I’ve sort of given up writing in here and tracking stuff. When things are going well, I’m not compelled to write. This fall Wolfy has been much better than he was during the summer – sleeping ok for him, lately walking really well, every once in a blue moon going for a pretty long walk, doing well on the treadmill.
He has become incontinent, though. He’s on the lightest Proin dose – anything higher makes him crazy! Last couple nights haven’t been so good. He’s been panicky and crying. Now during the day he’s a bit panicky as well! As usual, I have no idea what to do to comfort him. Last night I finally helped him outside onto the front porch and he seemed to calm down. It was 32 degrees – so it was quite cold! I got up several times and checked on him and he seemed okay out there as far as I could tell – didn’t look cold and wasn’t huffing and crying like he was inside. I brought him in after three hours and he came in and went to sleep.
Note to self: go back to putting him outside at night if he’s cry-ey and then bring him in after a couple hours.
Again, not sure why he’s so panicky – maybe it’s his tumor, maybe it’s his arthritis, maybe it’s the fact that he never craps!! We’ll never know…
I’ve been slack in keeping up with things here – mostly because Wolfy has actually been sleeping well relatively speaking – that is until last night. Up until last night I’d been getting some good shut eye. He would get up in the middle night regularly, but then he’d go back to sleep after I convinced him to move to the front bedroom. I’m thankful for the rest. Last night, however, was an all time low. He literally cried all night long and didn’t sleep at all and basically neither did I.
The evening before I started him on proin for his incontinence. Yes, oh, by the way, he’s incontinent now. I think he was a little incontinent before, but now he’s incontinent for real so I finally had to do something about it. I took in a urine sample yesterday and Dr. Ford said it was fine (no UTI going on & no kidney failure) – so we then started him on proin last night. Shortly after going to bed he vomitted up what looked like most of his supper. Then he proceed to cry and be very stressed and agitated all night long. Everytime I gave a treat he’d puke it up later, too. I gave him more proin around 3 in the morning and 2 Tramadol – thinking he might have puked up the pain meds and also knowing that it’s okay to give 3 doses of proin if needed. That didn’t improve the situation at all. Finally around 5 in the morning he started to settle down when I let him outside and we both slept on the front stoop – I brought my blanket, pillow, and bedroll out there to be w/ him. I hate the idea of him suffering alone!!
His agitated demeanor very likely could be as a result of the proin. Since he also threw up, however, he might have been having stomach issues. I also gave him an antacid at some point! He also, of course, is extremely uncomfortable from the constant dripping. It’s pretty much driving him crazy! Help!
I gave him more proin this morning, reluctantly, not being sure whether it caused the sleeplessness or not. No puking so far this morning, but he is somewhat agitated – surprising considering how exhausted he must be! Before I gave him the proin he was quiet and very tired, now he’s awake and licking his crotch. It took about 38 minutes for him to start being all agitated. I’m going to keep giving it a try, but it doesn’t seem to working well for him moodwise. I should have known Wolfy would be prone to this side effect since he’s already so stressed and panicky to begin with! I’m trying to reserve judgement, however.
PT wise, Wolfy continues to do well – though he hates it! He’s working on endurance now and walks for 6 minutes at a time before resting. Not sure if we’ll increase his length of the workout or not. I think he’s up to almost 15 minutes.
Poor Wolfman. I hope we’re able to fix the incontinence issue. I was hoping this would be a happy winter for him – but maybe that’s not gonna happen. It is better than summer though! Not sure what other options are available for dogs that don’t tolerate the Proin – I know they give hormones to girl dogs – not sure what they do for boys. If I have a repeat panicky night I’m calling Dr. Ford tomorrow. Maybe we’ll have to go the diaper route. Poor guy just seems very uncomfortable – plus he’s dripping pretty much everywhere!
Walk wise, he walked all the way down to Ed & Mary’s house the other day, but that was a statistical outlier. Most days he only walks a couple houses – maybe three – or maybe just across the street and then back again. That’s okay. Whatever he can do is okay with me.
Unrelated to Wolfy, I’m trying to figure out if there is anything I can do to help my neighbor’s dog who has been left behind. His chances are dismal if he goes to the shelter. The economic disaster is not being kind to dogs who are being unloaded by people who are struggling to pay their bills. Ugh.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Again, been getting lazy here in my recordkeeping. Wolfman had another injection last Thursday. The weather turned from Fall back to Summer over the weekend and as a result Wolfy took a turn for the worse comfort wise and cried a lot on Saturday night and Sunday morning and has been having even more trouble getting up and around. Poor guy… The crying and helping him around is really wearing on me and, of course, on him, too. 
He did an okay job on the treadmill today. I don’t think we made him go any longer than last time in deference to his bad weekend.
I’m hoping the weather gets cool again and he perks up. We’ll see. Getting old really sucks.
Wolfman has barely been walking at all lately. Farthest he’s gone is across the street to pee on the shrubs and then he’s right back home pretty much. Also, he’s been having a lot of trouble getting up. He can’t seem to get legs up underneath him at all. I’m been having to hoist him up a lot. I’m sure the hard floors don’t help. He really needs something more grippy – though these days he’s also having trouble even getting up from his bed where he has plenty of traction.
Sleep Sunday night was good though since it turned cool again at night. Will be on the lookout for improvements as I don’t think I can take him getting much worse!
