Saturday, July 17, 2021
Beautiful day today. Athen joined me in the backyard. Do you see her in the above picture? (She's in the bottom left corner.)
Humidity is low today but it's supposed to increase quite a bit tomorrow. I thought today would be a better bet for a cigar.
Friday, July 16, 2021
Athena is still doing great. I couldn't be more pleased. This has been a more difficult summer for me than usual due to coming off the pandemic. It seems as if I have butterflies in my stomach almost constantly. I have a hard time relaxing and focusing and get exhausted easily. Leaving the house to go to even the grocery store has become what seems like a monumental event. Athena is such a comfort to me which is why seeing her falter recently was so difficult.
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Athena will often eat grass or leaves when she's having tummy trouble. On occasion she will eat them when she isn't having tummy trouble. She's feeling so much better but she's continuing to eat roughage although I think she's still just instinctively trying to take care of herself.
It's great to see her feeling better. She's eating heartily and displays more energy on her walks. So happy she's pulled through.
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Woke up this morning to no accidents! Yesterday Athena had a solid poop in the morning and two solid ones in the afternoon.
Also, yesterday I began mixing dietary care dry food with the wet and she's eating it very eagerly.
She had a mostly solid poop around 10:00 a.m.
Around noon I called the vet to let them know of Athena's continued improvement and that my main concern, the diarrhea had cleared up. I mentioned I was thinking about cancelling the appointment but was open to keeping it if they thought there was a something for which to check. They left it up to me and I decided to cancel and keep up with the anti-biotic and continued monitoring.
She ate a cup and a half of her dry dietary care food with no wet for dinner. She had another solid poop at about 6:30. She truly seems to be on the mend.
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
There was no diarrhea in the house when I got up today AND she had a solid poop this morning (first one in over a week)!! Dale and I couldn't be more pleased.
When I talked to Dale this morning I mentioned that for the past four days or so Athena's been positioning her body as you see in the top photo of this post. Her head is placed between her front legs and both of her back legs are extended in the same direction to her right. Usually when she lies down she is fully on one side and extends all her legs in the same direction. Positioning her body the way shown on the top photo is causing her to cock her body to one side when she walks. This concerned me at first as losing the power in her legs will cause her to have difficulty in executing her daily functions. Dale thinks she's doing this to possibly protect her stomach. Hopefully this is temporary. I'll bring it up to the vet for her appointment on Wednesday.
Moments after I brought this up to Dale Athena briefly shifted her position to being completely on her side as seen above.
Monday, July 12, 2021
Tough morning dealing with worry regarding Athena. Yesterday I was feeling much more optimistic about the possibility of Athena's diarrhea getting better however it turned out to be a much messier morning than the last couple days. Since the diarrhea began over a week ago she wakes up very lethargic and groggy. She comes out of it gradually but it's hard to see her in a diminished state. Each day I wonder if this will be the day she doesn't perk up.
I knew I needed to call the vet and push for an appointment since the bland dietary care food and probiotics aren't clearing up the diarrhea. I started to worry that the vet won't be able to do anything about it and despaired about the possibility of her dying. Dale called me and talked me down and offered to call the vet and push for an appointment. I took him up on that.
The vet called me back and gave Athena 4:30 p.m. appointment on Wednesday and also some kind of super antibiotic to hopefully get the diarrhea under control by then.
I love her so much.
She ended up having a very good day. The diarrhea is not cleared up but she continues to have a very hearty appetite, is drinking, peeing, and loves to walk.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Athena ate another half can of food around 1:00 p.m. This is the most she's eaten in a day since the day she wouldn't eat.
Above are the pro-biotic pills she's getting. She's supposed to have one per day but since they gave me pills for a dog <20 pounds I gave her two yesterday instead of one and will probably give her two today.
Above is the pro-biotic paste. You can set the dial for the amount in milliliters to give. For a dog less than 20 pounds the instructions on the box recommend 2 - 3 milliliters but the vets directions said to up it to 5. Not sure why they didn't up it for the pills.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Athena ate a little more than half a can of food this morning. In the above photo she's just received her morning meds and probiotics and I've asked her if she'd like to sit outside for a bit.
She did!
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Woke up this morning and found that Athena had leaked a little bit on her bed but didn't go anywhere on the floor. Took me a couple days to think to put an old sheet on Athena's bed to help absorb some of her very watery diarrhea. She had a little diarrhea on her first morning walk. She eagerly ate again this morning which is always encouraging to see. Considering Athena still has diarrhea I think she did as well as she could today.
Friday, July 9, 2021
Here are a couple videos I sent to Dale of Athena eating today. Still shots from the videos are shown in the previous post. She's interested in her dietary care wet food but not at all in the dry. I haven't tried to reintroduce her to the bland diet mixture of rice and hamburger that I made for her since she's so eager to eat the canned wet food.
Friday, July 9, 2021
Athena ate some of the wet food this morning! I was so excited and sent the above picture to Dale along with a text:
It turns out she was able to eat a little more and keep it down.
Thursday, July 8, 2021
I talked to the vet earlier today about Athena's digestive issues. They've given me some wet and dry digestive care dog food and also so probiotic pills and paste. I gave her some of the probiotics. I tried feeding her some of the special dry food but she's not interested in eating although she ate a tiny bit.
Thursday, July 8, 2021
Woke up yesterday morning to no accidents on the floor. Continued with the bland mixture and she readily ate. She pooped outside yesterday but they were a little more liquidy than I'd like to see at this point but at least they were starting to solidify.
Woke up this morning and was dismayed to find that she had gone a few times on the floor and is back to diarrhea. Today she seems diminished and only ate a small portion of her food. I'll call the vet again in a little bit.
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
Athena's just had one poop today and it was only semi-solid. I decided to call the vet just to be on the safe side. Texted Dale after the call to let him know what was going on.
She ate the mixture of two parts rice to one part ground turkey and seemed to enjoy it. I took her out on two more walks before heading to bed. She didn't poop again so I was a little worried about her making it through the night without her going in the house.
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
Athena has had some nasty tummy trouble the last few days. Every morning since Sunday I've woken up to her having pooped in the house. Sunday morning I found she went in three different spots. Two were solid but one was runny. The rest of the day I was mostly able to get her out except for once. It turned to full diarrhea. Over the course of yesterday her poops have started to solidify a bit. I'm hoping for more improvement today but if I don't see it I'll call the vet.
Thursday, July 1, 2021
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Picked up Athena from the kennel today. She had some spring in her step when she saw me but seemed to be in something of a fog the rest of the day. I took these pictures of her shortly after we got home and to me she looks a little haggard. I don’t think she sleeps particularly well when she’s kenneled but I think it’s just harder for her overall to be out of her routine now that she’s older.
