A new place to party...

So, my dad's family likes to get together and party. This past Saturday the reason was a couples shower for my cousin and his wife to be. Another cousin and her husband have a houseboat and invited us to enjoy the day aboard the boat and cruise down the Mississippi. We boarded around noon and headed out from Treasure Island around 1pm. We got to go thru a lock. It was pretty cool. It was cool...a new experience for the family. Hopefully we will be invited back. Here is a picture of some of the group standing on the third "floor" taken from the second floor front of the boat. (yeah, i dont know much about boats and terms.....)

Think Micky in the movie with the magical brooms...

So here is the scoop. About 5 months ago Chester (our 10 year old dog) had some lab work done that revealed he had a low Albumin. What does that mean? Albumin is a protein found in the blood. So its low...big deal. Well, kind of it is. This low value means either his liver doesn't make enough or his body is losing it someplace (through stool or urine). So this week we have followed up with some lab work and found his albumin is much lower, at the point where it could start to cause some edema or ascites (fluid retention). Albumin is a major component in maintaining normal fluid balance and volume with in the blood and body. What does all this mean? It means the crazy dog that runs around and plays with the cat is actually quite sick on the inside. He just doesn't seem to know it.

Now where does that Mickey mouse thing come in? Well the condition Chester has is called Protein Losing Enteropathy, or PLE. The hard thing is there are several different conditions that can cause PLE, such as intestinal lymphangiectasia(think Fantasia with lymph on the front and a "jEk" in the middle), cancer, congestive heart failure, IBD, etc, etc.
*I kept trying to call lymphangiectasia - lymph-antasia*

What does that mean? It means we are considering our options for treatment and doing the best we can to spoil him rotten (more so than he is) to make him comfortable while we still have him.

Another Tuesday

Tuesdays have historically been busy. I don't like them. Today, we were short a person, and very busy in the afternoon. For some reason, it seems Tuesdays (more than other days) everyone has a problem with their pet. Today, we saw skin problems (usually allergy issues) and we saw pee problems. Yes, working in the animal field, we deal with a lot of pee. We had "leaky" dogs. We had dogs with infections. We had cats straining to pee. But the prize of all problems today...goes to the ruptured anal gland. Anal glands are scent glands that lots of animals have. Luckily, people do not. These glands store stinky fluid that is supposed to express every time said animal goes "number 2." Thats what is supposed to happen. Sometimes the ducts get clogged, or the fluid is thick and they don't express like they should. If it gets really bad, the fluid keeps building and building and much like a zit, has to burst someplace. Now the poor pooch has an additional opening into the anal gland. Its not pretty, its not comfortable and its really really stinky! The absolute worst part of the whole process is when some of the fluid lands on a staff member. It is a smell that is not going away any time soon. ICKY!

Move Over Arnold Palmer...

make room for my dad!

I learned today that my dad took 2nd place (in the senior devision) in the tournament at the golf course he frequents. I also learned that the winner of the senior class is a frequent golf companion of his, as is the winner of the junior class. Dad got a trophy and everything! Next we are going to have to get him a green jacket.

Here's to you dad!

"I should really find time to blog"

As I was signing in to my blog account, Nick was saying those very words. So, in the days since I have last blogged, a lot has happened. We have sod, we have a "new" bathroom, we have cleaner upstairs carpets, Nick started school and I have worked a little bit extra. We have been pretty busy at work. I spent an extra hour on Tuesday helping unplug a cat. He had an obstruction in his urethra, which means he couldn't pee. (is it ok if I say pee?) If cats dont pee for 24 hours, it could be deadly. Then, on Wed. we had all kinds of cases that were kind of rough. We had a dog that was run over by a 1 ton trailer. The only damage that seemed to be done was the dog had cancer all over her chest. Not such a great "incidental" finding. We also euthanized several pets in the last two days. BUT the most notable work event was the passing of our clinic cat. Ozzy was a purebred Persian cat. He came to us about a year ago because he had chronic intestinal issues. A week ago today he had a flair up of IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). This was a flair up that, despite all our supportive care and supervision, we couldn't pull him through. His immune system gave up, followed by the rest of his systems He passed away last week very early Saturday morning. He is greatly missed by all of the staff and many of the clients. I think even a patient or two might miss him.