Sunday, July 23, 2023

And Now We Wait

 Happy Sunday everyone,

There was no pancake Sunday today (although I did have some bites of hash browns) because the humans are on battle stations, all eyes on me, seizure count down.

In case you haven't read my other posts (shame... shame), it is the medical opinion of my humans and my neurosurgeon that heartworm medication triggers my seizures. That's why I'm on a seizure preventative medication (the Lee pill, or as the humans now call it: pew pew... my humans are ridiculous and actually sing a pew pew song when they gather up the pills and treats before pilling me... this is unnecessary because I'll literally do anything for a treat).

I digress... 

I'll be taking anti-seizure meds until it's cold enough to kill the vile mosquitos, at which time I'll be tapered off the pew pews, and won't take heartworm preventative until mosquito season again, at which point, back on the seizure meds. This is also why the humans are looking at relocating to Antarctica. 

I digress again.

Yesterday I had my heartworm pills. Since I am a svelte 64 pounds, I was prescribed a dose for dogs 50 to 100 lbs. In order to limit the amount of neurotoxins I'm receiving, we consulted with the makers of Heartgard, and my vet and changed my dose to 1 pill for up to 25lbs, and 1 pill for up to 50lbs, which means I'm getting A LOT LESS neurotoxins, but still covered on the heartworm front.

I know this is very complicated and requires maths, but the humans are doing everything possible to keep me from having another seizure and are totally freaked out about whether it will happen this time... which means that immediately after I took all of my pills... I got my head stuck in the deck railing, ate an unauthorized bug, fell up the stairs, got a tug rope string caught in my front teeth, and ran into a wall.

They claim I do all of this just for the attention and to drive them to early graves. Some of that may be true.

In the meantime, I assure you that I am as devious, playful, and annoying as ever, especially because I know they are worried and will give me just about anything I ask... go in, go out, go in, go out, play with me, I don't want to play, why did you leave I want to play, please allow me to put my full weight on your broken big toe, excuse me Bleeder, you aren't wearing band-aids, let me take care of that for you.

They took away my tug ropes (due to the tug string in tooth incident) but now I have no way to vent my frustrations and rip their arms out of their sockets. This means I have to destroy my hedgehog named Jeremy.

Fishy went to the great fish farm in the sky

Wally Gator still lives, Mr. Buttons the bear only has stuffing in his head, but I want to tug and pull on things. 

Gator goes better with paper packing

Unfortunately my Amazon order of new things to tug that don't require ropes won't arrive until tomorrow, so Bleeder pulled down the secondary goat for me to attack.


I've already dislodged a hoof so it's a matter of time before it goes to the farm.

Once I get my new tug toys I'll be sure to rate them all for you, and let you know how long they last. I'm not optimistic about liking them because there's nothing quite like the taste and feel of rope... or stuffed squeaker toy guts.

I'll let you know about the whole seizure crap. Typically 3-7 days after... I'm going to see if I can guilt the humans into getting me a pony.


-Casey-


Sunday, July 16, 2023

I'm Worn Out

So, my pills make me sleepy, which is fine. On average a dog will sleep about 23 hours a day without medication and it is quite possible that the number I've stated is lower.


Now that I'm on a 3-times a day schedule, I have to wait a full 8 hours between meals. This is barbarous. How can something be expected to thrive when they have to wait that long between meals?

I'm not allowed snacks in the morning because I receive my 1pm pills in tiny sandwiches. Morning and night they are jammed down my throat, but the 1pm is a delicious little picnic of various tiny sandwiches, and then I get my lunch. Something about Toast needing me to be very hungry so I don't chew my pills. It works. I'll gulp those tiny sandwiches down to get to the next tiny sandwich, and then to my lunch because I'm wasting away.

Needless to say, I've been a big fan of my kibble (with just a touch of boiled chicken, a warm water broth and a tiny sprinkly of cheese on top) since this new routine. Bleeder devised a spreadsheet to determine the amount of calories I'm allowed including treats, which isn't nearly the amount of treats I'm used to, but I'm usually pretty full from the soup to care.


Just before my night pills, I get a snack of crunchy plain kibble

This is a good batch of kibbles with a decent shreds ratio

Anywhoooo, since I sleep a lot, Toast and Bleeder have devised new ways to exercise me. Normally they would take me outside and I would play "goalie" by blocking the soccer ball and flinging it back at them, with the occasional skitter jump at them. I like to Parkour off of humans. But currently it is about 350 degrees with 200% humidity, perfect weather to roast a small turkey with stuffing. I'm not going out in that, unless I have to pee and poo, then I'll go out, do that, run back inside.

So, inside games consist of tug of rope and rip an arm off a human. I'm very serious about this game and I will rip an arm off eventually, I am sure of it.

