The bitterest pill

Hanging in as best he can.

This a Satchmo post so if you haven’t been following along you might want to skip what is beneath the fold.

On Monday I said there wouldn’t be any more posts for awhile until there was something more to update. Unfortunately, there is.

Last night  Satchmo attempted to move from a rug he had been sleeping on and go get in his bed and when he attempted to put weight on his rear left leg it gave way. After a bit of struggling he managed to walk lightly on it and go to his bed but, needless to say, we were alarmed. This morning about 3AM he started moaning in pain and we had to slide his bed out from under ours and when he attempted to stand he was unable to use the leg at all and just sat down. After a bit of a struggle, because he didn’t want me to pick him up, I carried him out to lawn so he could pee and then we just sat in the wet grass for awhile before I carried him back in. Despite his pain pills he never could get settled in again and mrs tbogg spent the rest of the night on the floor with him trying to keep him comfortable.

This morning it was off to the veterinary hospital where he was examined by the neurologist, and we have pretty much come to the conclusion that it is most likely a spinal issue with damage in the lumbar region. As far his left leg goes, he might be feeling pain when putting weight on it much like sciatica. The leg works but the pressure is painful.

The options presented to us were as follows:

• An MRI to locate the damage and surgery. Not to put too fine of  a point on it, we would be looking at about $8000 for testing and  surgery on an eleven year-old dog with no guarantee of success. We had previously ruled out surgery because we’re afraid he couldn’t take it.

• We could put him down.  Nobody ever wants to make this decision. You have to balance the quality of life of the dog against  your own breaking heart. It is particularly hard in the case of a dog who still has his faculties about him and can still manage to thump his tail when you enter the room. If you’re finding this hard to read, you can only imagine how hard it is for me to write it.

• Lastly we could up up his  steroids, increase his pain medication and give the steroids a chance to do their work and take him to a place where his pain is manageable and he can regain the use of his leg.

We decided to give the medication route every chance to work and are looking into some alternative therapies. For at least the next two weeks (knock on wood) he will be confined to a crate and kept quiet, somewhat sedated and given time to heal.  In the meantime I’ll continue to carry him outside as needed and we are trying to get him used to a shearling sling that we’ll employ to help him walk a bit. We’ll see what happens.

As you can imagine, we’re devastated by this turn of events and with the L&T Casey leaving to return to college next week, life here at tbogg estates is not exactly a cabaret these days.

I again want to thank everyone for their patience, kind words, encouragement and  suggestions. I can’t put into words how much it means to all of us… so you’ll just have to trust me.

Tomorrow night I’ll be back with Thursday Night Basset Blogging  (with an explanation about how Fenway ended up wandering about on the roof…. you had to be there) and hopefully something more enjoyable to read.

That would be a nice change for all of us.