Some things money CAN buy

Bandit
14 years of checkups, vaccinations, flea meds, etc: $2000 (figuring, conservatively, on $100 per year + about 4 years of flea meds -- I'm pretty sure G wasn't giving her regular treatments before I came along)

Several major surgeries, including once when she jumped 15ft out of a window to follow G out of the apartment and at least a couple of falls from the truck: $2000 (approximately? -- I know G's brother and sister-in-law paid one also)

Incidentals - foxtail removals, dog fight drama (that all of course happened on weekends when the vet was closed so that we could pay the extra emergency costs): $600?

Rounds and rounds of tests before diagnosing her with Cushing's Disease: $500?

Continued testing and treatment now that we know she has Cushing's (including meds that cost $100/month and an every-so-often test that runs $300 a pop): $1500

Schlepping around to/from Santa Cruz to see her specialist: who the heck knows, definitely lots of time and gas $

The most recent vet bill from Wednesday (for an extremely gross skin infection and possibly a bladder infection, which apparently Cushing's dogs are prone to): $432

This lovely cone, compliments of the vet (though NOT complimentary, I realized, when I saw the bill), to keep her from chewing her fur off (as she already has done all over her butt): $24



Mia
Two rounds of stem cell treatment for her hip: $4000

Need I say more? Figure in some of the same costs as above for 4 years of ownership (minus the foxtails, but possibly a few more stitiches), several x-rays for the hips, and schlepping to/from Santa Cruz to a DIFFERENT specialist, and she's already probably surpassed Bandit (though Bandit's recent expenses are adding up) with plenty of good years left in her to take us to the poor house.

Our only consolation seems to be Tucker, who gets the short end of the stick:
Adoption fee from the shelter: $30

General costs ownership for 4 years: $400 (using same #'s as above, though I think he's somehow been cheaper than this)

Stitches: None, he does all the biting

Foxtails: None, we wait for him to sneeze them out (though he did get some drops for his ears last year when it seemed like he might have gotten one in there - so maybe $100)

Tumor removal: $200 (we first tried to pull at it with some tweezers at home, no luck)

Despite Tucker taking it for the team, the joy of pet ownership: most definitely NOT priceless. Thank god for Visa/Mastercard.

The 4 cousins at the Napa zoo

Photo Moments

Featuring my baby, Mia . . . probably the most spoiled of the 3. Its hard to not spoil when I can remember her being a tiny little puppy curling up on my lap, and she still looks at me with little puppy eyes and starts wagging her tail when she wants something. And she's definitely the most photographed - Bandit is a little more photo-shy and Tucker looks scary in pics.


Here she is sporting her new "purse" - this squeaky toy that she can't seem to get enough of. Don't let the sad eyes fool you either, she might have been growling under her breath at Bandit for getting close to her toy when we took this. Even tries to bring it to bed with her sometimes and we have to take it away.



Checking out G's camera -- just before she licked the lens!

My going away committee

I came out of the shower this morning to find 2 out of my 3 kids already making themselves quite comfortable on the furniture. Tucker on our bed, Mia in the spare room. Clearly, my leaving has a huge impact on them.

Skunk'd

Oh great -- I thought our dog drama was over for a while. But apparently not.

First, about mid-week or so last week, Bandit started acting funny. She got a little, um, OCD. Kept rubbing her face on the floor, started trying to chew off her paw. Took her 25 minutes to settle down and find a comfortable spot to sleep Wed night. Then she woke up in the middle of the night and again went thru this whole long pacing ritual. Thurs morning, she didn't eat. So I called the vet thinking I could just talk to the doc and she'd had some ideas. But she was pretty concerned and wanted me to come in. So Thurs morning, I found myself calling work and letting them know I had another pet emergency and would be coming in late. Turns out she's ok - probably OD'd on her meds. The meds inhibit her cortisol production, so it makes sense that if inhibited too much, her stress responses could go a little haywire, resulting in some very anxious behavior. The doc gave her a steroid shot and is having her cut her meds for a few days.

THEN on Sat night, we were walking the dogs when Mia got skunked. She couldn't have been more than a few yards ahead of us, so I'm not sure how it happened. But not only did she get sprayed, it seems like there might have been a little scuffle because she came out with a big gash on her cheek and the skunk seemed to have lost big chunks of black fur. Sigh. Thank goodness she's caught up on her vaccines, cuz G says that skunks wandering around in broad daylight like that are most likely rabid.

