and running around like hey what is all the fuss about. She is still pretty wobbly in the back leg area, so I pretty much decide she must have twisted herself or just had a little spasm or something. Just must be getting time for another adjustment or something. So I went ahead and feed them and she seemed to be okay, just moving slow and not much energy. I did notice that her gums were a very light pink color, which I know is not a good sign. Of course, I didn’t sleep hardly at all Friday night worrying about her and how many hours till the vet opened so I could call.


Saturday morning came and Cleo seemed to be a little perky and ate well, but I still called the vet. After talking with Dr. T. and telling him what I was seeing he had me bring her back in for an EKG and more blood work. Cleo’s EKG came back great (thank you GOD), but her blood counts were not so good. Cleo’s RBC has dropped again after rebounding just a few days prior. Instead of 2 points up she was 3 points down from where the blood work on Tuesday was. Dr. T has always shown concern and has been trying to fully understand why Cleo’s RBC is so low but shows that she is trying to make little baby RBCs.


Well it was today, Saturday August 13th, my husband’s birthday that we have found out that Cleo has Immune Mediated Hemolytic Anemia (IMHA) formally known as Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia or AIHA. There is no explanation has to how or why one animal will get this over another.


Cleo was given an injection of “happy juice” steroids and sent back home with her anti-acid, amoxcillian, and predisone again. From all the information that I have read, the heavy dose of steroids is the only way to begin to fight this and get it under control. There is known cure for IMHA at this time, you can only manage it and “pray” that it goes into some sort of remission to where she can maintain a good quality of life. We are NOT giving up on Cleo, and Cleo continues to fight so we will do whatever we can to help maintain this disease. We will continue to work Dr. T and Dr. A Cleo’s Canine Chiropractor to determine the best course of treatment for her and hopefully move to reducing her steroid intake. The main thing we must do right now is get her body to reproduce RBCs and keep them. Unfortunately, the only way is for to take heavy doses of Steriods.  She tires very easy, has a slight cough from the acids in her tummy. She is weak at times, but then has a burst of energy at times as well. Her gums are very pale, but the white of her eyes look good. We are just taking it one day at a time and we will have her RBC retested at the end of the week to see if it has come up. We are feeding her small amounts of ID food every two hours to help keep the acid in her tummy under control. This also seems to help her keep her energy levels up and keep her gums a little pinker.


Here are a few websites if you would like to have some more information on this disease.


http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1390&S=1&SourceID=42
http://www.cloudnet.com/~jdickson/index.html
http://www.peppypaws.com/LillisLegacy.html


So needless to say, we are asking for some more Power of the Paw for Cleo and reaching out to anyone of our blogville friends to see if they have ever dealt with this disease.


Sniffs, HoundDogMom and Cleo

Cleo’s Update

Well yesterday was the big day for Cleo to have a second opinion for her back issues.  I have to tell you that I have had myself way too worked about this and what her outcome was going to be.  Of course, I was thinking way too much about the worst case scenario and actually made myself sick before heading up there.  I want to warn you this is going to be a long post with even some pictures that I tried to snap while Cleo was adjusted.

Our appointment was for 2:00pm so we left Bloomington around 1:20 since it is about a 20 minute drive to Chenoa from our house.

Cleo about to begin her journey.  Hey Mom turn the air on

Oh, ya Mom that is correct point those air vents right at me

Oh, thanks Mom so much better

We arrived around 1:55pm for our appointment

Cleo very excited to meet her new Vet

The assistant came in first and weighed Cleo who is now at 57.4 pounds, gave her a good look over and checked her teeth.  She said that Cleo has lots of tarter on her teeth and wanted to know if we gave her bones.  I told her NO because previous experience with our other dogs resulted in a total dog fight.  She strongly encouraged me to stop by our local Meat Market and purchase some knuckle bones and give to the dogs for about 15 minutes a day.  She said that this will be best natural way to remove the tarter.  She said hopefully by our next appointment the tarter will mostly gone, except for a few spots that may need scraped.  Of course, the local Meat Market was out of knuckle bones till this Friday.  So they will be getting some knuckle bones as a special treat this weekend.

Dr. A also explained the importance of keeping the nails very short on your fur-kid.  She informed me that they are taught to walk on their pads and if their nails get overgrown their feet (toes) will spread out as they compensate to try to find their pads on their feet.  Cleo has always had a problem with her nails since she came from the shelter.  She trimmed Cleo's nails very short, even taking some of them to the wick (a few bleed).  She said sometimes you really have to go supper short to get control of them again.  They laid Cleo on her side for this and I have never seen Cleo lay so still, like she was in a trance or something.  She never even whimpered or moved when she got a few really short.  Overall Cleo is very health, needs to lose a few more pounds (5-6 more).

