Poor Tobi

Tobi in the New House

2011-12-15T16:53:00.001-08:00

Tobi in the New House, originally uploaded by morganloomis.

Poor Tobi, she had to deal with moving to a new house. She doesn't even like it when we move furniture around.

Tobi and Harriet

2011-11-14T02:11:00.001-08:00

Chicken in Bed, originally uploaded by morganloomis.

Happy Birthday Tobi!

2011-10-11T01:35:00.000-07:00

6 years old.

MilesCam

2011-07-31T02:27:00.000-07:00

I'm trying out mounting a GoPro camera on Miles. Need to find a more stable solution, but this is still pretty fun:

MilesCam Test from Morgan Loomis on Vimeo.

Miles' Second Owie

2011-06-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

The other weekend I took Miles to the dog park, and after a couple minutes I noticed he was being very submissive and defensive around this one very playful dog, which is a bit out of character. A little later, after we ran down the beach, I saw he had a rip in his side, and so he must have been bit. His skin tears so easily, and it was a thumb sized hole and a flap of skin, so off to the vet for some more staples!

Luckily he heals quickly, too, so we just got the staples out after a week and a half. For a little while everyone was getting pills in the morning: Miles on antibiotics for his cut, Tobi on antibiotics for her cold, and Nina for being Nina.

Tobi has a Cold

2011-06-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

Tobi and Miles both got a cold recently, it was a bit sad and a bit funny. Miles was generally confused and frustrated, which is how he usually reacts to any kind of change. He would randomly go into these wheezing fits and stare at you like "How do I stop this?"

Tobi was just a wet mess, constantly sneezing and blowing gobs of snot everywhere. At this point in her life, though, she takes any kind of medical problem in stride.

Meet Hoa

2011-06-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

We got another duck, a companion for Ferdinand. His name is Hoa, which means friend in Maori. They're like two peas in a pod.

Poor Nina

2011-01-25T12:50:00.001-08:00

What's the Password?, originally uploaded by morganloomis.

Nina's kind of in a bad patch right now. Her red blood cell count is the worst it's been in over a year. Her health is a roller coaster ride, day to day she'll be energetic and then lethargic. She's been going into the vet every couple weeks for blood tests, to try to find the right dosages of the right medicines to keep her stable. Our vet is great, but no one really knows what to do for her, so now we're trying everything at once. Antibiotics twice a day, prednisone and cyclosporine ever day, and leukeran every other day. It's a pretty rough regimin, and we feel bad for her. But yesterday when we brought her home she was out chasing bugs in the back yard, so you never know.

Miles' First Owie

2011-01-03T01:54:00.000-08:00

We were warned that the whippets are healthy, except for their proclivity for running into and off of things. So this will undoubtedly be the first of many speed wounds:

3 staples, not bad.

Miles Needs One of These

2010-11-10T14:54:00.000-08:00

In addition to calming him down, I'll bet he could significantly lower our power bill if it was hooked up to a generator. You can see a video in action on their website.

Doggy Obedience Graduation

2010-10-14T01:24:00.000-07:00

Tobi and Miles are obedient dogs! I can prove it!

Yeah right...

Happy Birthday Tobi

2010-10-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

A couple days late on this, but Tobi is 5 now.

Medication for Everyone!

2010-09-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

Miles got neutered last week, and they gave him some anti-inflammatory pain pills, so now everyone's on a medication regimen! For a little while, at least. Nina's cell count went down again, so her dosage went up, I have a feeling she's just going to be a roller coaster. Tobi's ears and skin have been especially gross recently and so we got some high powered ear cleaner and Jessica's been flushing her ears daily for a week or so, and they've been getting better. And for her skin, the vet recommended some new shampoo, and it actually seems to be working pretty well:

Tobi Enjoying the Bay of Plenty

2010-08-31T18:27:00.000-07:00

Poor Miles (not really)

2010-08-02T04:31:00.000-07:00

Miles sure gets knocked around at the dog park. But he sure likes it.

Dog Park Ballet from Morgan Loomis on Vimeo.

New Friend

2010-05-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

Meet Miles:

Poor Nina (and Tobi)

2010-04-30T03:16:00.000-07:00

So we know now that Nina has an immune system disorder that makes her anemic, and she's been on regular medication for a couple months. Since her immune system is repressed by the medicine, she recently caught a cold and an eye infection.