Last time I tried to update the blog I couldn’t login for some reaosn. So, I’m a little behind.
SLEEP: Up until last night, sleep was w/in the acceptable range – still multiple disturbances, but tolerable. A couple really good nights were in there, too! Last night Wolfy seemed calm and fine during the day, but the moment the lights went out he starting huffing and puffing and it lasted almost all night. Finally, I put him outside and then he stayed up the rest of the morning. I went in to go to sleep, but I could hear him bark at every dog walker that went by! Ugh. I asked Kevin about giving him Xanax as needed. He said starting him out on 1/2 tab would be a good way to start. He didn’t think it was a good idea to cut back on his Tramadol to avoid overdosing him. I’m thinking I gave him a Xanax before as there is a 1/2 pill missing from the bottle, but I can’t remember whether it worked or not. For some reason, I didn’t give him to it again. Next time he starts huffy puffing I’ll try popping the pill (in him, not me!).
WALKS: Walks have been pretty nonexistent. Until, this morning! Wolfy walked 7 houses down and 7 houses back! I can’t even remember the last time he went that far. Who would’ve figured he felt that good after all that huffing?? Lord knows I felt like crap!
PT Update: I think Wolfman is up to 13 minutes on the treadmill. Pretty good.
GENERAL HEALTH: Tumor looks about the same to me – could be larger slightly. He is still licking his privates regularly even though he’s been on antibiotics and is almost done w/ the course. I’ll take him in later this week for another urine test to see if he has blood in his urine or what. Then we’ll have to decide what to do about the tumor. Ugh. Or maybe he as a different problem aside from the tumor – kidney stones? Or maybe he has multiple problems – kidney stones and cancerous tumor? Double Ugh.
Last night wasn’t so great sleep wise – Wolfman went huffy puffy around 2:30 am and then I was up for 2 hours. I took the liberty of showering and doing my hair since he was keeping me up anyway!
Prior two nights, however, were good. I think the humidity might be making him more uncomfortable. Last night was cool, but humid. I’ll never know for sure!
He did 12+ minutes on the treadmill and walked three houses this AM. Pretty good. Can’t wait for cooler weather. I’m considering taking up coffee drinking.
Overall, however, the weekend was a pretty good one – he slept well and rested well during the day w/ minimal crying spells. He did cry when he had to get up, but that’s to be expected. Viva la Wolf!!
Great sleep last night. Not a single interruption and he was quiet in the AM even after he was awake – no whining!
He’s on Clavamox – so I’m watching to see if the UTI symptoms go away. Dr. Ford said to have his urine rechecked for blood in 2 weeks after he’s done w/ the Clavamox and to have his CBC rechecked at least every 3 months for anemia. He’s become more anemic over the past several months, so we need to know if this is a downward trend. He had no abnormal red blood cells. She said being on long-term medications could be making him mildly anemic. Also, he could be having low-grade chronic UTIs. For some reason, the Clavamox is also being used to treat the inflammation at the tumor site – assuming it’s inflmmation and not a tumor I think. So, if the tumor gets worse and doesn’t respond to the Clavamox – then it’s probably fibrosarcoma – which doesn’t sound very good. Then he’d have to have it biopsied and possibly removed. Ugh. We’ll see what happens.
Also, yesterday and today he seemed to be limping on both of his front two legs – so that’s not good. He did have the injection yesterday, so he should be showing signs of overall improvement if it’s working.
He did 12 minutes on the treadmill so that’s good. It looked tough though – poor dog must hate me!
What a great night’s sleep! Temp went down into the 60s and we slept w/ the windows open and the Wolfman slept all night as far as I can tell. Thank god. Feels good to get a good 8+ hours of sleep.
Picked up his Clavamox and will start him on it tonight. I think he probably has a UTI. He peed all over his bed this morning and has been licking down there on occasion. So, maybe he’ll be better soon? Not sure why he’s prone to UTIs, but he seems to be.
Filed under: Vet Update
Got some tests results back from Glenwood Animal Hospital. They said Wolfman’s hematocrit is down slightly from before. So, it was 31% back when he had his endoscopy and now it’s 29%. He had blood in his urine – which could mean many things – one of which is a urinary tract infection. The cytology showed spindle cells which I think she said are cells from connective tissue or fibrous tissue. So, the tumor could be a fiber carcoma or it could be from chronic inflamation. We are going to put him on Clavamox to see if that addresses the chronic inflammation as well as the urinary tract infection. If the tumor keeps getting bigger, that’s bad or if he gets considerably worse – that’s bad also. Might have to do a biopsy to see if it’s the fibercarcoma. Not sure if it’s worth doing that or not for the poor guy.
Another injection today since it has been almost 4 weeks – seems like he’s having more trouble getting up – especially at night.
Walked 3 houses down and back this AM.
12 minutes on the treadmill!!!
Woke up 2x last night – 3AM and then around 4:30AM he must have been awake because he barked when new neighbor walked by w/ her little white dog. I brought him in and he went right to sleep. Thank god…
Wolfy is a very confusing dog. After what seemed like days of extreme sleep deprivation and crying, last night he slept all night long – from maybe 11pm to 8am!
Today the weather is cooler and he ran around a couple times and has been barking and making happy noises. So, on Saturday, I was preparing myself that he might not make it another week and now he’s back to being Mr. Happypants. What’s up with that?
Here’s for a never-ending string of 5 star nights!!
