We spent a couple hours at the vet's this afternoon trying to figure out why Niki has been feeling so awful lately. I love that place -- they're open until 7 PM weekdays, and for several hours on Sundays. Wish my people-doctor were as convenient! Of course AVS has something like 8 vets - unlike Dr. T. who practices alone.
Anyway, they did an "x-ray survey" of Niki's entire body. They found serious hip dysplasia, as well as congenital problems with three of the disks in her back. We had no idea. We thought she might have hurt herself when she slipped on the stairs a couple months ago. But Craig said that although that might have aggravated the conditions, making them more obvious, the problems are not the result of injury. The real cause is that she's 10 years old.
Her eyes have also begun to bulge for some reason. So they tested the pressure in her eyes (normal - no glaucoma), then they did blood tests including thyroid function tests. But she has LOW rather than high thyroid, so although that may account for her weight gain (she weighs a little over 125 lbs. now), it isn't affecting her eyes. Not sure what the problem is there, but Craig said since there's no increased pressure, we should just deal with the back/leg pain first, then move on to the less critical, less painful problems.
The end of her tail is also completely raw. Craig said that's probably because she's lost feeling in her tail so she just beats it against things until it bleeds because she can't feel any pain. The only solution to THAT problem is to amputate the tail, but we decided that since she can't feel it anyway, we'll wait and see if we can get her feeling better before causing her any additional possible discomfort by amputating.
For now, she's going to be on Deramaxx pills daily, with weekly injections of adequan/chondroprotec. For those shots, I either have to bring her out there to AVS (a 40-minute drive) and have them give them, or -- I'm hoping -- maybe MAYBE Torri can give her a couple and show us how to do it. I'm going to check with her tomorrow.
Anyway, we're probably looking at a couple hundred dollars a month for medications, but since she didn't have to be referred to LSU or the referral vets over in Mandeville we got off pretty cheap. (Neither place, in my experience, can even diagnose anyone for less than $1000 -- never mind treatment costs.)
Poor baby ...
I sure hope those meds can manage to make her feel better. The poor thing has always been so "up" and happy, and now all she does is lie around in her dog bed unless she's eating or going out to the bathroom. She just doesn't seem "happy" anymore.
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