yeah so apparently i’m one of those parents. and this doesn’t even involve my kid, well my human kidyou see, we took henry to the vet yesterday for a check up and b/c he sort of limps/hops around after a big day at the office chasing birds and squirrels and rats and shit. we also wanted to ask about his weight. you see, natty’s be tooling on me b/c henry looks fat, and like a good american father i said all sort of shit like:
- no he’s not fat, it’s his winter coat
- i’m giving him the same amount of food, leave me/him alone
- when it gets warmer he’ll run around more and he’ll work it off
well, deep down i knew he was getting big, which is weird, b/c when we got him he was so underweight, so i guess i’ve been in a “fatten him up” mode for the last 2 years. well apparently that’s what i did.
in my defense all the stuff on the dog food cans/bags says to give a dog his size 4 cups of food a day, i thought i was doing him a favor by keeping it as 2 cups…err guess not. so in the end, henry, like myself, needs to loose 5 pounds. and to do so we’re cutting him back to 1 cup of food a day. I will cut myself back to 6 beers a day in solidarity.
ex coworker don urged me to have henry’s hips checked out as they just went an ordeal with colby their dog. turns out that henry’s pretty bad off, the vet didn’t even want/need to xray him to confirm that he has dysplasia she just sort of squeezed his hips together and he wimpered and sat down. which is not a good sign.
to just seal the deal with a kick in the balls to me, it’s pretty likely that the weight gain is aggrivating the situation (good job jefke), so i’ve played a hand in this. woohoo.
in then end he’s now on some meds to help ‘lubricate his joints’ and stuff. and if the weight loss doesn’t help then he’ll be on anti inflamitories as well. then further we’ll be looking at surgury, (perhaps). hopefully we have caught it early enough to avoid severe arthritis down the road. oh it was great fun.
on the bright side, swirlie our diabetic cat, is doing well and gaining weight, which is a good thing (to a point), in spite of loosing a tooth earlier in the week. so i guess the diet of expensive perscription food, and insulin are working. that’s something i guess.
it’s times like these where one take a look at one’s life and relized that they’re an adult. i mean i don’t feel like an adult, i guess i look like an adult, i don’t feel like i think like an adult. but here i am living like an adult. i’m responsible for these creatures, their well being, to accomplish that, i do adult like things, i work, make/spend money. maintain a house, it’s weird. it’s like i’ve been pretending that i know what i’m doing so long that i’m actually doing it with out pretending anymore. it’s weird.
and of course, i’ll have to end the post with a great big….
3 responses so far ↓
1 don // Apr 6, 2006 at 10:27 am
I’m fairly certain the sysplasia is a genetic thing, so he would have gotten it regardless… it’s not your fault.
It is good that you caught it early enough. The arthritis is what makes it really painful for them.
2 Jen // Apr 6, 2006 at 5:46 pm
Dysplasia is genetic, but I’ve never heard of it being officially diagnosed without x-ray unless you can literally see the hip out of the joint. In the end, it’s going to worsen with age, and extra weight can also make it worse. I can understand that - 25 extra pounds has made my back hurt like hell at the end of every day. They probably should do x-rays to see how bad it is, but my vet said these days, hip replacement is only for dogs in the worst shape. Poor Henry…Let him know Colby (and the rest of us) sympathize.
3 cormac // Apr 10, 2006 at 8:01 am
You might wanna get some x-rays, anyway. The squeezing and whimpering sounds like it could be signs of something more severe, especially if Henry is normally pretty chill about complaining. Of course, your vet is a vet and I’m not, so I’m probably just full of the selfsame, aforementioned poop and being alarmist.
Along those alarmist lines, though, the Cosequin is totally harmless and seems to have done some good for Violet, who has pretty severe arthritis. Give it a fair amount of time to work, though. Also, Whole Foods has some store-brand hip and joint dog biscuits that are both cheap and, it seems, tasty. Whatever you do, though, beware of Rimadyl. If your vet prescribes it, know that it is incredibly effective and equally liver-melting. Violet went from immobile and whimpering to bouncing like a ball in 2 days on the stuff, but I took her off after a 2-week cycle after reading about some horror stories and talking to a vet tech who said a vet told her it was “really just to let older dogs live out their last days in peace.” She’s been fine on the Cosequin and biscuits since, so I’m thinking the 2 weeks on Rimadyl was enough of a window to allow the glucosmaine and chondroitin to build up in her system.
Give the little (well, kinda big but shrinking, I guess) guy a non-hip rub for me.