Because of the treatment for that on top of her current medication, she has left Tobi in the dust in terms of daily medical treatment, which is something I daresay we never expected. Here's the line-up of the medicine that our pets need on a daily basis:

If you click on the picture it will take you to a breakdown of what everything is. But to sum it up, when we get up in the morning we rub a paste on Nina's gums, force a pill down her throat, squirt a liquid in her mouth, and squeeze an eye-drop into her eye. Then Tobi gets her regular eyedrops, and an antibiotic pill because her skin has been acting up again.

So that's the medical report. The good news is that Nina's eye and Tobi's skin have been getting better. Nina has been seeing a cat specialist whom we like. The medicine is more expensive, but the vet visits are actually cheaper than in the states, so it evens out. Despite it all, we feel like Nina is doing well. She is very active, and loves the yard. She caught her first mouse ever about two weeks ago, and we just discovered the corpse of her second. And we can only interpret that as good news.

Some New Friends

2010-02-22T02:19:00.000-08:00

We went and got some more animals the other day. The flock now includes two chickens and a duckling. Tobi got pecked in the face by the chickens:

but Ferdinand seems to think she's ok:

She's Home!

2010-02-17T11:00:00.000-08:00

Yay! Tobi got out of quarantine on schedule and is making our house feel like home again.

Unfortunately Nina couldn't be released yet. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry decided to run more tests to make sure her anemia isn't masking any infectious diseases. We're sure it's not, but we have to wait until the tests come back before she can be released. It shouldn't take too long. The good news is that her blood cell count is going up, so the treatment appears to be working!

Living it up in Quarantine

2010-01-30T19:11:00.000-08:00

Tobi and Nina have made it halfway through the quarantine process, two weeks left! They're doing great! They're both healthy and playing, and Tobi at least was very happy to see us.

There was a little confusion with the MAF regarding some test results that they haven't seen, but we've been flinging emails around to everyone to get it resolved. Here's some pictures of us visiting them in their sweet digs:

Getting Ready for a Trip

2009-12-21T13:37:00.001-08:00

The animals (and ourselves) are getting ready to move to New Zealand.

The amount of work to get them ready to go is amazing. The regulations for importing cats and dogs into New Zealand are very extensive and specific. When it's all said and done, this is by far the most expensive and stressful aspect of our move. Here's the rundown of their vet visits for the month before departure:

Visit 1: Within 30 days

Monday December 21^st – both pets

*Blood draw for rabies titre

*Blood draw for leptospirosis, ehrlichiosis and brucellosis (brucellosis must be a serum agglutination) (ONLY TOBI)

*Two heartworm tests (antigen and microfilaria) (ONLY TOBI)

*First fecal test

(we recommend direction submission to Kansas State to expediate the results, attached please find the Kansas State submission form)

Visit 2: Within 10 days

Wednesday January 6^th – both pets

*First worming with Praziquantel and Pyrantel

*Blood draw for Babesia (ONLY TOBI) (we recommend direct submission to Texas A&M to save time as Antech or Idexx will take an additional day or two to get to the sample to the testing lab)

Visit 3: Within 4 days

Thursday January 14^th

*Flea/tick

*Worming with ivermectin (see Certificate A (attached) for other types of acceptable wormers)

*Second fecal test

*Second worming with Praziquantel and Pyrantel

*Exit Exam

*Sign off on Certificate A

Friday January 15^th

Departure!

In addition, they require and import permit and a courier to ship them. Once they arrive, they'll be in quarantine for 30 days. One week to go, cross your fingers that it all works out as planned!

Tobi Update

2009-12-17T12:16:00.000-08:00

Quick update on Tobi, I haven't posted in a little while. A month and a half or so ago, she started losing hair like crazy and her skin got really pink. After a lot of baths, we realized it was the flea shampoo that was irritating her. So we switched back to Trader Joes Tea Tree shampoo, and within days she was way better.
We also switched her food, mostly for selfish reasons involving $80 a bag, but she got really stinky. She's better now, so we think it might be something else she ate, but nonetheless we ordered another bag of her old food which we know is good for her. We'll mix them together for a while, and see how that goes.
And that's the update!

Tobi at the Creek

2009-08-18T11:45:00.000-07:00

Tobi at the Creek from Morgan Loomis on Vimeo.

We took Tobi to the creek in downtown San Luis Obispo, and she decided to start a rock collection. She waded in and intently patroled until she saw an especially appealing stone, and then she would stick her whole head under the water to grab it, holding her breath for several seconds while blowing bubbles out of her nose. She carried each one triumphantly to a pile on the shore, and then returned for another. By the time we left she had about a dozen rocks in her collection, and at least as many adoring fans.