Last time Mia got skunked (yes, there was another time -- she's apparently dumb and doesn't learn from her mistakes), we used this stuff called Nature's Miracle. It sort of did the trick, I guess, but Mia was still banished to the kitchen for some time. And it was quite a while before the smell completely wore off.

This time, we'd thought we'd try something different, since my friend swore by tomato sauce. Not sure if it was anymore successful. Fortunately, she didn't get skunked as badly this time, so it wasn't as intolerable to begin with. But Mia looks a little orange now, and I don't know if the cross between skunk juice and tomato sauce is any more flattering to her. She did seem to like the remedy a bit better though, since she got to lick the tomato sauce as I slapped it on her. But overall, her mortification was clear.

And for the rest of the weekend, she ran every time I brought the hose out (often, since we were doing a lot of yard work).

Tucker on the other hand, LOVED the tomato sauce. I'm thinking he would have rated the whole skunking as quite successful. Especially after he managed to clean up all the spillage on the bricks AND on Mia. He started licking Mia every chance he got, pretty much capping her misery, I'm sure.

More doggie news

All right, my dog Mia is totally completely nuts. She loves going to her vet. I mean, LOVES it. More than going for walks probably and almost as much as eating (though a trip to the vet almost always includes treats, so . . . ). This is the same vet that's knocked her out and dug into her hips (twice) to try to fix her up. The same vet who pokes and prods her every time we go. The same vet who jostled around her hip joint yesterday to show me how its so loose that you can grind her femur into her pelvic bone and actually feel the bone on bone. Ouch! But there she was, as excited as can be. She lit up in the car when she realized where we were. She practically dragged me into the office and then jumped onto the reception desk, bad hips and all. She then raced straight towards the scale so she could be weighed and stayed until I told her to get off. In the waiting room, she immediately started sniffing the cupboard where the treats are hidden. Then waited, tail wagging, for the vet to come in. I don't know what kind of voodoo operation they're running over there, but it works.

And whatever it is, it seems to work on me too. Or maybe Mia's excitement is contagious. I kinda love going myself. If he weren't all the way out in Santa Cruz, I'd be taking all our dogs there. Everyone there is super nice. And the vet is awesome. Yesterday, during our check up, he cleaned my rings. That's right, you heard me -- its a one stop shop they got over there. While we talked, he cleaned my wedding/engagement rings! It probably would have been a 10 minute appt, but we shot the breeze for 45. They always throw little discounts my way without me asking. And their customer service can't be beat. Granted we've paid them thousands of dollars, but the money does seem to go a little further than at most vets.

Unfortunately, despite all their services, Mia's hips aren't a 100%, though they've improved drastically. On the right, she's hopping around like its perfectly fine. The left is better but not completely. The left is also the hip where the joint is completely disjointed. So I guess it was worse off to begin with. We decided for now, the best option is to just wait and see how it goes, see if exercise and time help. She's bearing weight on both sides now -- and she's jumping on vet desks -- so surgery might be overkill at the moment. I've been given the OK to exercise her normally and see how she does, so I guess I'll slowly start lengthening our walks and taking her back to the dog park.

In other news, Bandit also had her vet appointment yesterday. Her vet is not nearly as cool. Well, she could be but since the only time we've seen her is at the initial appointment, the most I can say is that her nurse seems nice. At one of our visits, I waited in the waiting room while the doc entered notes into the system that the receptionist later read to me. I know Bandit doesn't enjoy her visits as much, though Bandit's no fool. No amount of treats will trick her into liking the poking and prodding. But she has been doing a lot better now that she's getting meds for Cushing's (which are super expensive but beat peeing in the house any day of the week). I just got the call too that her blood work looks awesome and that her med dosage levels are perfect. So hopefully, it'll be smooth sailing from here on out.

What I find somewhat curious is that Mia's vet and Bandit's vet went to school together and are actually good friends. No that's not entirely true, both seem pretty brilliant as far as I'm concerned. And the doc was extremely nice on the phone just now when she called with Bandit's test results. But definitely their interaction with patients is quite a bit different.

Where everybody knows your dog . . .

