This was not a fleeting touch, she held it here for approx. 30 seconds at a time. Please support non docking practices.
Hi everyone, I thought I’d shade what we’ve been dealing with lately. Miss Elsa recently had a thorough senior check up a couple of months ago; which included, a full torso ultrasound, urine analysis with a sterile draw, senior blood panel and physical exam. The Vet found that Elsa has one very small, shriveled kidney and one that looks like a young four year old’s kidney. He also found that she had a double uti. I found this very odd because she had no symptoms once so ever.
What does this small kidney thing mean? Well, for now it means that if her other kidney stays healthy, she will be fine. But, because of it we are keeping a very close eye (even closer than usually) on everything. Because she had never had an ultrasound before; we really don’t know if it was always like this or was actually caused by her spinal stroke. The Vet thinks that the stroke was probably the culprit; which means there was much more damage than we originally thought.
After losing Tilley to a ruptured spleen tumor that we hadn’t known about and then Luke from a ruptured liver tumor; I vowed to ultrasound all of my dogs from the age of 10 years annually. And boy am I glad I did, I would have never known about the kidney if I hadn’t.
We addressed the uti, or so I thought. Only a week after finishing up her antibiotics she started showing clear signs of a UTI. Even though she had no symptoms earlier, she started having them after being off the antibiotics. So Elsa had to go on another round of different ones because she’d had a double uti. She has had to have several urine draws where she is placed in a foam V, and a needle stuck into her bladder. It is the best way to get a sterile sample, although the idea is very upsetting to me. My last girl Tilley had the same thing done many times and was like Elsa, a super star.
Yesterday marked a week since her last antibiotics so we were back at the Vet to have another urine analysis done. Elsa amazes me, she is so good at the Vet and goes with them to the back for her draw without much fuss. She is much better than I am, I very rarely allow them to take any of my dogs back behind closed doors.
So we wait for the next results to come back which should be by early next week hopefully. She is not exhibiting anymore symptoms, which is a great thing. And I keep my fingers crossed as I wait for the results of the next one.
As we entered the Vets building yesterday Elsa was happy to see everyone but with a smidge of apprehension. She ADORES people but was a little stressed about being taken back and what would be happening. As we sat waiting our turn, Elsa was wagging furiously at everyone but would stop every once in a while to hold me. This is something that she has done with her tail pretty much forever. She use to wrap it around Luke’s neck, she does it with Riggs and she does it with us all the time.
Elsa with her best friends.
Luke with Elsa’s tail wrapped around his neck
This is one of the reasons I am so very passionate about tails and not amputating them, not even the smallest bit of them. Our dogs use their tail for a whole lot more than just wagging. They use them for balance, communication and touch. A touch and hold from a tail is a very special thing and…I was very happy that she did it several times at the Vets; enabling me to capture it and share it with you all.
Even the very tip 1” of the tail is used for subtle communications. If she’d had even part of her tail cut off; we would have missed so much communication from her. Sometimes when she is lying on the couch; we just walk by and the very tip 1” wags, that’s it. If it was gone, we would never see that.
Elsa is an extremely special girl and if you’ve had the privilege of meeting her, you know that. Her and I have an amazing bond and connection, a very special one. The photo above shows that connection and her ability to take comfort from her person when she needed it.