Chelsea's Recovery

She's getting better! After only 2 days of anti-inflamatory medicine, she's starting to walk on her foot. So I really don't think she broke anything. She's still limping, but less and less every day.

Doggie Drama in the Knapp House

If you've known Andy and I for a while, then you know about all of Bailey's broken bones. About 3 years ago, he crushed the bones in his foot and had $2500 worth of surgery to have metal plates put into his foot. After his 3 month recovery, within the next 6 months of that he broke 2 more toes (that we were able to just bandage up and let heal) and ripped 2 toenails out.

So Sunday night when Chelsea just out of nowhere whimpered and stopped walking on her back leg, you can imagine how worried we were. First of all, now we've got a family and a baby to think about too so it's not as easy to just fork over thousands of dollars for a dog, but Chelsea is way too old to handle that kind of surgery anyway. In fact she's got a big mole on her head that the dr said last year we shouldn't remove because she's too old for surgery and it wouldn't be worth the risk.

So I took her in yesterday to the vet, pretty nervous about what he was going to tell me. Good news... no surgery. The vet said it could be a broken foot or it could just be swollen from torn ligaments or tendons. We opted not to get x-rays, but to try anti-inflamatory meds for a week and see what happens. He also said, although it feels broken, he felt like she was putting more weight on it than he would expect for a broken foot. After her 1st dose of meds, she started limping on it. That was an improvement because before that she wouldn't walk on it at all. She's not walking on it this morning either, but her medicine is just once every 24 hours. I feel like after she gets more, she'll do better.

The dr did find a huge lump though on her spleen. He said it's about baseball or softball size. We don't know for sure, but given her age his 1st guess is that it's cancer. He said because she's so old (she'll be 15 in October), even if it was his dog he wouldn't go through with surgery to try to remove it or treatments. She doesn't seem to be in any pain and we don't even know for sure that it's cancerous. He said to just keep an eye on her appetite. If she stops eating or loses weight very quickly then that's a big sign that it's cancer. But for now she's good. We know and have know for a while now that her time is coming to an end. But she could still be here with us for another year or 2... even if it is cancer. All we can do is enjoy her and love on her while she's here.

Time for a Haircut!

Well, with our trip to Colorado coming up in just 6 days it's time to shave Chelsea and Daisy so they don't shed all over the truck. I tried to do it on my own today and it didn't work out as well as it usually does. Chelsea always squirms a lot, but I can usually get her completely shaved. But today they just were NOT going to cooperate. Even Daisy was squirming too much for me to hold still! I think maybe it was the heat. They didn't want to say outside.

Poor things. They look terrible now. You can see I got Chelsea's back shaved and half of her tail, but I didn't get her neck at all and she has a little lion's tail. And the line across the top of her leg is the line where I wasn't able to shave anymore. Daisy has hairy patches all over her tummy, neck, and legs. The pictures look much better than the dogs really do. They look pitiful.

I'm going to have to let Andy finish them tomorrow. They won't even come to me right now. Chelsea just runs from me if I call her. I think she's a little upset with me.

Man's Best Friend

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Meet our best friends... Bailey, Chelsea, and Daisy. Yes, 3 dogs and a baby on the way. We've got a full house.Bailey was my 1st pet on my own. I've had him 11 years. I can't image not having him in my life. He's the best cuddle dog. I love it! Everyone tells me that he's the ugliest dog they've ever seen. But I think he's the most adorable dog in the world! Despite his old age, he's still got tons of energy and jumps like he's got springs on his feet.

Chelsea was my 2nd one, she's actually the oldest... 14 years old! We keep thinking she doesn't have much time left, but she just keeps on going. Most of her day is spent sleeping and she can't jump up into the bed or Andy's truck anymore. But she's still going strong.

And then there's Daisy. She's Andy's but I helped him pick her out. She's definately got a unique personality! She's so well behaved. She's a cow dog so she likes to herd the other dogs... especially Chelsea. She's absolutely obsessed! It's funny to watch. She literally stalks Chelsea about 18 hours a day!

Daisy was never much of a cuddle dog with me. She would only cuddle when I called her to me. But since I was about 2 months pregnant she started cuddleing with me on her own all the time. She even jumps up in bed and sleeps as close to me as she can every night now. I think she knows I'm pregnant and is already becoming protective of Baby Katie!