Pepper (almost 13.5) woke up on Sunday unable to put weight on her left hind leg. There was no obvious injury or skin findings and we were really concerned about her. We've heard of dogs tearing ligaments and (not being inclined to have her have any major surgery) worried if that would be... it for her. She has all kinds of "old lady problems," including being deaf and partially blind, and doesn't walk very far at baseline due to arthritis. She also needs a fiber supplement to keep her regular! She is on prednisone, which can cause all kinds of problems including bone fragility as well as infections. We feared the worst and having to carry her up/down steps to go potty outside or across the house to eat/drink didn't seem to be a good set-up or sustainable long-term solution for decent quality of life (both eating and going to the bathroom are hard with only three limbs). We were thinking about if we'd have to track down the urn I bought a couple of years ago when she was really sick. (Kelvin recently learned that the mean lifespan of her breed is about 13.2 years). We hugged and kissed her a lot and took a bunch of photos.
However, Kelvin was lucky to get a Monday squeeze vet appointment in the afternoon and we were relieved to find out that she seems to have developed cellulitis and an abscess in her paw, which was making it painful for her to walk. It wasn't very apparent on Sunday through her fur. However, the vet techs shaved her hair, and treatment with warm soaks and oral antibiotics has helped immensely in just two days.
Niall was also ailing a bit, complaining of belly pain on Sunday and Monday but was acting normally. Nevertheless, on Tuesday, he woke up unable to move and holding his stomach. Since starting kinder, he is in charge of his own bathroom tasks, so I actually don't know how regularly he poops (or if he poops at school?) but he, not a huge lover of vegetables and liking "white" food, has struggled a bit with constipation over the years. We kept him home from school Tuesday (although he perked up midday) and I tried to get as much fiber and fluids in him as was possible. He didn't love the taste of fiber chews I got, ate some fruit, and didn't like the juice-Miralax cocktail I mixed. Even a glycerin suppository didn't solve his problem.
check out our counter-pharmacy situation!
He woke up multiple times crying in the night, but still no other symptoms (no vomiting) despite the acute pain. Kelvin was more worried than I was (because he remembers how I minimized his symptoms in 2022 when he had acute appendicitis-- not uncommon for me!) and pushed to get N seen at the acute care clinic and a prompt ultrasound, which saved us so much time, waiting, and an ER visit, which we have always avoided because our feeling is that you actually have to be dying or need surgery to go to a hospital (in any circumstance outside of childbirth). We're thankful for our medical knowledge (which allows us to mostly diagnose our kids/selves without having to go to doctors' appointments), as well as community connections, even thought the knowledge doesn't always serve us that well due to my "normalcy" bias and tendency to not freak out about health things (any other parent would probably have brought their kid to the ER based on how Niall was acting on Tuesday night).
Thankfully, the ultrasound did not suggest intraabdominal fluid nor appendicitis, and showed some stool and prominent lymph nodes... but Niall is back to his feisty, happy self this morning. I still don't know if and when he poops, but "FOS" as we call it in the medical world is not the worst ailment to have. And I was right this time. Childhood constipation is far more likely that acute surgical emergencies, after all. Sigh. If only vegetables tasted like cheese. But we're glad everyone is on the mend.
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