Awwww....furbaby update!

Our poor girl Cloe, as if she doesn't have enough problems with fighting cancer, ended up spending 2 nights at the vets last week. I first noticed a problem the day after picking her up at the kennel - she wasn't excited about her food, didn't finish it all, was struggling to get up off the floor or sit properly, and was super slow on a little walk we went on. I finally noticed that one of her hind legs was swollen and was immediately worried that it could be a spider bite, but since she was still moving around I figured she wasn't in imminent danger. I booked in with the vet and gave her some benadryl (thinking that it was an allergic reaction) - when she wouldn't take the treat I hid the pill in I knew she was really ill!

Well, it turned out that she had a fever and her leg was very infected (bad news) - the good news is that it wasn't due to swollen lymph nodes, so it wasn't directly cancer related. However, since she has been on steroids far longer than expected at this point (just about 4 months now - twice as long as their best estimate) they are compromising her immune system and make her more prone to infections. She had scraped up elbows and some wounds on her rear leg that came from staying at the kennel for 10 days while we were in Fiji (boy do I feel guilty).

So, after only having her home for one day I had to leave her at the vets in the hopes that she would be all right and be home the next day. It ended up being 2 days, but she came home lively and energetic - obviously feeling much better than when she left!

I'm glad to say she is doing quite well, even if she looks a bit funny with shaved elbows and leg. She is back to begging constantly for treats, fatter than ever, and still loving going on walks to hunt for

lizards, cats and anything else she can find!

Oh yes, we tried bandaging up her elbows one day in the hopes of stopping her from licking them and giving them a chance to heal up - well that lasted about 5 minutes before she had chewed off all our hard work - dogs!!