The other game is toss the stuffed toy. I have quite an array of stuffed toys:

I play with Mr. Buttons the bear (who also makes a wonderful pillow... until I ripped all of the stuffing out of him except for his head.


They got me a giant octopus, who lasted about 3 days and then I lobotomized it.


Then I destroyed and gutted a fainting goat.


Then I eviscerated the aligator

Pay no attention to Bleeder's hideous "house" shoes

So far, only blue gator, hedgehog and fishy have survived the crucible.

Hedgie is fun to gnaw on


So, the lessons learned in this are:
  • Don't waste your money on the "tough" toys. The overly stuffed, overly sewn on edges are just invitations to chew, rip, and tear out the fluff.
  • The GoDog brand of soft squeaker toys last the longest. I'm not saying forever, I'm just saying there's nothing like blowing 20 bucks on an "indestructible" toy only to have it last 5 minutes.
  • Always supervise with these stuffed things. Even though I no longer eat the fluff, your pup might and that is NOT a good thing.
  • Buy a slightly bigger toy, never a smaller toy. You don't want a choke hazard. I used to take the unstuffed toys and try to cram them into my mouth so Bleeder couldn't take them away from me... I know, I know I shouldn't do that, but I know they go in the trash, I'm just trying to save them.
So, there you have it, now go tell your humans to buy you decent squeaker toys and stop believing the "tough and indestructible" promises. They aren't, you will, and the only difference is the amount of time, so get the GoDog toys and you can get a few weeks of good fun before you break into a violent rage and shred it... as it always happens.

-Casey-

Sunday, July 09, 2023

Just Checking In

 Pretty uneventful week so far.

I'm still getting used to not having a fun tree to chase squirrels up. 

Initially they came into the yard, but then got very confused about where the tree went and how to get over the fence to the safety of the neighbor's shed roof.

I almost felt bad for them, because they wandered around aimlessly, seemingly forgetting that the world's best squirrel stalker was sneaky sneaking up to them. I could see their little pea sized brains melting trying to figure things out.

I didn't feel it very sporting to take advantage of their confusion, I mean where's the fun in that? I gave them every advantage, including running up to one carrying a giant stick and it just stood there in vapor lock for a bit until Bleeder got concerned and chased it into the other tree.


Since then, they don't like coming into the yard. I can tell their spirit is broken. They don't sit there taunting me any more. The moment the deck door opens, they scatter and head for the other yards. 

In the meantime I'm having fun not only digging in the wood chip pile (that is slowly disappearing while the holes I've carefully crafted are become full of... wood chips), and also climbing on Mount Blue Tarp.

This weekend Bleeder and Toast spent most of Saturday shoveling and transporting a LOT of tasty and sniffy dirt. As Bleeder put it "Five tons of F'ing topsoil". They then put it on a blue tarp, and then covered it with another blue tarp and created a fun new adventure for me: Mount Blue Tarp. Apparently top soil sits on top of the soil on a tarp. I really don't get the humans.

They've also blocked off a corner part of the yard. That part was perfectly fine because it was full of weeds and soft dirt for me to dig into, but they felt that it needed to be raised and have grass growing on it. I'll never figure humans out. So the Top Soil goes on top of that dirt, then they throw some grass seeds and straw on it and erect a barrier. 

Here's the thing about huskies... we only want to go where we aren't allowed to go, therefore I REALLY want to get into that barrier. They had some cheese plastic fencing and that was EASY PEASY to break into. They've since erected a more sturdy barrier around it and I'm doing my best to break in. (side note, I went out while crafting this missive and breached the barrier... Toast was not happy).

Oh, the pill thing... yeah, that's going well because I'm richly rewarded for each pill I take. They have swapped to a 3 times a day pill because I don't know why, but they try to hide the pills in tasty foodables and I'm a chewer. I'll chew water. They've taught me to chew things because they didn't like how I gulped stuff, so this is what they've taught me, deal with it humans. 

This also means that we have to stay up later at night, and so far I'm fine with that because i just take a late nap before bed time... the humans... well, they were a bit bleary eyed this morning due to the FIVE TONS OF DIRT event and then going to bed later, then getting up at the crack of not even dawn yet.


I feel their bleary eyes will miss tasty things laying about which is a win-win for me.

Meanwhile, I ate the brains out of my new gigantic octopus toy and it went to a farm in Northern Pennsylvania, also known as the trash can.


So, yeah, a normal week.


-Casey-



Monday, July 03, 2023

Lee Pill Day 2

 So, the humans were given a bunch of pills that size of a small comet that they had to make sure that I got every 12 hours.  The catch is: they are extended release capsules, and I can't chew them or else they'll release too much stuff for my system to handle.

No pressure there at all. Giving a Siberian Husky two pills and not expecting them to chew. AHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA! It's like asking Bleeder to match her work clothes. IMPOSSIBLE.

