So little Annie had a checkup at the vet yesterday to check her labs since she's on some medications that can affect her organ function. Poor thing's had more than her share of issues in the past, the most recent was concern over a slightly enlarged heart and lost elasticity in her trachea and lungs. The vet always takes a long time to listen to her heart and lungs, but stepped back after a few minutes and announced: "Her heart sounds great!" As do her lungs and even when Dr. Hessian pressed down on her trachea, Annie barely coughed. Before she'd be coughing up a storm for a few minutes. The other issue has been her eyes and lack of tear production. I've been trying to keep up with them--she gets drops and ointment a few times a week. Despite her eyes being a bit goopy (she hates me wiping them), they look good. So this is all great news. Now for the next projects:
--The Prednisone (steroid) she's on for her lungs/cough seems to be thinning out her hair. Then again, this could be due to age or being groomed as well. We're going to go every other day with this med though to see how she does. If her cough starts to come back, we'll go 1/2 tablet every day, which is still less than what's she on now.
--Her ears. Ah, her ears. We heard the phrase "typical chronic Cocker ears" several times. It's true, she's struggled with ear issues since puppyhood. They did an ear cytology to make sure we treat them appropriately based on if yeast or bacteria are the culprit. It's always been the first for Annie. Always. Not this time. Complicating the matter is the fact that Annie has Cocker skin. Meaning it's covered in bumps, including in her ears. This traps all the yucky bacteria, which makes her ears particularly difficult to get clean. This is the reason why when I clean her ears, they don't seem that bad, but she still stinks, in spite of recent bath, clean sweater (don't judge, she gets cold!), and generally good hygiene.
The game plan is a different med that kills the bacteria. For 2 weeks, I don't clean her ears, but just put in these drops every 24 hours. After 2 weeks, she goes back to the vet (cha-ching) and they flush out her ears and hopefully, fingers crossed, the bacteria. We're told not to expect a miracle, but that this stuff has done remarkably great things for pups with chronic ear problems. Let's hope so.
So the equivalent of a car payment later, Annie got vaccinated, had a full blood and urine panel, an ear cytology, got new ear meds, more steroids (don't tell MLB), and a partridge in a pear tree. At least we know she's doing well with all the major stuff. She really is a trooper and seems to surprise every vet she's seen.
Oh and she's having a birthday this Saturday. My dear little Annie is turning 105. That's 15 in human years. Still as feisty and peppy as ever.
I plan to make a joint birthday cake for all the pups later this month (Budaj's "birthday"--the day we got him--is the 11th and Gracie is the 14th), which I've actually never done before. I'm feeling very domestic lately though so might as well. Don't worry, nothing gross like strained meat baby food as an ingredient. (Bleeeech.)
So happy early birthday my little Annie! Love you, pumpkin. :)
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