Dogs

Penny's MRI did not reveal what we were expecting. She has some kind of infection around the vertebrae near the bottom of her rib cage and not a herniated disc as we were expecting. 

The vet had to do more diagnostic tests to try to figure out what kind of infection, and I have to bring her back in tomorrow for several more they couldn't run today because she's such a small dog and already had a lot of blood drawn.

Poor thing. She's sad and wobbly from the anesthesia and has been shaved in several places.

It doesn't sound like the infection is going to be easier to treat than IVDD would have been and if they can't figure out exactly what to give her by figuring out what kind of infection, then giving her ineffective antibiotics may make things worse.

I'm upset but we're doing everything we can for her. 

She's too young for this kind of thing and we always thought she'd be the most healthy and long lived of our dogs. It's so disconcerting in many ways.

Penny update:

Took her back to the vet today for blood cultures and some other tests and got to meet the neurologist in person finally.

She said that they will not get results from these things till early next week. We are starting her on some general antibiotics and she got a big patch of pain killer on her back (poor dog has so many places shaved now!).

The doctor said there is no way to know where the infection came from or how long she has had one or why it ended up in that part of her body. She said it could have been something she caught as a puppy even, and just localized there after all these years. We have never had to take  her to the vet for being sick before this, and she is about 6 years old.

So we will start her new course of medicines in a couple of hours and hopefully things will get better. She is already no longer a ball of hard muscles, so that is progress!

Unfortunately one of her new meds is a bad tasting liquid so that is our next hurdle. Just happy she is not in constant pain!

GenX girl who learned the hard way 🔹 lifelong artist 🔹 software engineer 🔹 curator of conversations 🔹 made /blend-o-rama 🔹 thinks you're cool

Awww…best wishes to you and your little puppo Penny!