Its now official. I think that our dogs are probably the best known by vets in the Hollister and Santa Cruz areas. I had been thinking that Gregg's "tough" male dog has been the only healthy one of the bunch. But recently, G noticed a little mole or tick on his nose that we've been concerned about. So finally, yesterday G took him to the vet and what do you know, its a tumor! Probably benign but they'll have to remove it and make sure. What almost cracked me up about the whole thing was that G said he spent a good half hour discussing our other dogs' ailments and issues, because they've been referred to specialists now and the vet was curious about their progress.

BTW -- Bandit has Cushing's disease. All that leaking and peeing? Its because she has little tumors in her pituitary gland. It got quite a bit worse before it got better -- lots of appointments and tests before they identified the problem. She started eating poop (I guess because dogs with Cushing's are constantly hungry and thirsty). She woke up several times a night to drink water and/or pee. It was fun. Finally, though, after about 2 weeks of meds, she had her first full night's sleep last night! And both G and I noticed quite a bit more energy when we've been walking her lately, so apparently all her lagging this last year was all connected to this.

Mia's hip stem cell treatment worked really well on one hip and not so much on the other side. So we're going to try it again. To try to do something different, the vet gave me some meds to help regenerate cartilage which I have inject into her several times a week between now and the treatment. All I can say is that I've been staring at that needle wondering how I ever thought med school might be an option for me.

Between the lot of them, seems like we're at a different vet each week, and the vet bills will probably almost equal the wedding bills before we're through.

Anyway, I'm sure everyone was dying for the doggie update, so there you go. :)

Circus life

Gregg has been away this week for work, so I've been hanging with the dogs. Normally, that's not that big of a deal, but this week has been ridiculous.

First of all, Mia is still recovering. She's got these big shaved patches on her stomach and hips. She seemed to perk up right after the surgery but then started limping about a week ago and hasn't stopped. I feel terrible watching her hobble around. Feel terrible, that is, until she starts growling at Bandit, at which point I just want to beat her. Yeah, she's been growling pretty non-stop at Bandit. I don't know if its just her being edgy or her being possessive of my attention. Probably both. Over the years, she's learned to tolerate Gregg's dogs, but I think she's still an "only child" at heart. Even as I write this, she's growling at Tucker for jumping on MY bed, though there's plenty of room for them both. And definitely she's been getting some extra lovin' with the whole surgery thing, but I guess that's not doing much for her personality. Anyway, she growls at Bandit. Bandit -- never one to be scared -- comes closer to check her out. Tucker starts barking and running over to protect me (from Mia, I guess). And I start screaming at all of them. This is seriously the cycle we go through at least 5-6 times a day (more when I was home all weekend). I'm guessing the neighbors are about one step away from calling the cops on me. Once Bandit and Mia even got into an all out fight. I'm sure that's helping with the recovery process.

And, Bandit started leaking. By that, I mean, she seems to be leaving puddles of urine EVERYWHERE. The house smells like a urinal, I kid you not. Its totally disgusting. I've been walking around the house constantly spraying febreeze, pouring Resolve where ever I see spots in the carpet, lighting candles, and freezing my ass off with the door open just to get the stink out. No luck. I have no idea what's up. Granted Bandit's an old dog, but she's never had even a little leakage problem, let alone a gushing issue. Plus it turns out that she might have a heart condition too. Apparently the normal heart rate for a dog is about 130. Hers is about half that. So today, we had a vet appt to figure out the peeing problem. Friday, we go back to the vet to get xrays for the heart, and next week, an EKG with a heart specialist. I'm not even thinking about how much the vet bills are going to be.

Basically, I feel like I'm living at the zoo -- lots of growling and smelly living quarters to boot. Like seriously, I should just put a sign on my door and sell tickets, between vet visits of course. . . You know, come smell my house and tell me if it makes you want to puke too, take in a dog fight, etc.

So of course now, if you've been following along, you'll see the full extent of my dilemma from yesterday!

Gimpy

When my dog Mia was 6 months old, she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia. Its a condition that 20-30 yrs ago, a dog would have been put to sleep for. Now, there are a several painful and expensive surgeries that you can do. I considered every one of them at some point. Basically, in a normal hip, the femur attaches to the pelvis at the hip joint. Its like a ball and a socket, fits perfectly -- I think that's the right expression, anyway, though I'm not sure what balls and sockets really have to do with each other. Anyway, in dogs with dysplasia (and humans), the femur starts slipping from the joint. And slowly, arthritis develops in the joint. In Mia's case, even at 6 mos., it was pretty grim. The femur was pretty far out of the socket and she already had quite a bit of arthritis, making her ineligible for one of the surgeries. The others she was still too young for -- they won't perform them until a dog is done growing. The most successful is a total hip replacement, which can run up to 5-6k per hip and involves a fairly lengthy recovery period.

