Bella's new plan

Thanks again for all the kind words and notes to our pretty girl. Bella is doing just fine after her ordeal on Thursday.

She discovered that an MRI does not in fact mean driving to the hospital, hanging around in the car for a bit and going home. And she decided pretty quickly when it came time to get out of the car that she did not like this MRI. She did not look us in the eye. She was not going here or there. She was not going anywhere.

That's right, in front of God and everybody, Bella did the pancake move and not only refused to get out of the car, she plastered her 60 pound body to floor making Jan have to try and lift Miss Dead-Weight out. And it only got better from there. Did I say better? Yeah, I lied.

Once we finally got her inside the facility (an effort unto itself), Bella tried everything in her power to get outside again including pleading with her obviously horribly insensitive owners to take her home again by climbing into our arms and up on our shoulders. (Individually, of course. Double your horror, double your guilt.)

Moving on...

Bella did, much to her surprise, survive the event. And she was ridiculously happy to learn we did, indeed, come back for her. She was so excited in fact that she tried to do zoomies in the car. This might have actually worked if we had a Hummer, but we don't. We have a Mini Cooper. :?

She was still pretty drugged up when we got home. We gave her a little food and she devoured a bully bone she had left unfinished somewhere (ew) but we tried to leave her be for the night - she just wasn't herself and we didn't want to do anything to upset her. She slept most of Friday but by Saturday was back to her old demanding self

"Why no, Occifer, I'm not stotally toned. Wa hever would you ax?"

As I posted on her Facebook page, the neurologists found nothing amiss in her MRI. They found nothing amiss in her EMG. They found nothing amiss in her exam because the damn dog won't let on where she's hurting in front of them. Everyone is baffled.

Some very good news did come out of the MRI and that is that all the really big scary stuff has been ruled out: cancer, degenerative disc disease, degenerative myelopathy... There doesn't even seem to be a single disc injury. But we do have a game plan.

1. Starting yesterday, Bella's off strict crate rest. She is still on some activity restriction (no stairs, no off-leash zoomies). I'm sure she'll be happy with whatever sniffing and exploring she's allowed. (I know Jan and I will be happy for her to have something to do besides eat and whine at us for more food.)
2. We are trying Bella on a course of Doxycycline to rule out any tick-borne diseases. It's a long shot but harmless to try. The thinking is that she hasn't presented straight-forward signs and symptoms for anything so why would we expect her to follow the rules for symptoms of Lyme disease? We should know in just a few days if it's helping and if it's not, we stop. No harm, no foul.
3. We also have an appointment with a new vet on Wednesday who does chiropractic care. The practice is integrative in their approach and other doctors offer different modalities from chiro and acupuncture to nutrition and massage so we're hopeful that someone among them can do something to ease her pain.
4.  Finally, our neurologist seems to have made Bella her own personal challenge and spoke to the head of Tufts "Pain Clinic" who wants to see Bella because she thinks she might be able to offer some techniques not available elsewhere. (I haven't set that appointment up yet. Bella can only handle one vet visit a week.)

So the long and short of it is, we may not know what's going on with our little crazy dog but we have a pretty good idea now of what's NOT going on. And there are a variety of options we can pursue to try and ease her pain.

That's our first order of business right now: pain management. We may return to diagnostics once she's out of pain but it's time to focus on making her more comfortable. Her response to treatment could even point us in the direction of what is really wrong.

Again, I'd really like to thank everyone for their kind words and support through all of this. You have been a blessing in our lives.

Peace,

Wordy Wednesday 130 - Bella here

Hello friends,

Bella here.

Mom says she's sorry she hasn't been posting recently muttering something about her crazy dog taking up all her time. Does she have another dog somewhere because I do not believe she'd call me crazy. Not to my face anyway. Would she?

Anyway, I told her if she wasn't going to update you on all things me, I would and so she let me take over the keyboard for a bit. But this is really hard without opposable thumbs so it'll be short.

I wanted to thank everyone who has been sending me all their positive vibes - I can really feel how much everyone is rooting for me to get better.

Mom and Dad took me to the Foster Small Animal Hospital today for something they called an "MRI" but all that happened was mom ran back and forth between the car and the building and when she came out one last time, we drove home. That was okay with me because I was starving since they had somehow forgotten to feed me my breakfast! Can you imagine?

