Preston - A Demon in Disguise

changing things up ... step 1

2008-03-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we cut out the Sucralfate at the advice of my vet.

No regurgitating, I slept like a baby last night, and was also quite pleased that I didn't have to set my alarm for 2am to give him the med!

sleep? what's that?

2008-03-11T06:49:00.000-07:00

Sleepless nights in Seattle. Err, Ottawa. Last night Preston threw up over and over ... three times in my bed, and about four times on the floor. No sooner would I drift off to sleep than I'd hear BLEUGHHH!!

I sit at work in a daze. I was toasting my bagel earlier and fell asleep standing up in the kitchen. I want to go home!

the way we once were ...

2008-03-08T08:24:00.000-08:00

Preston threw up three times yesterday. Twice this morning. Once was right after he ate, and he brought it up right on my bed while I was lying in it - raw food coated in a smelly brown goop. Yum. That got me up earlier than I had envisioned.

The second time he just exploded a bunch of liquid onto the floor of the kitchen. Totally clear except for a few specks of white, I haven't seen any regurgitations like this before. Maybe because his stomach was so empty he was only able to share his saliva.

My mum has brought Brittain and Hemi to the vet to get their nails clipped. She'll be mentioning to him that Preston is back to his old ways ... We'll see what he says.

a day of barium xrays

2008-02-29T07:18:00.001-08:00

So the vet did a series of barium xrays all day yesterday. Preston's stomach emptied properly and quickly, so it's not what they were thinking. It's also not hiatal hernia ... Apparently the specialist looked for that before.

So this is good news and bad news. The good news is, we're holding off on surgery for now, and waiting to see if this is transient, and if we can keep him from vomiting for 4-6 weeks. I've lowered his level of exercise and excitement which seemed to bring stuff up.

The bad news is we still don't know what's wrong, and thus cannot fix it. The vets (two specialists and my own) have all agreed that we've kind of exhausted our supply of medications and testing - nothing new to try.

So all I can do is hope it mends itself, for now!

As a side note, the vet tech said she can see why I would be okay with spending so much money on Preston ... She said he's a total doll and sweetie! I think Preston has an admirer! ;)

i have an addiction...

2008-02-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

I think I'm addicted to collars. No, I know I'm addicted to collars. I buy most of my collars from Randi of Zoe's Collection - and boy, do I ever buy a lot!

Preston just got a new shipment of collars and matching leashes in :) weeeee!!

ice, ice baby!

2008-02-26T06:50:00.000-08:00

Food on ice, that is. Frozen food... RAW food. I did some researching yesterday and spoke with other dog owners and decided RAW was the way to go! Some people even said their dog's problems completely cleared up after switching them to raw food.

I went to Global Petfoods yesterday and bought Nature's Variety in Venison, which is supposed to be the most easily digested. I got a big bag of the patties, and a smaller bag of the medallions. Preston will be eating about half a patty and one medallion per day. I also bought some Activia yogurt which has probiotics. I'll feed him a spoonful of that a day. The big bag cost $28.99 and the small bag $15.99. With about 15 patties and 30-odd medallions, that will last a month. More costly than the Eagle Pack kibble I had been buying, but less costly than the Eagle Pack canned food, I think this is a happy medium and I'm also quite pleased that he's on an all-natural diet. I feel very strongly that dogs need meat, veggies, NO GRAINS, and need to eat like their wolf brethren.

I will buy another bag of a different meat in a week or two, and mix them up for some variety.

THIS MAY BE THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THE PROBLEMS! If his problems clear up without surgery or lengthy medicating ... it will be due to the food and I will promote it EVERYWHERE!

change of pace

2008-02-25T06:33:00.000-08:00

Well - Preston has been regurgitating again. He lasted all of about two weeks before he started throwing up his medications. We cut out the Gaviscon in case it was hindering the other meds and got a new medication, Metoclopramide, to help move the food along and reduce nausea. We also changed the schedule so that the day kind of went like this:

6:00: Sucralfate
8:00: Cisapride / Metoclopramide
8:30: breakfast
4:15: Sucralfate
5:15: Cisapride / Metoclopramide
5:45: dinner
9:45: Sucralfate
10:45: Cisapride / Metoclopramide / Omeprazole

Fastforward a week. Preston starts regurgitating with exercise or excitement. We picked up the renewal prescription on Saturday and he threw up three times after during our romp in the woods. Yesterday, Sunday, he didn't throw up the entire Boston Terrier meet but did right after arriving home and jumping out of the van, and then again in the house.

