Penny’s Condition

Penny is our Miniature Pincher. She has a beautiful red color and is certainly my wife’s favorite pet — (although my wife calls her “our little child”). Penny’s eleven, and she loves being outside for the most part. She guards the backyard faithfully against those pesky squirrels that steal the birdseed. And she has a keen eye for that green dot that appears from the laser pointer. Normally she’s full of energy. 

Recently, her health has taken a turn for the worse and the graveness of her situation is just now starting to hit me. This is probably due to the last two conversations I’ve had with the vet. I’m asking “How’s she doing?” and “When can we bring her home?” — and he’s busy explaining some slow progress, and no, she still needs more medical care.

We’ve been dealing with her congestive heart failure for quite some time now. We giver her Lasix and Enalapril to pull the excess fluid from her lungs and to help strengthen her heartbeat. But, this is not what we are worried about right now. This past weekend, she found a spot to lay on the floor, eyes open, motionless really. She stopped doing anything — and stopped eating — very much unlike herself to do that.

We took her to the vet Monday. They wanted to run chemistry panels. She had several elevated waste levels in her blood. Basically, her kidneys are failing. I was told she really needed to have her blood run through a dialysis machine — except, they don’t really do this for dogs. Instead, they are flushing IV’s through her system to help her kidneys clean up her blood. Progress is slow. Today is Wednesday, and we’re still not able to take her home. It may be Friday before that happens.

How’s she doing right now? 

Better. She’s regained her appetite — which is good. In fact, today, she felt well enough to show her displeasure being at the vet by chewing up a styrofoam bowl holding her food. We’re not happy that she’s upset; but we’re happy that she’s able to express it.

We’ll keep you posted. Stay tuned.