Cleo smiling after her nails were trimmed

Dr. A reviewed all the x-rays and records and we talked in detail for some time on how/when I thought all this started. She had Cleo walk up and down the hallway, watching her walk, trot, etc.  She laid Cleo’s back legs behind her, her response was improved on her rear legs.  The most trouble was still with her left shoulder and leg, when this leg is placed behind her Cleo will not make any attempt to pick it up and lay it down flat to balance herself.  She just lets it lay there without trying to pick it up and place it down.  Once we worked through these details, Dr. A told me that she didn’t think acupuncture was necessary for Cleo at this point, but she definitely would benefit from a chiropractor adjustment.  She does not have a herniated disk, thank you GOD.  So off to the adjustment room we went.

Once we were in the adjustment room (just a room with carpet).  Dr. A began to feel around Cleo's back, neck and shoulder area.  Dr. A looked at me and Cleo and said that she hated to be blunt with me but she said that according to her poor Miss Cleo just doesn't have her head screwed on straight.  So here is a list of all the mis-alignments Miss Cleo was found to have.

• Her butt tail-bone was titled upward (causing her butt muscles to not work properly, this may also fix her anal gland problem that she has as well)
• Pelvis was twisted sideways
• 4/5/6/7th Vertebra out of alignment (Wobbler's Syndrome)
• Left Shoulder out of alignment (jammed)
• Head was sitting about 1/4 of an inch of her neck (spine).  This is actually what Dr. A meant when she said that her head was not screwed on straight.

Dr. A and her assistant worked on Cleo adjusting her, the only one that I actually heard pop into place was her shoulder and it was loud.  Not sure how many of you have ever had any adjustments by a chiropractor, but you could see some of the same process take place with a fur-kid as with a human.  Here are a some pictures that I snapped as Cleo was being adjusted.

Cleo getting her butt adjusted.  Dr. A is in the light blue shirt and her assistant is in purple

 In this picture her assistant had a pressure point on Cleo's neck, had her arm out and Dr. A would apply pressure to Cleo's butt and at the same time pull down on her assistance's arm.  Not sure how it all worked, but it worked.

 Cleo getting her upper body adjusted

 

 Here she is about ready to adjust Cleo's shoulder and neck

 

 Cleo after her adjustment was complete

Dr. A also is a huge believer in Chinese Herbs/Meds, and this is something I just wasn’t sure I wanted to try at all.  After listening to her explain the importance of them and how they worked, I agreed to try to Chinese Oils/Herbs (Valor and Copaiba). 

Valor is an empowering combination of therapeutic-grade essential oils that works with both the physical and spiritual aspects of the body to increase feelings of strength, courage, and self-esteem in the face of adversity.  Renowned for its strengthening qualities, Valor enhances an individuals internal resources.  It has also been found to help energy alignment in the body.

Dr. A basically told me that she feels that Valor is Chiropractor Care in a bottle.

Copaiba is a powerful essential oil from South America that has traditionally been used to aid digestion and support the body's natural response to injury or irritation.  Capaiba contains the highest amounts of beta caryophyllene (55 percent) of any known essential oil.

Three times a day I take a few drops of the Valor and place on Cleo's tail bone (butt), behind her ears and her shoulder.  I massage these in for a few minutes, then just go about your every day activities.  We have not started the Copaiba has Dr. A was currently out of it and we should receive it in the mail next week.  We will add this oil to the same spots that we placed the Valor on. This will enhance the process of the Valor.  Cleo will also get Copaiba by mouth twice a day working up to 5 times a day. 

We also will be giving her Clycoflex III Canine for her joints and Duralactin Canine to help with some of her tummy issues. 

She also told me that giving these items to Winston and Amiee will not cause any problems, but enhance their health as well.  What I have found pretty amazing about this Valor oil is that, since I have been applying to Cleo I have noticed improvements with my own hand.  I have arthritis in it and the swelling has gone down and it feels 75% better.

Here is Cleo leaving after her adjustment last night

Cleo last night after she came home and had supper.  She was actually rolling around and being silly.  Something she hasn't done for a month.

We want to thank everyone for their well wishes, the power of the paw and good drooling vibes.  I strongly believe they helped us get through this last month of unknowns.  But the unknowns have been answered and Cleo is well on her way to a new lease on life. 

I have learned through this experience that I am going to leave reading the X-rays to the professionals, stop reading the Internet for information and always trust your heart and your blogging buddies to go get a second opinion.

This morning Cleo was the first one up out of bed, tail waggin and trotting out to the kitchen for breakfast.  When I went home at lunch today, Cleo greeted me at the door with a happy bark and prance around the living room.  PRAISE GOD MY GIRL IS BACK.