I phoned the vet this morning and we are changing the schedule again. He thought perhaps the Sucralfate is working so well that it's hindering all the other meds. So we're going to switch the timing around, in order to be giving that AFTER.

6:15: Cisapride / Metoclopramide
6:45: breakfast
8:45: Sucralfate
4:15: Cisapride / Metoclopramide
4:45: dinner
6:45: Sucralfate
9:45: Cisapride / Metoclopramide / Omeprazole
10:45: Sucralfate

We will have to see if this works. I am going to buy some highly digestible food for him tonight. The vet wanted IAMS special formula for puppies ... But I hate IAMS and refuse to feed that to my dog. Only the best. I'm conferring with other Boston owners and will update!

update

2008-01-31T10:05:00.001-08:00

Preston hasn't brought anything up in 42 hours! This is amazing since it had gotten so bad he was regurgitating huge amounts about 3 times an hour. Cross your fingers for him!

gave us a scare ...

2008-01-29T18:23:00.001-08:00

Preston has been regurgitating his food for the past week and a half. At our regular vet clinic he had an x-ray done which showed a strange pouch above the heart, just below his neck. The vet seemed to think that the food was getting stuck there and never getting to his stomach. He sent the x-ray off to an internal/cardiac specialist who then set up an appointment with me for Preston. He first wanted to do a CT scan ($1500) to confirm his suspicions, and if that failed, an endoscopy ($1500) to check out another suspicion.

He did a barium x-ray before the CT scan just to make sure that the pouch was still there. Strangely, it had disappeared. But Preston had been regurgitating way more often than the past few days, so something was definitely wrong. He also had lost 0.4lbs in a week, and a puppy of 7 months should be gaining weight, not losing it. The specialist, Dr. de Madron, said if he didn't get this fixed he would either die of malnutrition or of pneumonia. Obviously, the costs are secondary to his health, so we forged ahead to find the real problem.

A barium scope told the tale. His esophagus had all reddening around the sphincter joining the esophagus and the stomach, which was caused from the fluids in the belly leaking back into the esophagus. The sphincter, which normally is closed, was open, so that was the problem.

The vet decided he has esophagitis, derived from vomiting due to gastric reflux. He gave us a bunch of medications to take for a month ... So we'll see how that goes.

Generally, in the car, Preston does not relax. He's always having a look at passing cars, pedestrians, or licking the window. Tonight, though, on the way home, he lay on the seat and whimpered softly. My poor little man!

boston terriers unite

2007-09-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today was a fun day. Boston Terriers from across Ottawa gathered together for their monthly meetup and we tagged along for the fun.

Approximately 40 BTs showed up, along with a Boxer, some random dogs who appeared midway through, and a Great Dane who proceeded to get beat up by the Boxer and left, tail tucked firmly between his legs.

Preston enjoyed all the other BTs immensely but his favourite was Stella, a little girl his age exactly, 11 weeks. She was wearing a cute little pink sweater and it was love at first sight.

They lay together for about an hour, with some heavy petting and gentle bitey-facing, and anyone who came along got a snarl from Stella. I guess she knows what she wants and she takes it! You go, girl. There were two other 11 week old girls and one 4 month old girl, and whenever they made an attempt to procure Preston's services, or even a minute of his attention, Stella was NOT having it. Not. Having. It. Actually, I think she should have played it hard to get instead of being so obviously available. Easy girls come and go but you don't take them home to meet your parents. Please, Preston! Get a room.

Anyway, all good things must come to an end, so Stella and Preston had to part within 2 hours of meeting. We'll see her next month. Preston was so tuckered out from all his frolicking and general misbehaving that he passed out the second we got in the van.

fun on the ATV

2007-09-10T06:51:00.000-07:00

Brittain and Hemi get their exercise by way of running behind me on the ATV through the woods. Preston being too small and too young currently to run behind, I bought him a tummypouch in which he can sit and ensure the goings-on are to his satisfaction.

He loves his tummypouch. He falls asleep by the end of the ride but for about 20 minutes at the beginning he's all gung-ho, watching the every move of his big sisters from his perch.

When we get to the water, he is unclipped and set on the ground and he can gambol at his leisure, pretending he's just been for a big run and is all pumped full of adrenaline. Brittain and Hemi enjoy running into the water up to their waist and having a big drink. Preston is too small, unfortunately, and just ends up getting stuck in the mud.

mmmm ... dishes

2007-09-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

At the tender age of 9 weeks, Preston has discovered the dishwasher. Like his sisters before him, he has taken to licking the dishes when they are put in. At first, he was merely imitating Brittain and Hemi by putting his face there and giving the rack a few random nibbles, until his tongue accidentally touched a plate and he got a mouthful of barbecue sauce. Mon dieu! C'est magnifique.

oh sleep how i miss thee

2007-08-29T06:20:00.000-07:00

Let nobody fool you into thinking that owning a puppy is all fun and games. It isn't. It's lack of sleep, energy, and eventually patience.

