Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Buddy's improving situation

Buddy Boy has been here now for four whole days, and he's been on his current medication now since Saturday.

Currently, he's getting Lasix, Enalapril, Robitussin DM and 1/4-1/3 a baby aspirin (for inflammation of the trachea) twice a day.

And he is doing really, really well.

We still get the cough that comes from the collapsed trachea, but it's less frequent, and I'm hearing a WHOLE lot less of the cough that was coming from the heart condition. Let's say on a scale of 1-100, his cough is at about 35. And that's really significant. Before the medication kicked in, I'd have put him at 85.

What I get now is the cough after drinking water, but not eating. Stress isn't nearly the factor it was originally. He's calmed way down. He's also not coughing every time he moves around. I hear it occasionally, and he still does it during the night, but it's a whole lot less often and the intensity and duration of it is much less.

Night time is still the roughest on him. He now settles right down on his pallet with nary a cough. If he moves some during the night, he'll cough, but it's light and lasts less than a minute. But once a night, generally between 2:00 and 3:00, he gets up for water an that's the bout that lasts the longest - a couple of minutes.

He also got through a bath this morning with no coughing. Very unhappy that The Foodlady would stoop to such mistreatment of him, but he got through it. Of course, being given a Stumpy Snack after the fact made the whole ordeal almost worthwhile.

You also can see shades of a younger Buddy when he's hungry or motivated. He really wants to jump up on his hind legs for attention and treats and because of what looks to be an old injury, I really have to watch how much he does that. He gets very, very attentive during snack time and the years just melt away. It can be hard to believe he's 15 1/2.

I've got a weight on him now. He's 11 pounds. I think Dawn said he was 10 pounds at the clinic, so if that's right (there's no weight listed), he's put on a pound. This is good because he's really too thin...even taking into consideration he needs to be on the thin side. Main thing is I now have a baseline to use to keep an eye out for water weight gain.

Temperament-wise you just couldn't ask for a sweeter boy. Very easy going. Loves attention. Enjoys being groomed (haven't cut his toenails yet, but the brushing is just ducky with him).  Really enjoys being outside just poking around or laying in the sun. Scratch him and he'll just close his eyes and sort of lean into it. Very good manners.

I've got to head down to Petsmart tomorrow to pick up some canned food. He's protesting the kibble if it doesn't have something added to it. I keep cans of Pedigree on hand to make the Stumpy Snacks out of, and I put a couple of tablespoons in last night's dinner and this morning's offering to see if that helped. Much improved vittles according to Buddy. So we'll get some canned food in here that's good quality and add that to his dinner. I'm also going to just let him have a couple of tablespoons in the morning since he really isn't all that hungry then. And unlike my dachshunds, when he's not hungry he doesn't eat.

I'll leave you with some photos from this afternoon.






4 comments:

  1. YAY BUDDY !!!! Thank you for loving him Donna and Randall and Dawn :) :) :)

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    1. Buddy is a welcomed slice of sweetness here. He really is doing well, and I couldn't be happier with the response he's giving to the medicine.

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  2. Buddy ~ Precious Buddy ~ You are sooo lucky to be surrounded by Donna's love and heartfelt care. Your story made me smile!!! Love Your #1 Fan Robin

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    1. Robin,

      He is really doing very, very well...even if I do seem to be losing the food battle. lol

      I'll be doing another update today or tomorrow. I need to update the senior dachshunds I have here since they've sort of been neglected.

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