Toast holds me on the kitchen floor, Bleeder pills. Day one, they got the first one down, but I quickly figured what was going on and managed to flick my tongue on number two and chew. They roughly removed the piece from my mouth... tried again, same thing. 

She finally got a second pill in, but by that time they were a nervous wreck.

I didn't take into account that Bleeder used to do this kind of stuff in her wayback life. For the nightly pill I was unceremoniously plopped on the EXTREMELY slippery new coffee table (they got rid of my favorite chew toy and replaced it with one that had a top that lifts up to make a handy shelf to eat on... and amazingly enough is right at my head level when I sit between them for meals for long tongue stealing of french fries.)

Toast still holds me (more so to keep me from sliding off the table) and Bleeder proceeds to stick her entire arm into my throat.


 At least that's what it feels like. Not once, but TWICE!

Sure I get a lot of tasty "good girl" treats at the beginning, middle, and end, but I'm not crazy about this new "routine". She could also wash her hands before that because I have no idea what she's been into.

Usually I'm a bit frisky after that, being violated and all, so I take out my frustrations on Mr. Buttons Bear... who sadly is now half unstuffed, as he spontaneously exploded.


Then I usually nap a bit, which freaks out Toast because "what kind of life is that..."

Well, yesterday or so, after my nap, I came outside where Toast was putting together some kind of gigantic lawn wheel that you add water and squish dirt with. It looks like great fun, and I decided he needed help assembling it, so when he put the piece of tasty, tasty cardboard down that held all of the tiny washers, screws, and round thingies behind a protective plastic film, I felt that was his way of saying that I would remove all of those things from the plastic by running around the yard with it.


From his reaction, I think I misinterpreted his instructions, but I was also helpful gathering up everything, but he didn't seem very pleased with that either and kept telling me to spit them out as I ran around the yard and then into the house for my afternoon nap. All parts were accounted for, and I found a very comfortable position to doze.


Sunday, July 02, 2023

May Cause Sedation

"What are the side effects of the Lee Pill" Bleeder and Toast asked the Neurologist.

Sedation was the answer.

Friday morning, after my first dose of the Lee Pill, I was very sleepy. VERY sleepy. Extremely sleepy. I was sleepy all day, and kind of wonky. 


Before all of this, they joked about my lack of coordination and lack of spacial awareness and propensity to run head first into walls, trip over my own feet, and fall up the stairs. They nicknamed me Grace, well one of my nicknames. I go by boop, Griselda Gunderson, Gladys Kravitz, OMG stop drinking my coffee, and GET OFF MY CHEST! Bleeder's favorite nickname for me is: OFFS I need another bandaid. But now I'm even WORSE?

Anyway, Toast was very concerned. What kind of life will she have if she's barely coherent, not frisky, stumbley, and not drinking our coffee? He was very upset.

He didn't have to worry, I had a VERY busy day on Thursday! I got to play outside in the morning with my favorite band-aid covered Caribou, then I did a lot of inside skittering once the clouds of smoke from Canada settled in.

Then we got all harnessed up, which is an Olympic sport around here, and my constant leaping at the door every time Bleeder touched the doorknob (she refuses to open it until I'm sitting for more than .3 seconds), then a quick walk outside (and poop) in the front yard, down the street and back while Toast prepared my ride. Then a car drive, where I appreciated the Orvis new foot pillow that gives me extra backseat sprawl space and allows me to shove my nose in the A/C vent, and snazzy Orvis back seat cover, which captures my fluffs instead of allowing them to float around like some insane snow globe. Size Large for Tesla Model X backseat, and nope, I don't get a single thing from Orvis, but I'd appreciate some of their large stuffie dog toys, just sayin.

Anyway, once we got to the hospital place, there were sniffs to be had, and peeing to be done, and walking all over because we were early, and then going into the place and it's got all the sniffs, and then there were other pups there and I wanted to meet all of them, but Bleeder said no because they were injured puppers and didn't want to be bothered, and there were people sitting without puppers so I tried to drag Bleeder to them, but she said no, they were busy being worried about their own puppers and didn't need a hot, fluff spewing nose rocket attacking them.

I was told to sit on the floor, which turned out to be a scale (devious... very devious) and then we waited. I got some bottled water from a bowl and tried to drag Bleeder all over to sniff things and go into room, and greet new people and help with the filing.

Then I got to meet some nice technicians and get scritches, and then I got to meet the doctor and got scritches and then tortured and manipulated and that wasn't fun, then after that we had to wait for the paperwork and a prescription to fill and then back outside for more walking and sniffing, and then the car ride home and holy hannah I was EXHAUSTED from all that, so yes, I took a bit of a vacation on Friday and it wasn't all the medicine. Can't a pup nap all day and recuperate?

I was even too tired to Gladys Kravitz out the window for long periods of time and was so pathetic that Toast went and got his pillow for me to lay on.


