UTI

Heart, lungs, blood work except WBC, normal. He does have a UTI which is weird as no signs of one at all. So that is a relief!

Merlin isn't eating...

Merlin is under the weather. He would not eat this morning. Later I took him for a car ride and a walk on the ADA trail and he perked up and ate a few small milk bones. But now no dinner.

Merlin still isn't eating more than a few nibbles of liverwurst. At least I can get his pills into him.  Tomorrow we will go to the vet if he is still down and see if it is anything there is a magic bullet for, but I am worried this may be it.  If it is, better now than Christmas Day.  So think good vibes and pray good prayers for him.  I won't let him continue not feeling good so if he isn't better or there is no quick fix...

He did go right to sleep when I brought him into the bedroom and sat down  with him,. which as you know is completely out of character... he should be barking up a storm!

As he is no longer walking at all I know his time is short but I had hoped not before we get back to California, especially since he enjoys the car trip so much. So send him your vibes and prayers.

Knuckling/loss of proprioception

I wanted to include a photo showing what I meant in the previous post.



I decided the airbag was the least of Merlin's worries, so fixed him a better spot in the front seat. He likes it!

merlin's walking days are over

He looks kind of miserable in the picture but it was icy cold and windy and he wasn't getting any treats.

Merlin is still here, still barking and complaining, but recently his walking took a bad turn. About two weeks ago I noticed he was knuckling on his left front leg. The right soon followed. In DM, knuckling is caused by loss of proprioception, which is the ability to sense where one's limb is in space. in other words, Merlin put his foot down and if it was upside down, he didn't know it, and just left it.

He was still trying to walk until a week ago, but with increasing difficulty as his legs didn't seem to know quite how to move anymore. I decided there was no point continuing to worry about staying in shape if walking wasn't going to be happening much longer, so have not encouraged walking, though I put him in the cart when he wants to. The last two walks, he hasn't wanted to get down.

Now the challenge is to make his stroller rides more interesting. i realized today the beach sand is packed well enough that I should be able to take the stroller on it, so will try that tomorrow. if he can't run on the beach at least he should be able to enjoy the sights and smells.

On the plus side he is sleeping well at night, although he wants a) to go to bed at about 7:30 PM and b) for me to come to bed when he does. I usually give in about eight and go read instead of watching t.v., although now that I figured out i can watch TV shows on my ipad now that it gets 3G, I can also do that.

His appetite is still good, but he has trouble if the food isn't in reach, as his front paws are also not working for moving things towards him. I noticed he got a little frustrtaed with that last night.

I did the Scout's House Qualifty of life scale and came out a 13, which is the low end of good quality of life. (Or high end, 0-13 is in the good range, 13 up to something is decreased quality, etc.) So he is on the cusp of lower quality of life, not that life at this stage is a picnic, but I think he would still rather be here than not.

Now he is barking away saying it is past bedtime. I will try to upload a photo later, but I have to be on a real computer to do that, I think, unless I have one on Photobucket.

Support- and the lack thereof

On Corgis on Wheels we have discussed support- where you find the emotional and physical support you need as you care for your disabled dog. Family, friends, physical therapists, and veterinarians were all named.

Today's blog is not about support, it is about lack of support.

Without getting into too many details, I took a car trip with two other people, one of whom this story is about. I expected the trip to take only three hours, and planned to leave at 8 am, so thought Merlin would be good left home during that time. Well, as often happens, we left over an hour later, and things took longer, and instead of being home before noon, we were still 45-50 minutes away at 12:30 PM. At that point, I expressed my concern about getting home quickly.

We got into the car, and this other person announced we were going to stop and fill up a gas can for a boat on the way home. To be charitable, I don't know that she initially did this just to provoke me, she could simply not have understood the urgency. I objected, suggesting she could go back and get gas after dropping me at home, which is about five minutes from the gas station. I explained that I was concerned that Merlin would have to pee and would end up lying in it, and I needed to get home as fast as possible.

