Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate!

Results of all the bloodwork won't be in until the end of next week, but Specialist Vet told me that Gaby's symptoms sound like classic Irritable Bowel Disorder Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Still. We are still waiting for the results of the giardia/cryptosporidium and GI tests. In addition, Spec Vet took blood for a test that, while maybe not the gold standard that is the elimination diet, may indicate which meat and veg/grains give Gaby the most trouble. If it tells us that, say, lamb and carrots are golden, I will feed Gaby lamb and carrots until she turns orange and goes "Baaaaa!"

If the bloodwork is inconclusive or if we decide the test is needed, I will worm Gaby, then schedule her for the endoscopy. Spec Vet recommends worming first because Heartgard doesn't always take care of whipworms, and she said that nothing makes you madder that 'scoping an animal for IBD and finding a parasite that is likely the cause of all the trouble nestled in the intestine. Worming is much, much cheaper and easier on the animal than endoscopy.

Everyone loved Gaby. "She's so cute!" and "She looks like Benji!" She rolled over and offered her paw to one and all. Spec Vet sat on floor of exam room, and Gaby went right up to her and licked her face and was positively golden for the rest of the exam. SV said that she wasn't trying to be nice when she said that Gaby had a great personality and was just a great dog.

Dreariest day here today, but I feel somewhat better. Gaby ate more Donald & Sweet Potato when we got home, and is sleeping now. I had an amber ale, along with a Hebrew Nat'l hotdog and beans. I'll answer a few more emails, then I need to try to write a little.

In other news, ran my first 12-minute mile in a long time last night. Yeah, the time sucks but it's my time and I'm glad to have it. Knees are letting me know they are there, but it isn't pain so I will deal and keep at it.

It's only four pip emma and it's dark as night and drizzly. Still, we're supposed to have sun for the 4-day weekend, although it may snow on T-giving. I want to get a Charlie Brown tree and put it in the window. I want to cook and bake. I bought parsnips and have no clue what to do with them, though I saw an interesting recipe for mashed potatoes-and-parsnips on America's Test Kitchen a week or so ago.

We will have a holiday, even if we have to drag it kicking and screaming into the light.

Anybody want to guess who's outside at this very moment, in the dark and the cold, running around and playing tag with a bone?

Anybody?

Bueller?

Tomorrow, I'll be taking Gaby to see a specialist. No current issues, if by "current", we mean the last 24 hours or so. Today, it was as though the crappy weekend that was never happened--Gaby was bouncy and energetic. Her appetite was good. But the same thing happened last month. Bouncy after the change to the venison food, followed by a decent 5 weeks, then by the roof caving in. So. We're going to determine what is going on. No clue if they will be able to perform her endoscopy tomorrow, but given that she can only have water after midnight, it's possible. Good thoughts, please.

In other news, I managed to break my old faithful alarm clock. It's an Oregon Scientific, at least 10 years old. I knocked it off the end table, and the base that contains the sensor that receives the time signal from NIST/Ft Collins split open and the sensor itself went kablooey. It no longer receives anything. I do have another atomic clock, but it has more switches and buttons and I managed to set it to go off at 615pm instead of 615am. This proved to not be an issue, however, as King apparently also receives the WWVB signal from Ft Collins and awakened me right on time.

I tried again around 10 or so to get Gaby to eat something. I had some duck with vegetables, which she had seemed to like before, and decided to give it another try. I know you're supposed to try proteins that they have never been exposed to before, but her exposure to duck has been transitory at best, a tablespoon here and there over the course of the year as a topper for her dry food. The primary proteins she has been exposed to are lamb (which I don't believe she ever evidenced a reaction to, but that could be fuzzy memory), chicken, and venison. Beef, in the form of jerky treats and soft food, which precipitated an immediate reaction.

Anyway, I gave her about a third of a can of the duck w/ veg. She flirted with it for a little bit, then. She ate it. Within an hour or so, she started acting bouncier. Both she and King wanted to go outside, so I raked leaves for an hour or so while she and King patrolled the yard and roughhoused. She didn't seem interested in eating grass. She ran around, chased squirrels, and barked.

I just fed her another third of a can. She ate it. She's resting now.

I don't want to get my hopes up. This was the case with the venison as well--some previous slight exposure, but the only food she would touch--which may indicate that in a month or so I will be going through this all over again. I could try to nip it at the bud and start introducing the rabbit food after she recovers a bit--it may be easier to introduce her to new food when she isn't sick.

No more d-word, that I could see. No squatting or scooting. Hoping that's a sign that the imodium is doing its thing.

Now we wait and see what the blood tests reveal...

( Behind the cut )

And in a bid for attention, King swiped one of my socks and chewed it up. I
try to give him a treat every time I try to feed Gaby, but he can still
sense a difference in the attention meter. As I was reading blog posts, he
lodged himself under my desk and wouldn't budge. He finally gave up and lay
down on the rug. Guess I need to give him a hug today.

Just returned from the vet's.

( doggie TMI behind the cut )

It's almost 11 o'clock already...

Keeping fingers crossed re The Gabster. The anti-nausea injection lasts 24 hours, and from about 8pm last night to early afternoon today, things were golden. No accidents during the night. Gaby was her own self, eating and licking crumbs off the floor and harassing King. When I got home tonight, though, she was a little subdued. She didn't want any of the hypoallergenic dog biscuits, which she has loved to this point. She looked at times like a person who was battling bad heartburn or an urge to throw up, sitting still every so often and swallowing hard.

