Yesterday, Doug went under anesthesia so that the vet could do X-rays of his mouth and leg. He is missing four teeth (which is odd at his age) and we needed to see if they were impacted. As for his leg, his body is a ball of muscle, except his rear left leg. It’s much weaker than the other legs and he often holds it up/won’t put weight on it.
The teeth situation is that it seems Doug never had those teeth. There is no sign that he had them and lost them and there are no teeth currently up in there. This is VERY good news. He’s been having some drooling and pain when chewing so we were very worried this was an issue (that would require a speicalist to deal with). The pain is likely that HE IS SUCH AN INSANE SUPER CHEWER.
As for his leg, there is no indication that there is a bone issue. His hips look good, his knee looks good too. So it’s likely a soft tissue issue. When they said soft tissue my mind immediately went to Jake who had a soft tissue cancer. But then I quickly pulled myself back. Doug is not even one yet, he’s healthy, it’s a something we can do rehab on and be fine.
I am currently two to three different people at any given time. I’m Jake (and Melvin’s) mom, who is still grieving and who worries when limps present themselves. I’m Doug’s mom who is learning what is it like to have an active, relatively healthy young dog, a role I am not used to yet. And I’m me, the person who tries to be them both without being too much of either. Stay in the middle Tracey, learn from where you have come but don’t be afraid of where you are going.
True of all of my dogs, Doug was completely out of it all night long and has the explosive poops. He’s mine, all mine.
Why is the room spinning? No really, make it stop. Is the fire burning my butt? My butt burns too. 
Thank you for all of the well wishes! We really apprciate it! xoxo
I love this picture! Glad you and Doug are doing well. If there was ever any doubt, the explosive poops have definitely confirmed that you two are meant to be together 🙂
I say that because of Jake’s meatball issue of course, not implying anything about you lol. It read a bit strange to me – sorry.
hahahhahaah, i love that you felt you needed to clarify! I got it the first time! The other day someone was talking about their elderly dog having pee accidents and all i could think was ‘stop showing off’! I love my pee and poop dogs!
I’m glad nothing is wrong with Doug! Is it weird for them to be missing teeth?? Strangely I was born missing a tooth. We only found out because a dentist x-rayed my teeth when I was a kid and somehow double exposed the x-ray then insisted we needed to pull all my teeth to make way for the extra set in there. Thank god we didn’t, I’d be toothless!
I’m 99.9% sure we will have explosive poops tonight as well. Taking my boy in for an abdominal ultrasound this afternoon. Hoping to get some answers on what’s going on with him. I got the following instructions: Don’t feed after 10pm the night before, and he must come in with a full bladder. I have no idea how to get a dog from the house to the car and from the car to the vet without peeing. I’ve seriously considered carrying him except he’s 65+lbs. This whole thing should be interesting. They also may sedate him if he’s not cooperative, which I know he will not be, so I will have a druggy dog tonight as well!
I just laughed, when really it’s not funny, but seriously, how do you stop a dog from peeing??? Hoping for the best with the pee, but especially the findings. It’s so frustrating when you don’t know. I hope it’s an easy fix.
Melvin had a couple abdominal ultrasounds and I was convinced he’d be a nightmare but he was great. They let me go in with him and they pretty much just lay him down on his back. Hopefully you’ll be able to do the same!
How I stopped him from peeing…. literally ran to the car and threw him in. He was very confused, same thing at the vets office, ran from the car to the door. I’m sure he thought I had lost my mind. However, he was NOT cooperative for them, they ended up sedating him. After sedation he apparently forgot how to sit down. He just stood around drooping in the hind end until I finally convinced him he could just lay down. Then he spent about 15 minutes growling at nothing and whining at the same time. He also fell asleep snout down and made a pig nose all by himself! I got pictures of course, I’m a terrible mom! This morning he’s back to his old self, though we don’t really have any more answers which is a bummer. He has IBD and basically it just appears we no longer have it under control, he’s showing some thickening of his intestinal walls which is disheartening. But at least they didn’t find the other REALLY scary stuff.
I love me the Doug and tails of his (and your!) adventures together. And can I point out that has that “Come Hither” look that Jake, AKA Barry White, displayed in front of the fire?
hahahahha! Come hither…that made me smile at the thought of Jakey. He’s starting to work the fireplace, I have a post coming about it.
Glad he doesn’t have impacted teeth!! Hope he feels beter soon!
Me too! He’s all better and crazy as ever!
Bless his heart! Glad Doug is OK! Hopefully the poop issue doesn’t last long.
You are an amazing mama!
Thank you, Mary Beth! He seems to be all better now!
Good news all around. 🙂
Yes! Yay!
Oh goodness! I chocked in my cookie reading about the burning butt!
Hahahhaha! Yeah, I like to just put it all out there.