The pillow came in handy when the tree stealers came, cut down my beloved oak tree. That oak tree deposited the tastiest of dead branches ever.

I take ONE nap and this is what happens?


WAIT! I took another nap and it imploded?

For those of you wondering, the devious humans told the stump grinder guy to not go near the fence line and leave part of the tree near the fence in place so that I couldn't dig. They didn't want a big hole near the fence.

Devious.

So, that was day 1 of my Lee Pill. Tune in tomorrow for day 2


Saturday, July 01, 2023

Take A Seat, This Is a Long One

 Well hello everyone!


In March, a few days after I took my Heartworm pill, I had a seizure.

It was very scary for Toast, who was home alone with me, and he thought I was choking on something and dying because I tried to throw up, fell over and started convulsing.

Bleeder drove home from work as quickly as possible and came into the door and I'm all waggy tailed and excited because Bleeder was excited and I figured I needed to be excited too because one moment I'm at the back of the hallway, and the next moment I'm in the living room and I thought I had mastered the power of space age beaming technology.

Once Bleeder watched the video, she realized that I had a seizure, so then I got to go to the vet, which is a fun car ride, and have blood drawn, which isn't a fun car ride, and then sit and get scritches while Toast and Bleeder talked to the vet in somber tones and watched the video, which isn't pretty.

All manner of things were discussed and they were told to keep a log (it's bad enough that there's video cameras all over, but now they write down my every bowel movement and sneeze). They mentioned epilepsy, and how I may have that, and how they won't give any pills to control that until I start having 3 seizures within a month, and blah blah blah.

So, for the next month my every move and burp was written down and I just went about my business like normal.

Then I got my heartworm pill in April, and shortly after that my annual vaccines and a few days later while Toast and Bleeder were both home... yep, another seizure. Back to the vet, where they discussed the possibility that it was the heartworm pills, but the vet said "oh no, can't be" and they said "um, pretty sure, seems a bit coincidental here", and the vet said "impossible, nah", and they said "alrighty then" and we went home.

We went back later to get some blood for a very extensive Royal Canin DNA test. It tests for all sorts of things, but mainly whether I have a funky MDR1 gene that collies and other breeds have that make them sick when they use Ivermectin (the main Heartworm pill ingredient).

More notes, more watching me.

In May they said screw it, no heartworm pill. In June they said screw it, no heartworm pill... and no seizures.

Now, this is a risky gambit, because Merryland has mosquitos and those mosquitos have the stupid little buggers that infect us with heartworms, but it seemed to be a definitive demonstration that... it was the heartworm pill. So they did their research and found that ALL heartworm pills are generally the same thing, but ALL heartworm medication now comes with various and sundry other parasite stuff that I probably don't need, but NONE of the heartworm medication is JUST heartworm medication, which is BS. Additionally, EVERY single ingredient in those heartworm pills comes with a seizure warning.

My DNA results came back and I'm purebred Siberian Husky going back a ways. I don't have the funky MDR1 thing, and the vet was also surprised to find that even some of the more obscure common dogs things... I don't have, I'm perfect. I could have told him that without needed to give blood.

They opted to switch to Heartgard Plus. They wanted just plain Heartgard, but they don't make that any more, and you can make whatever assumptions you want about companies that shove unnecessary crap into medications, as Bleeder and Toast have already used every four letter word there is about the subject.

Five days after getting the new stuff... you guessed it. At 4:30 in the morning.

The vet sent us to a neurologist, which we went to on Thursday. Nice guy except for shining things in my eye and clipping things to my skin to watch it crawl and move my legs and pinch my toes and then take my blood.

He feels that I probably have epilepsy, and my trigger is heartworm pills, since that's a neurotoxic designed to kill microfilaria, but not the dog... unless the dog gets too much of it, or like me, is sensitive to it.

To test this feeling, he put me on a drug called Leevetiracetam Extended Release. That's hard to say, so we'll just say Lee pills (or generic Keppra). I'll take these pills for a while until after I've taken my heartworm pill at the end of July to see if I have another seizure. If so, then choices will be made on how to proceed. If not, then in the winter, I'll stop taking heartworm pills and wean off of the Lee pills and see what happens then.

As Bleeder calls it, it's a crap sandwich wrapped in more crap, with a dollop of crap on the top and a side of crap.

So, if you've made it this far, I'm fine. I'm a gimpy now, and what more could you expect since every husky Bleeder and Toast have lived with were gimpies. I'm just coming up with new and exciting ways to drive them stark raving mad sooner.

So you all aren't totally bummed out, I'll post more of my adventures to show you that it's just a thing, it sucks, I'm lucky it isn't worse, and even if it does get worse, I'm in good hands. You should feel bad for Toast and Bleeder because they're losing their minds.

-Casey-