[Dailydrool] Young Charlie and his troublesome nebberminds again

[Elizabeth]

Young Charlie began this morning with panicked whining because he really, really had to go out and his doggie door was locked. Then he had diarrhea. Then he didn't get breakfast. Then he was taken to the vet and had to stay there all day so the vet could work him into her schedule during free moments. She spent a lot of time on his waterworks, finding a new, small growth on a most sensitive part to aspirate. The good news is that the cells aren't cancerous. But the vet isn't able to identify them beyond that. My hope is that they're just crud or an irritated spot from all the licking Charlie's been doing. The vet says the growth should come off, but we need to wait to do it. Anesthesia relaxes the body so much that the muscles in Charlie’s back won’t be able to support his spine, and right now he really needs the support they give.

The vet's suspicion is that Charlie's renewed attention to his urogenital area indicates a disk issue, like, perhaps, a pinched nerve. Her thought is that the compromised disk is one that affects the nerves running to that part of his body, so all of Charlie's nebberminds either feel painful or just plain weird. Excessive licking has been his way of trying to restore normal feeling to them. It's clearly not working. Perhaps the new meds, Gabapentin and Methocarbamol, will. He hasn’t been put on crate rest, but I'm to limit his activity. Since he goes back to bed after breakfast and sleeps until mid- to late afternoon, I’m not sweating the limited-activity thing. We just won’t plan on going on any walks or encouraging chasing games in the evening. 

Although his back legs are less steady and coordinated than usual, he’s still able to walk. He’s still interested in eating and isn’t shivering (except for this morning while the vet tech was taking his history), so I don't think it's quite time to talk with the vet about introducing Charlie to Purdue's vet school. I hope that time never comes. Charlie had a disk issue four years ago and recovered fully from it after two weeks of crate rest and Temeral-P. I'm hoping he can do it again now.

Of all the places to be feeling oversensitive nerves!

Elizabeth
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