Second night down. It hasn't gotten any better. I sit at work on Monday morning and stare at my computer screen without really seeing anything, I answer the phone without really hearing the caller. I am devoid of energy, and it's showing. My boss asked me if I wanted to take the next day off and I gladly accepted, though as we're on a sort of summer siesta at work currently, I'd be doing more work at home with the dogs than here. Nor would I be able to sleep in ... but it was an opportunity to train Preston so I jumped at it.

I aimed to crate-train him, so that I might actually sleep for more than a few minutes Tuesday night, but eventually we just ended up lying on towels on the front lawn and sleeping. I was too exhausted to focus.

Preston got along well with my other dogs, Brittain and Hemi, Hemi actually playing with him instead of just growling all the time as she has been wont to do. Preston discovered that he can bring his water bowl to where we were lying instead of having to go across the lawn everytime he wanted a drink, so he did just that. He then wondered why there was no water left in it.

By the time dinner rolled around, Preston was still less than enamoured with his crate so I decided to bite the bullet and put him in bed with me. Maybe, just maybe, he would wake up, be content with his sleeping spot, and go back to sleep without peeing on my pillow.

Oh I spoil him.

a date with the devil

2007-08-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

I saw an ad for Boston Terrier puppies on kijiji. One finger click and a quick page-load later I was caught, hook, line and sinker and pursuading my mum to "lemme have oneee-uhh!" We already owned a Boxer and a Lab/who-the-heck-knows mix, and the house was feeling a bit full. Once I had her 80% convinced, I set to work on my dad and within a few hours I was hopping back to my computer to get the breeder's phone number.

I called the next morning (Saturday, August 25) and heard "Oui, bonjour?" Crap. My french is good to a point, but I have never discussed buying a dog in the language and I didn't want to make any mistakes. "Euh, oui ... as-tu un petit chiot qui est un garçon??" Yeah, no. I got my dad on the phone and he wrote down directions to the breeder's house and we were assured that there was still a little boy available.

I was extremely hyped by this time, and was SURE I was about to meet my new puppy. I convinced my mum, through cajoling, whining, face-scrunching and knee-quaking that she just HAD to come with me so that she could drive home while I held the new puppy in my lap.

We set out and arrived at our destination an hour and a half later. We walked up the driveway and up some rickety stone steps and saw a man and a woman outside the house. I approached them self-consciously, mentally practicing what I would say, and then, in French, told them my name and said I was here about the puppy. To which I received "what puppy?" -a slight bit of heart-stoppage until- "only joking!" (phew!)

We went inside and were met with the CUTEST little thing on four legs. No fear, no manners, no attention span, he was exactly what I envisioned. What I wanted. 8 weeks old and rarin' to go! We discussed his cuteness and overall qualities, we saw his mother briefly (this was a very different experience from buying our boxer, which was a thorough FBI investigation lie-detector testing) and then I handed over the money and he was MINE! All miiiiiiiine.

I tried to carry him cooly to the car as he wriggled and threatened to do a triple salchow and land not-so-gracefully on the pavement, finally I was able to sit down and hold him on my lap as my mum pulled away. I was actually quite impressed with his bladder skills, he held it in the whole way home, even though I dutifully took a pit stop at a nice little park in the pouring rain while he dashed around, attempting to escape under some bushes, but not peeing. So, drenched but smiling, we carried on home, getting lost only three times, and eventually making it back to our little town. The rain had stopped by now so my mum dropped me off at the park, and went home to get our two other dogs so they could meet on neutral ground.

This went well, they only knocked him over five times, and each time he leapt right back up and inserted himself in the middle again. Good boy. These are the big leagues now!

We walked back home and let him run around a bit on the wood floors (not the carpet, never the carpet!). When bed time came, we put him in his box (the crate hadn't been set up yet) and attempted to go to sleep while he screamed bloody murder at the injustice of it all. I was startled awake every hour on the hour when the little dumpling himself awoke and realized, "NO! I'M STILL IN THIS BOX!" He certainly didn't need to pee, though he manfully did when I stumbled blindly out the door with him precariously in my arms, and put him on the grass.

Ahh what a night. But I got my puppy!