Abbye is getting decidely annoyed with these frequent visits to the vet’s office. She objects, in particular, to the highly personal methods used to check her temperature…which, by the way, show that she’s still running a lowgrade fever.
However, things are looking up. The medicine got her nausea under control, so she can eat and drink again. She now begins a protocol of antibiotics and Vitamin E to get the apparent bacterial infection under control and bring her liver enzymes back into the normal range.
Most importantly, we may have identified the culprit that’s caused the liver spike: the every-other-day dose of Rimadyl she gets to control pain from arthritis. The vet said that 10-15% of the dogs who take Rimadyl end up having to leave it due to stomach and/or liver problems. The only odd thing about this is that Abbye is normally not part of such a large minority. It’s usually something along the lines of, “I’ve never seen any dog react in that way to this medicine!”
Of course, we want the liver problems fixed, but if it is the Rimadyl, we’re then faced with a different but just as vexing problem: pain control. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
I’m very relieved to hear Abbye is doing better, Eric!!
I know this is going to sound silly, but would “people medicine” help Abbye’s arthritis if she’s developing an intolerance to the doggie varieties?
Or is there some basic incompatibility?
Best to our canine companion!
Thanks, Wallace. She seems to be getting better each day. If she continues to make progress, I won’t feel guilty about sitting her down and showing her the invoices from the vet and pointing out that she really needs to start not taking us for granted. (Like that’s going to work.)