More on Buddy issues

Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2005 8:49 PM
Subject: Back to the dog thing....
Sorry, I was running late... as always.

We had to put Buddy down, he couldn't walk well, he was in pain, his back legs were lame, he couldn't use the stairs, couldn't sit or jump. We thought he was learning so well to not jump up on us and instead he just couldn't jump up.

Brenda, this might be something to be sure you are aware of due to your BIG dog. It is more common in larger dogs. Make sure you are feeding him a GOOD (call the vet) dog food... in fact I have a 40 pound sack here I just opened on Tuesday if you want it. Our vet said a special diet can make them or break them of having hip displasia (hip joints don't work well, causing pain and lameness, can be lateral or bilateral, usually fixed by hip surgery from $1500 to $3000 per side). Ours recommended their vet brand, PT puppy food for large breed dogs. We were feeding an expensive brand from a pet store, Nutro and the vet said that if the calcium and or the folsate (something like that??) isn't the right blend/combo/ratio then it can cause problems because they are growing so fast.

Any how, we are sad about not having him... the treatment was very expensive and the surgeon didn't think Buddy was a good canidate for it due to age and severity. There was an alternative treatment and that Vet said that if it was her she would take the dog back to the breeder.

When we talked about it and called the vet back to tell them to keep him and dispose and all that of him, we got a phone call back from the Vet asking if we would sign him over to her for testing and treatments that she would like to try on him. She said that if he got so he was in more pain and all then they would just put him down. It was hard to do that though too, him living in a crate and stuck there in the animal clinic. Poor little Buddy. Luckily the girls aren't too upset yet about it, and maybe they are just too young to understand totally. Emily's comments when I told her was, "can we get a pink poodle now?"

Sorry this one is so long, it makes up for the small one.

Hope all is good there with you all there. Amanda is doing well here... she is doing well in school, and all that fun stuff. She has a photography class that she is loving... and has taken some awesome pictures. I will have to send some of them to you sometime. She seems to be respecting our rules and very open with us, as we are with her. She isn't fighting any of our modest issues, she kind of laughs and says WHAT? KARLA!!! But it is good. I know she has had tons of improvement, she is here.... she gave up a lot to be here so that is a HUGE step in itself.

I better get going... I will talk with you later. I still have to go to the store... we have no bread, milk, cheese.... the list goes on and on. Oh, and I have $7 to get that all. I think I will be getting a gallon of milk and 2 loaves of bread if I am lucky... at least then we can make lunches for tomorrow... YIPPEE. Hope I get paid tomorrow!

Thanks for listening....

Hope to get a chance to talk to you soon.

Karla