But. She still played with King. Ran around outside and barked. I gave her the hypo food mixed with a little of the rabbit--she licked off the rabbit, and once more left the hypo food, which looks like coffee (with milk) colored tofu and is frankly gross. No diarrhea or vomiting since yesterday.

Aaaand after one episode of my pilling her by tossing said pill down her throat, she now runs when she sees me take a pill out of a bottle. I had to chase her around the coffee table, then order her to sit, to give her the evening dose. But, it's down.

Wish I had a stash of that anti-nausea med. I know it just treats the symptoms, but still. I'd learn to give her the shots myself.

I ordered rabbit-based food from k9cuisine.com. The place is in Illinois, so I will have my order tomorrow. The food is called Instinct, and is made by a company called Nature's Variety. I spoke with a very nice lady at k9 named Margaret for a good half hour--we discussed different types of food and various dietary issues that our dogs and friends' dogs were going through. Then she walked my order to the shipping department to make sure it went out today. Nice folks.

We'll see how tonight goes.

I just spent about a half hour coaxing Gaby through a 1/4 can of the rabbit mixed with the hypo food. I felt like I was coaxing a balky baby through a jar of green peas.

She wanted to eat. Her tail was wagging. But she kept flirting with the damned stuff, picking it up and dropping it. Licking it. So help me, I think that dog has an eating disorder.

If she keeps it down, I will be spending part of tomorrow calling stores that supposedly carry the stuff to see if they have any. My local feed store had a case that they special-ordered. I was able to buy one can, but that was all.

The metronidazole was another story. Both King and Mickey had taken it at one time or another, and I had forgotten how evil-tasting the stuff is. How in hell am I going to get Gaby, who eats by licking, to swallow that damned thing is just about beyond me. If I give it to her inside a wad of food that she likes, she just licks the food and leaves the pill. I may have to resort to tossing it down her throat, but that's not easy.

Why in the freeping hell didn't the *&^%$#@ manufacturer coat the *&^%$#@ tablet. First rule of Drug That Tastes Like Shit--COAT THE G-------N TABLET!!!!!!!

Oh, and I'm supposed to be writing through all this. Good the fuck luck.

Back from the vet's.

Bloodwork didn't show an elevation in eosinophils. In fact, the number had dropped since October. It's possible that there was an allergic reaction that hasn't been around long enough to elevate said eosinophils, but at this point, vet is leaning toward a dietary misadventure that hit Gaby like a ton of bricks.

That being said...vet recommends trying to feed her hypoallergenic food, given her history. As a back-up, we may try rabbit since Gaby has to our knowledge never been exposed to that particular protein. I don't believe she would have been, unless she killed and ate a wabbit. Possible, but.

Another possibility is irritable bowel syndrome. If this doesn't resolve, or if it happens again, we will likely go the biopsy route to confirm/rule out once and for all. It's a manageable disease. Vet told me that she treats a cat that flares once or twice a year, and needs to be treated with a steroid to quell the inflammation. Then it's fine for months.

Vet and I are also wondering whether this food/GI issue is the reason her previous people gave her up. She kept getting sick and not eating, and they didn't have the wherewithal or the patience to figure out what was wrong with her. There had to be a reason why she was almost 10 pounds underweight when she was turned in to the vet's office when she was apparently not a stray.

Anyway. Gaby had sub-q fluids and a shot for nausea and a couple more shots to quiet her tum. Later, I will give her a tablet for the diarrhea--she'll be on those for about a week. Hopefully, she'll eat and keep it down. If she had another bout of the runs, I'll deal.

She's sleeping now. Poor thing tries to bounce a little, then lies down and dozes. She's had a rough couple of days. I came home today to find that she had been sick again--more vomiting and diarrhea. Took a sample of the d-word in just in case the issue was a parasite, but it wasn't. We'll work on getting an answer one way or another.

I can see the scene now...

( And so can you, behind the cut... )

Gaby didn't eat her lunch today, which makes the first time she's not wanted to eat since I changed her food almost 5 weeks ago. When I came home from work, she had a little bounce, but she didn't want her dog biscuit and immediately went into the living room to curl up on the couch.

Call me a worrywart--I thought this might signal a developing reaction to her food, so I called the vet and squeezed in an appointment. The Gabster doesn't have a fever, and she wasn't guarding her abdomen. She did have some very full anal glands, which the vet expressed. Gaby had been going after her bottom a lot lately, and the vet said that one of her own dogs, oddly enough the one with the food allergies, goes off her food when her glands get full.

So, pepcid tonight and for the next few days. No food tonight, but try to feed her tomorrow because nausea can strike if the stomach is empty for too long. She did eat a tablespoon or two of wet food when I gave her the pepcid, but she left some in the bowl. She's with me in the office now, dozing on King's bed. King decided to curl up on it as well, but you can tell he's not used to sharing.

I hope this is just a passing thing. A few too many blades of grass, or something.

Can I take that vacay in Aruba now?

Update: Let her outside around 10:15. When she came back in, she went to the baker's rack as usual, and waited for a biscuit. Ate two of the hypoallergenic ones. I hope that's a good sign.

It's weird. It concludes tomorrow night, so I'll be sticking with it till the end, but still. Weird, in a European art flick kinda way.

The Hawks game went on early and AMC repeated the premiere eps of The Prisoner, so I was able to watch it tonight. I thought it was decent. Bizarre. Very different from TOS, but pretty good overall. The choice of the desert backdrop was interesting. Very isolating.

I didn't realize that it was going to run every night, though. Next ep is on tomorrow night.