They were both scheduled for 9 this morning to see Dr. H. I thought briefly about putting them in one large carrier since we’ve been bonding, but realized they weren’t comfy enough with one another and I’d have to split them up, Mimzy didn’t get his roomy carrier this time, but Fiver’s more compact one. Considernig how much Pip was sliding around in the big one, I think I goofed.
Anyway, we got Mimz looked at first. She listened to his lungs, heart, palpated his tummy (remember he was going in for disinterest in eating) and looked at his teeth as best she could, He was uncharacteristically uncooperative this time, but we didn’t find anything untoward in his mouth. So stumped, she decided to revisit his xrays to be certain there was no blockage, and to check the status of his hips.
The stomach turned out to be very full. The only way we woudl be able to tell if a wool block was there would be to fast him for 8-12 hours and retake the films, but in her opnion there wasn’t anything really wrong with his digestive system. His lungs wer clear, his heart is absolutely huge considering the size of his little chest, but perfectly normal. Spine and ribs all looked good.
Sadly, when we got to his left hip joint, there is now a large spur jutting from the top of the socket there. This was not there in his last xrays, just a few months ago. We have to assume his arthritis is progressing and quite rapidly. Even Dr. H. was set back by this.
So possibly it is his pain that is causing him to pause when eating or not eat very much at all. He also does these odd ‘tips’ and ‘stumbles’ from either a sitting or grooming position. Sometimes he’ll just startle from a nod as he’s sitting up, and when rising from a lying position he definitely has to struggle to get up all the way. I’m very sad to see him having such difficulty. I asked again if he should be titered for EC, but she said he had very small veins in his ears where she’d have to draw from, so he’d have to be sedated for it…she was concerned about the falling over he’s doing, but his symptoms could be explained by the pain in the hip. I could run him through a course of Panacur, but it would be a difficult suspension to mix since none of our pharmacies make it. (She did take samples of the little dried pieces on his ears to have tested to see what kind of fungus it might be.) We will continue to see how he progresses and if something else presents itself that points to EC, we’ll begin treating him. Otherwise, we really don’t want to put him through anything he may not really need.
We got him some more metacam and she told me that , if I could, to kind of warm him up before letting him exhert himself. So probably some massage and gentle movements of his limbs would really help him out before bonding. (We did try a little while with both of them after our trip in today, but I think they were too agitated already from the vets, so it didn’t last long before there was chasing and fur pulling on both their parts.)
So next was PIp, and the first thing we found (and this must have been recent because I haven’t seen this before today while handling her) was that she had a small amount of blood in ther urine that was staining her bottom.
I was in complete shock and very angry with myself. Pip then went in the back for a clean urine draw (direct from bladder) and an xray to be sure she didn’t have stones. She didn’t, although her urine was very cloudy and silty. Dr. H. couldn’t see them very well through the muck, but found some rod shaped bacteria, so put her on Baytril for 2 weeks. We’ll see if this clears up the improper urinating she’s been doing, or if it really is just a behavioural thing. All I could do was hold the poor thing and apologise for not getting her in sooner.
All nails trimmed and one other thing with Pip, she had a lot of waxy buildup in her ears that was getting scratched out onto her mane, so we checked them and sure enough, she’s got a yeast infection in the ears, so I have to put those TrizUltra drops in there twice a day for two weeks as well. *sigh* Pip is nowhere near as cooperative with medicines as Mimzy is. This is not going to be fun. But I am glad we got them both seen and at least we have an idea of what has been troubling both of them.
Sooo…do I continue to bond them even though they’re both sickies? I kind of think it would be a shame not to try, but not sure if I should wait till they’re both feeling better or not? Opinions, please? Thankies!