Mouth Surgury!

2009-06-23T23:16:00.000-07:00

During a checkup a while ago, the vet found a growth on Tobi's gums. Once we were aware of it, we noticed that when she was playing she would accidently bite it and make it bleed, so we knew it had to go. So she went into surgury yesterday, and everything went good. The vet tech said it's the only dog she's seen who slept through an IV insertion. Snoring, no less. When we picked her up she was as spry and happy as ever, as if nothing had happened. Here's a suitably gross before and after picture of her gums:

The growth is that strawberry looking thing in the center of the top picture. And below, it's totally gone! Tada!

Tobi's Pills

2009-05-26T22:58:00.001-07:00

Tobi's daily pill regimen has gotten complicated enough that we got a little weekly pill case for her:

And here's a legacy of her old and current medications:

Tobi in Slow Motion

2009-04-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

We got a fun new camera, and tested it out on Tobi:

Tobi Running Slow Motion from Morgan Loomis on Vimeo.

Tobi's Toy in Slow Motion from Morgan Loomis on Vimeo.

Dermatology Report

2009-04-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

So tobi had a recheck with the dermatologist, and her little cyst wasn't going away as nicely as they'd hoped, despite the new antibiotics. Now, at this point, she's been on some sort of antibiotics almost non-stop for a long time. We've literally been giving her between one and 6 pills a day for over six months. So the doctor did a culture, and found out that Tobi has grown resistant to many types of antibiotics. For your reading pleasure, here's the printout:

Oh, and also she still has staph. So they gave her a big bottle of people-sized doses of Clindamycin, which should hopefully fix that.

Inter-digital Cysts

2009-04-17T00:31:00.000-07:00

So for a while, Tobi's had some little cysts between her toes. We've heard of that happening to bulldogs, and for the most part they seem to come and go and not bother her very much. But recently she had one that got big and didn't go away. We'd pop it every once in a while, but it would come back, it started bothering her. Here it is:

So yesterday she had her follow-up appointment with the dermatologist, so the split them open and cleaned them out. The conclusion was that they could be from allergies, (weird) and that since she was already on antibiotics, and has been for so long, she's probably immune to them. So she got more pills, and a snazzy little bandage:

She wasn't happy about the process, but she managed to get the bandage off today and that made her feel much better.

The new pill regimen is as follows:

Ciprofloxacin: 2x daily

Ketoconozole: 2x daily

Medrol: 2x a day for 4 days, then 2x every other day for 4 days, then 1 1/2 every other day.

Bath Time!

2009-04-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

Tobi is a stinky dog, and has to take baths often. They go something like this:

Latest Appointments

2009-03-07T19:39:00.001-08:00

Most recently Tobi had appointments with the optimologist and the dermatologist. Her skin is displaying symptoms of allergies, and we're thinking that might have something to do with the irritation of her eyes, too. The most common allergies in dogs are food allergies, so Tobi has some new food! It's fancy expensive vet food, even though it's made of only fish and potatoes! Go figure. In addition to that, she gets medicated shampoo, some special solutions for cleaning her ears and her folds, and more medication! Here's this month's lineup:

Here's how the ear cleaning works, it's kind of fun: You soak a cotton ball in the cleanser, and then squish it down into her ears, and then let her shake them out, and it breaks up the earwax!

New Meds!

2009-01-15T00:35:00.000-08:00

So Tobi finally finished up about two months worth of antibiotics for her surgery and her eye, but then the other day she started having diarrhea. And some of it was a little bloody. Yikes. We took her to the vet, and lo and behold, prolonged antibiotics can cause stomach ulcers, which is what he thinks she has. More meds! And more antibiotics, ironically, although a different kind. He also suggested we give her a low dosage of Pepcid, probiotics, and feed her rice and cottage cheese. Which she actually likes, as it turns out. And the best part, we need to bring the vet some poop. They gave us a little jar that has a special lid, with a spoon on it. So right now we have a gross poopy little spoon jar in our fridge. All in all she's feeling better, though. Here she is playing "burrito:"

Medication Regimen

2008-12-05T21:31:00.000-08:00

It's safe to say that Tobi has more medication than most dogs. On a regular basis, we at least give her glucosamine for her joints, eye drops for her eyes, and we just recently started using baby powder to help dry out her folds. But with all the stuff this vet prescribed, her regimen is positively ridiculous:

Gentamicin Ointment - Right Eye, 4 times a day

Cephalexin Capsules - 2 times a day

Chlor 1%dex/ 0.1% oint - Left Eye only, 3 times a day

Optimune - Both Eyes, once a day

Predisone Pills - Once a day for 5 days

Atropine Sulfate - Right Eye only, once a day for 3 days, then every other day

Ofloxacin - Right Eye only, 6 times a day for 2 days, then 4 times a day

The stuff on the left we had already, and use as needed. The stuff on the right is what she came home with.

