Pray for Maddie...

My Miss Maddie Moosie turned 13 on June 6th!  After all of her issues with inflammatory bowel disease and then CUPS disease (which caused her to have all of her teeth removed) this girl has had a tough life.  However, the last year has been great!  Once her teeth were out, she started acting like a puppy again and she was still hanging in there for two long walks each day.

Unfortunately, just as she hit this milestone her back started acting up again.  In March we did some x-rays which showed compressed discs in the middle of her back.  This problem has been going on for a few years, but it mainly showed up on long walks or if she jumped down from the furniture.  That's the the case as of the last two weeks.  She really slowed down at first, but then started showing signs of acute pain in her back.  The pain killers that she received last Saturday did not touch the pain that she was in, so I took her back in on Tuesday and got loaded up with more meds.  Dr. L said that he could wait on x-rays if we could get her to stay immobilized for the next two weeks to see if she had any improvement.

Well, we didn't even get that far.  Last night she was up the entire night either crying or barking and jerking in pain.  The disc issues were causing her severe nerve pain so she flipped about biting at her tail and crying out in pain.  I couldn't even take her outside to pee because she was in too much pain.  The only time she was okay was when she wasn't moving at all.  I had to hand feed her boiled chicken and sweet potato as well as bring the water bowl to her face to drink.  Poor thing!

So, I took her back in first thing this morning with a FULL PAGE of handwritten notes from the last 24 hours.  I monitored her food/water/med intake and symptoms.  This was quite helpful when I dropped her off for x-rays and a pain injection.  After monitoring her further and checking the x-rays Dr. L had me pick up an Rx for a fentanyl patch, drop it at the pharmacy, and then return the patch to him.  He shaved her side and applied the patch for further pain relief.  She got another injection of morphine before we left and I got some additional sedatives for her.  The good news is that there wasn't an obvious fracture or tumor in the x-rays, but there were several areas of compression that could be causing her discomfort.

Before the patch...poor thing! 

The plan is to keep her from moving at all.  I have to carry her outside in her bed and let her pee before caring her back inside in her bed.  We are going to keep her drugged up so that she doesn't stand or move her back for the next two weeks.  This is hard when we have 3 other dogs who are interested in what is going on!  Jack has to stay outside or in his kennel if I am not in the room with him because one little bump could do serious damage.  I'm thinking about posting a do not disturb sign on the front door because one knock or ring of the doorbell causes a huge commotion and she'll be tempted to stand or run over to the door.

After the patch and a long day at the vet. 

If the pain meds do not allow for relief the only other option is to see a specialist for surgery.  Dr. L said that this is something that would work for her even with her age, but it would be very costly ($1500-$3000).  Please pray for Miss Maddie Moosie so that she is not in any pain and that we are not faced with a decision like this!