Sniffs,

Cleo and HoundDogMom

Wordless Wednesday - 8/3/2011

Wordless Wednesday

Cleo

Note from HDM:  Today at 2:00pm Cleo will be seen by Dr. A to hopefully determine if she has Wobbler's Syndrome or a herniated disc.  We hope to get relieve for Cleo today either by Acupuncture or Chiropractor adjustments.  She has showed some slow improvement over the last week so we can only Hope and Pray for Good Things today.

Cleo Update - Acupuncture Here I Come

First of Mom would like to thank everyone for all their great words of encouragement and advice.  She absolutely says that blogville rocks and she is so thankful that she has a blog to receive this great advice from great friends, human and furends.  I thought I would give you all an update on how I am doing after my follow-up appointment and where we are at with moving forward.

I continue to take it day by day, I have good days and bad days.  All last week I was doing really good, my tummy is feeling much better and I just cannot get enough to eat.  The W/D food I am on and the small quantity they are allowing me to have is just not cutting it.  So on Friday I decided to take things into my own account and see if I could scarf up some foodables around here.  All I can say is "THANK YOU, DAD" for staying home Friday and leaving that Fridge open just a little bit to allow my paw to fit in to that opening very nicely.  Mom came home to be guarding the kitchen very intently on Friday afternoon.  All, I can say is that 6 sausages and 1/2 pound of Deli ham filled my tummy up very well.  BOL.....(Note from HDM:  Actually Cleo was guarding the kitchen and her plastic wrappings, Amiee was in the bedroom with the empty container from the ham, and poor poor Winston is sitting in the living room with the saddest eyes that he had failed at having any of these yummy treats.)

Of course, Mom, had a full blown panic attack about my treats I had.  With all my tummy issues, she said the only thing that came to mind was "BLOAT", and my tummy was quite large and bulging out the side when I would lay down.  She immediately called Dr. T so they could talk and find out if he needed to see me, again.  He told Mom to not give me my normal feedings for supper, only like 20 pieces of Kibble for supper and nothing else.  He said that I was already on anti-acid meds so that would help and the small amount of kibble should begin to move things out of my system.  Needless to say Mom did not sleep much Friday night and all I could do was drink like 29 gallons of water and pant like crazy.  She told me that the sausages were really not fit for a human to consume let alone a fur-kid.  BOL  Then of course, before she hung from Dr. T he proceeded to tell her --- Well this is not really what we wanted Cleo to do at this stage of her treatment, but I am just really glad to see that she is feeling that well to RAID THE FRIDGE.  All, Mom could do was Agree, WTF.......I woke up on Saturday feeling fine and ready for my breakfast, also I visited the backyard several times throughout the day to expel said sausages and ham.  BOL....

Okay, back to my follow-up visit Monday (June 25th).  Dr. T stuck me again in my shaved leg to draw more blood so he could check my counts for my tummy.  He said that after the blood work was processed all my counts were back to normal and I was healing nicely for my tummy, but I have to stay on W/D food for 6-8 weeks just to make sure everything is balancing out okay.  We then moved to the more important part of the follow-up visit, my spine, back, vertebrae out of alignment.  Dr. T was not very impressed with what he was seeing in this exam.  It appears that my response time to bring my feet back to being firmly planted on the ground, is still very slow, extremely slow and he felt that we have not made any improvement at all.  It basically has stayed the same for a week, it appears we are just maintaining the swelling in her spinal column but not see the improvements we would like.  He feels like with humans and back trouble that it just takes time and lots of rest, normally 6-8 weeks.  But he is very supportive of Mom taking me for another opinion and proceeding with looking into acupuncture and chiropractor treatments for me.  We talked about the Chinese Herbs that this lady also will recommend, but he really wants her to stay on her anti-inflammatory meds while she goes through this treatment with Dr. A.  He said if she wants to use herbs to please let him know so that they can work together.  He said you don't always want to continue with pills if you are applying other things.

Mom informed him that she really just wants a second opinion confirm that I have Wobblers' Syndrome and it is not something different.  She also really wants to focus on acupuncture and chiropractor care for me and maybe skip the Chinese herbs and stuff.  She worries about having 3 different things happening to my body and not really knowing which one is helping my situation out.  Well Mom has told me that she called Dr. A and we have an appointment set up for next Wednesday, August 2nd at 2:00pm.  She would have like to got me in sooner but since Dr. A is the only near this area that does this treatment she gets booked pretty quickly.  She asked Mom to get ALL my medical records, lab reports, and doctor notes faxed to her this week so she can review them.  She also asked that we get our X-Rays as well sent to her.  Dr. T is being very accommodating for us at this stage of the game and he is working on faxing, mailing all my medical records to Dr. A.  I can't tell you how excited I am about getting to move forward with this phase of my treatment.  I have heard nothing but great things from everyone in blogville about how this treatment is going to help me regain my strength, so I can hopefully chase that squirrel or capture that snake in the backyard. 