It's complicated enough that with us both in and out of the house, we need to have a schedule on the fridge of when to give her all her stuff, so that she gets everything she needs at the right time during the day. For example, this morning I woke up, gave her two types of eyedrops in her right eye, 5 minutes apart, one drop in her left eye, and a pill. Then I was off to work. Before Jessica left for work, she gave Tobi another pill, and two more types of eyedrops. Then I came back home for lunch to give her another eyedrop, and then again at break to give her two more. Now we're both home for the evening, as I'm writing this, and I just gave her two more eyedrops and a pill. She'll get another eyedrop right before bed, and then start over again in the morning.

Back From the Optomologist

2008-12-05T21:13:00.000-08:00

Tobi's eyes had been getting worse, we could tell that they were bothering her. Both the vets said we should see a specialist, so after she recovered from her various surgeries, we that was the very next stop. In fact, her prescription of antibiotics ran out the very morning of her appointment. Naturally, they prescribed more.
The diagnosis was what Jessica predicted, she has an ulcer in her right eye. Since it bothers her, she squints a lot, and since her eyelids roll in, her eyelashes irritate the eye even more. It's a vicious cycle. In order to keep her from squinting to help it heal, they stapled her poor eye open. That's pretty much one of the most horrible things I've ever heard. But that's Tobi. Brace yourselves, it's pretty gruesome:

She also has to wear a cone for this one when she's not supervised, since she can scratch her eyes and possibly dislodge one of the staples. She doesn't really know how to handle the cone, though. Her current strategy is to stand still as long as possible:

When she does move, she'll bump into something and immediately freeze until someone comes to help her:

Luckily the staples come out after only 5 days, and as of this posting she's already feeling a lot better.

Post-Surgery Medication

2008-12-04T23:56:00.000-08:00

She came back from the vet all wobbly, with little doggy anti-inflammatory pills. Since she was at the specialist all day, the vet had a dermatologist take a look at her. Did I mention she has bad skin? They said that she probably had a staff infection, and so they upped the normal dosage of antibiotics, two pills a day for a month. She also came back with some fancy eyedrops, and so during the day we may squirt in any one of the following: saline, to clear out the goop, cyclosporin, which helps her make tears, an antibiotic eyedrop, and an off the shelf drop that we had already been giving her.

Butt Surgery (Tail Surgery)

2008-12-04T23:47:00.000-08:00

During the same trip as the knee surgery, we talked to the vet about her tail. She has a cute bob tail, but for a while it had been irritating her, because under the fold of skin a her tail was poking her. In the x-ray they found that she actually had a little piece of bone that wasn't really attached to anything, just floating around causing trouble. So we had them take care of that during the same surgery, while she was still sedated. So she came home with staples in her legs and stitches in her butt. Luckily she didn't need a cone, because she can't reach either of those places to chew on them. They also shaved her, of course, which had to have been a little embarrassing.

I have to admit that this isn't really the cutest side of our dog, especially with the bruising.

Knee Surgury

2008-12-04T23:35:00.001-08:00

So we took her to a specialist, and after doing their own x-rays, determined that in fact her hips weren't the problem, but that she had torn her cruciate ligament in her knee, which in humans is referred to as the ACL. We scheduled her for a surgery in which they stabilized her knee with a little metal wire. It left her walking much better, and sporting this impressive scar:

X-Rays

2008-12-04T23:21:00.001-08:00

7 months or so ago Tobi took a spill and started limping. She would get better, but then she would trip, or wear herself out and start limping again. So we took her to the vet, and they took these X-Rays. The prognosis was that she has arthritis in her hips, and they suggested that we see a specialist.
In addition to her legs, we had them look at her eyes, which had started irritating her. They thought that she might benefit from a surgery where they trim the eyelids, because they're folding in and scratching her eyeballs.

In Her Prime

2008-12-04T23:01:00.000-08:00

See? She's awesome.

Poor Tobi

2008-12-04T22:40:00.000-08:00

Poor Tobi. She's the nicest dog in the world and she can't catch a break. She just got back from her first trip to the optomologist, and the amount of medication she has by itself is worth documenting. But that's not the half of it, so this blog is about her tragic ordeals.