I think I heard that we're going to go back there again tomorrow. If this "MRI" thing means I just get to drive in the car and hang out around the hospital for a little while and then get extra treats and cuddles, I think I'd be game to go for one every day.

My front legs have been feeling pretty sore though and mom won't let me do anything like run or jump or go downstairs or even get on the furniture. She keeps saying they're going to fix me up and I sure hope they do because I'm getting a little tired of the pain.

My tummy's been feeling good though. No diarrhea or puking in a few months so that's all good. And now I get this really spiffy food for dinner that mom cooks on the weekends for me. It tastes so good I even usually eat all my breakfast without a fuss now. And mom's happy about what comes out the other end, if you know what I mean. She keeps telling me I'm a good girl but I'm kind of only doing what comes natural, you know?

Mom's reminding me that I should tell you all I've been a real good and brave girl especially considering how they've been letting people I don't know poke and prod me. Says I've been "a real trooper" through all this. (I think that means she's glad I haven't bitten anyone lately. Yeah, well, don't push it lady, we all have our limits.)

So that's all the news that's fit to print about me today. If you happen to think of it tomorrow, give me a 'power of the paw' nod because I don't think "MRI" means sit outside the hospital and eat cookies. I could be wrong but I'm a little nervous about it.

Mom's been keeping all my friends on Facebook informed if you want to drop by there tomorrow night, she'll probably tell you how it went.

Thanks again for thinking of me. I may run away from you if we were ever to meet in person but I'm okay with meeting you all in cyberspace.

Your pal,
Bella

Wordless Wednesday 129 - Are you talking to me?

"A list of all good things"

So before Bella blew up a disc in her neck, we were chatting happily about the behavioral path we've been on with her since just after Christmas. I told you about how she had flipped out on me just before Christmas and our conversation with Dr. Dodman and his staff and what treatment option we chose to pursue with his team. Tonight, I'll finally get around to telling you how it's been going.

When we last spoke, Jan and I had chosen to add Gabapentin - a neurogenic pain medication with anti-convulsant properties - to Bella's treatment regime.

As a recap, Bella's still on Soloxine (for sub-clinical hypothyroidism) as well as Fluoxetine (anti-anxiety) but we've taken her off the Clonidine (our original wonder drug) and switched it for the Gabapentin. She still gets a tiny bit of Clonidine for especially noisy situations like snow-blowers, thunderstorms and snow falling from rooftops.

So how has it been going? Well, here's a list of things Jan and I have said to each other about Bella over the last couple of months:

• "She slept through New Years' Eve fireworks without so much as a blink."
• "She closes her eyes when I pet her."
• "She actually fell asleep when I was petting her!"
• "Wait, did she just come in to bed without the usual histrionics?"
• "She comes and gets in her own bed as soon as the lights are out."
• "She sniffed a fly! Come here, watch!"
• "She slept right through me stepping over her in the closet."
• "She slept through the morning squirrel crossing!"

Also of note:

• Her ears are up and happy.
• Her face is softer and eyes more relaxed.
• And she requests petting sessions.

I still don't really know what's going on: has she been suffering from nerve-pain and twitchy-tingling for oh these many years and has finally found relief? (I have reason to believe she has...) Or is she really experiencing a seizure-like episode? I'll go deeper into what we believe is going on in our next chapter.

Whatever it is, we'll figure it out. Because, if you haven't guessed already, we're in this for the long haul. Whatever it takes, whatever she needs. Bella is ours and we are her forever family.

We see the neurologist again on Thursday and hope to be making some decisions at that time about her neck problems. Thank you for all the kind words and helpful suggestions on how to entertain her in the meantime. We will keep you posted.

Black & White Sunday: Open to suggestions

So Bella is more than a little bored being on 'crate' rest for her second week. We've pulled out all the stops: stuffed Kongs, Nina Ottoson puzzles, photo sessions, even toenail trimming practice for treats but she's still bored.

How do you entertain your dogs when they're on crate rest? Got any ideas we haven't tried? Let us know in the comments.

Bella, and her exasperated mom, thank you.