Until recently, those were my only options. And as Mia is fairly functional, I was never quite wiling to subject her to surgery. Not to mention that I don't happen to have 12k lying around to spend on my pet. So instead, I gave her glucosamine, kept her well exercised, and made sure she stayed skinny.

But a few months ago, a friend of mine sent me this article that blew me away:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1817572,00.html?cnn=yes

Its a stem cell treatment for dogs! No surgery. They remove tissue from the dog's stomach, extract the stem cells, and reinject those cells into the hips. According to the article, the stem cells develop into healthy cartilage and tendon cells. It turns out that the article is a bit misleading about how it all works, but is on the whole, accurate. If it works, it results in a dog that's pretty close to normal. And the cost is about the 1/3 the cost of replacement surgery. So of course0, Gregg and I have been watching these developments with some interest. And a few weeks ago, there was an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel about a vet in SC doing the treatment. Gregg called the vet, and we took Mia into see him yesterday.

At the end of the appointment, I was completely amazed:

1. Her joints have probably been inflamed since pretty much when we found out about her condition almost 3 yrs ago. Other than when I first found out (when she could barely walk), I have never given her anti-inflammatory medication.
   
2. Day to day, she probably experiences fairly constant pain. On a scale of 1-10, the vet guessed maybe a 4 or 5.
3. The x-rays showed that Mia's hips are so bad that its a miracle that she can walk. She has the dubious honor of having almost the worst hips the vet had ever seen.
4. And yet, she walks, runs, backpacks, chases rabbits, tries to climb trees. She won't chase frisbees, and she won't let dogs hump her, but other than that, she seems pretty normal.
   
5. I think the stem cells don't morph so much as block inflammatory molecules. This part is still a little unclear to me, but even if the treatment works, Mia's hips will look exactly the same. She just won't feel pain.
   
6. My dog is a horrible drunk -- she had to be sedated for the xray. Afterwards, she stumbled around the vet's office. AND she passed out again while we were paying our bill and peed herself while she was asleep! I swear, she doesn't get that from me! Well, there was a peeing on a curb incident in the city that ONE time, but . . .
   

Anyway, we're doing the treatment and I'm hopeful!

BFF Bandit

When I was in law school, I used to take my then-puppy Mia everywhere. We used to study together at dog-friendly coffee shops. Well, I studied; she usually snacked. I walked her to campus whenever I had errands to run. She'd sit patiently outside while I ran into the library to drop off a book or make a quick copy. I remember once, though, that she happened to sneak in when some one opened the door and found me in the computer lab. She had friends all over campus -- the registrar's office, professors, random students that would be all crowded around her whenever I left her somewhere for a minute. Anyway, my point is that its easy and fun to take one dog with you everywhere. But now, with Gregg's two dogs in the picture also, its much easier to just leave them all at home. One is cute; 3 is a circus.

But this last weekend, G went camping with his brother and took Mia and Tucker with him. So I got to hang out with just Bandit. And I have to say, the one dog thing is just as much fun now. I didn't do that much this weekend, but it was nice having her with me everywhere. We went to Santana Row and met up with Yi-ling and Charles for lunch. I think just about every shop we went into allowed dogs. Some had treats for her. It was funny to watch her on the escalator at Borders. She'd never been on one before, so she freaked. Couldn't figure out how to get off and on. And it was funny watching her around other people. Unlike the other two, she's pretty rude when it comes to people. Not unfriendly, just won't really give you the time of day. People would coo over her and try to pet her; she'd walk right past them, totally oblivious. She hung out in the car with treats while I was at TJs, and then wandered around with me at Home Depot. Yesterday, I tried this yoga video and she came up next to me and did a few stretches of her own. Until she got bored and started bringing her ball over for me to throw. Apparently dogs don't find the downward dog all that entertaining.

For a dog that normally just sits around and sleeps all day, I think she had quite the exciting weekend.