My Mom got some great information from the SlimmerPugs and their Momma.  She forwarded us an article that was in Dog Fancy about Gold Bead Implants that are a form of permanent acupuncture that is implanted under the skin.  We talked to Dr. T about this and he said they they have used these for years, as GOLD is the most successful with treating this type of stuff.  He said, that Copper and other things are used but GOLD is the ultimate source to use if you can afford it.  Mom told him that she was just going to wrap me in a GOLD sweater and that should solve everything.  BOL....We are going to take this article with us next Wednesday when we see Dr. A and get her feelings on it as well.  It maybe something we may have to pursue in the future for me.

So for the time being, Dr. A has said that I must be kept quite and not allowed to jump on furniture or take stairs.  She feels that I should be okay tell next Wednesday since I am moving around on all fours really well.  She told Mom that if she seems me getting worse over the next few days and if I having trouble with my lameness more I should call her immediately and she will figure a way to work us in.  Mom told her she is willing to come at anytime of the day or evening, she will leave work in a heartbeat to get met there.

Thanks again for all the great thoughts and advice for Mom, she says I have given her a pretty good scare and this is not something she has faced before in any of her other bassets.

Sniffs,
Cleo

Cleo Update - HDM Needs Some Advice

Boy it sure is hot in Bloomington, IL this week and from what it looks like it isn’t going to let up anytime soon. The hounds basically just go outside to do their business and then back inside with the air and fans. Winston will on occasion go out and lie in the hot sun for about 10 minutes then come inside, silly boy.

We haven’t been doing too much with Cleo being under the weather and it being so hot. Cleo just doesn’t seem to have much energy to do much of anything. Going outside to do her business pretty much takes all her energy and she comes in the back door and lies on the cool kitchen floor. She just doesn’t look comfortable when she lies down, and you can see her start to think when she has to get up and move. She can’t jump into her favorite chair, so I help her. She can work her way on to her ottoman that she likes to sleep on. She doesn’t appear to have any more tummy issues right know. She is eating special dry and soft food that is really bland and easy on her tummy. She doesn’t mind this food and eats it all gone at every meal along with her meds.

Here she is sneaking some of the food Winston left in his bowl the other night. Her back legs appear to work really good when she wants them to.  This was prior to her meals being increased.  She was looking for food...give me Food...

But her other issues with her back have really got me worried and I am just not sure what to do. The vet says she is not in pain, but I can tell she obviously has some soreness/tenderness when she attempts to lie down or get up. I guess this is from the pressure on the nerves from the vertebrae out of alignment and the swelling.

The support that we have received from our blogville friends has been amazing and gives me great comfort while we try to figure out a course of action for our girl, Cleo. So I am going to reach out to each and every one of you for some guidance on how I should proceed.

For starts, I absolutely love my vet (Dr. T.). He has been my vet for almost 25 years and has helped me through so much when it comes to my fur-kids. I believe he has my fur-kids best interest at heart and believes in his heart he is doing everything for her best interest. But this time, I am just not sure if he understands exactly what is wrong with Cleo. I have talked to a lot of basset hound owners and the basset rescue and everyone is pretty surprised that Cleo was diagnosed with Wobbler’s Syndrome. She also has very low red blood count and low platelets with no known explanation. I really want to take her to the Vet in Chenoa that does acupuncture/chiropractor adjustments on animals. He just doesn’t seem to think that going up to her right know would be a good idea, because of her swelling. He doesn’t seem to think that she will be able to do much because of the paralysis (slow response from limbs) she has right now. He had mentioned to me that he knows her and that he would call her and forward Cleo’s x-rays to her, just not this week.

• Well, just how many weeks do I just wait for him to decide to call and send the x-rays?
• Should I just call her myself and explain it to her and set up my own appointment?
• Should I talk to him again about making the call, or do it behind his back?

I am very aware of how Chiropractor care works in humans and my friend had great success with the lady with her dog. I would like to believe that if she doesn’t feel the time is right to adjust Cleo then she would tell me. But, it just seems like there should be something more I can be doing to get her the relief she needs. I am afraid the longer the nerves are pinched and compressed the more damage will be done to them. Has anyone every had their fur-kid treated with this type of treatment?  Have you been in the situation where you might question the care your current vet is giving your fur-kid?

I realize that this type of injury can take some time to heal especially when it involves nerve damage.  I just don't know what to do and I just want my girl Cleo to get to feeling better again real soon.

Your thoughts on how you would proceed?

HoundDogMom and Cleo