At that point, instead of agreeing and expressing concern over Merlin, this person insisted she was going to stop for gas if she felt like it, and told me I could call and get someone else to let him out. I explained it wasn't a matter of letting him out, someone needed to put him in the cart and express him, and no one knew how. She said I just didn't want to stop because I wanted my own way, and as the driver, she would do what she felt like.

I realized soon that she was making sport of upsetting me. Nowhere in her game was any concern for Merlin, he simply didn't enter into the equation. To her, the argument was just like an earlier one about gay marriage, it had nothing to do with Merlin or my feelings, it was just sport. She has no empathy for animals and can't understand why someone else would bother to go out of her way to care for a dog. It's possible she thought the argument was just a game for me, too.

Now I know this isn't really about DM or Merlin. But it is the existence of people like her that makes searching for support both difficult and important. Difficult because one never knows the reaction another person might have to concern about a dog, and important because loving, supporting, caring individuals are needed to counteract the selfish and uncaring ones. I'm lucky that this insensitive person is not someone I see every day, and really feel for those who have spouses or children or parents who fail to understand their care and concern for their dog.


I did get home in time to take Merlin out, and he definitely had to go. Bottom line, there will always be insensitive people, who lack the experience to understand and the capacity to empathize with animals or with the feelings of other people. And I am glad I am not one of them. And I think, in the long run, those of us with the capacity to love and care for an dog, and to empathize with the feelings and needs of other living creatures, human or not, are the lucky ones.

August 2010 Update

Merlin has had a good month. July 4th weekend was spent at my sister's in Ronald, Washington, to avoid insane fireworks on Whidbey, and Merlin did a bit of walking, some sleeping, and got a nice visit to the Cle Elum street fair. He got a lot of attention in his stroller and cart, plus good treats.

In July he went to the Bayview Farmers Market in just his stroller. What a difference! While some people thought he was cute, others called him spoiled and lazy. I explained that he could not walk. We talked about this on Wheelcorgis, and one member said she got the same reaction when her disabled daughter was in a stroller as opposed to a wheelchair. People see the wheelchair as cute, the stroller as spoiling the pet (or child.) Hey, folks, when you see what looks like a child or a dog too big for a stroller, consider that just maybe he or she cannot walk!

In July, also, blackberries on the dike start ripening, and Merlin's interest in walks triples. He literally runs to get to the berries, and even after he conks out and is in the stroller he barks for more.

We finished out July with the Pacific Northwest Corgi Picnic in Woodinville. Merlin was allowed all the attention and mooching for treats that he could manage, and you can see by the photo that he had a great time!

Physically, he is doing about the same. He is still strong enough to run in his four-wheel cart, but moves around very little outside the cart, and only really uses it for walks, with leash assistance. He can only pee on his own in the cart, same with poop, at least, no control there and sometimes he needs to be expressed for both. He is licking his front paws a lot so they look awful but he always has, he just did it for less time before. Appetite is great (he is a corgi) and bark still going strong.

Merlin in the summer

Merlin is doing very well up here in Washington. our routine is that he wakes me up around six am and I carry him outside to pee and poop (expressing both) and then back in where I put him on the recliner so he feels safer. He is in the four wheel cart for pee and poop. then we have pills. The switch from phenobarbital to KBr was seamless thanks to zonisamide, his other seizure med, and he gets SAM-e in the morningo and Atavan in the evening as well. Pills are in liverwurst as he will no longer eat peanut butter.

Then we wait an hour to eat and he often barks or whines through most of that.

After breakfast I take Merlin out to the car and put him in his crate in the back, on Palace fleece. If it is warm I roll the windows down and if it is sunny drape a reflective tarp over the car. It has only hit 75 once so far so heat has not been a problem. He gets either a milk bone or a sweet potato chew in the car and then naps until around noon when he has a potty break and sometimes a short walk. If I go anywhere of course he goes along.

Merlin started this sleeping in the car all day four years ago, it is not really a DM thing, but it does make life easier since he tends to bark for attention, food, water, bodily needs, or just because the rest of the time.

At about five I give him his dinner and then around seven take him for a walk. He is using the four wheel K9west cart and I have sent his counterbalanced Eddies out on a Corgiaid loan. He can run in the four wheel cart and does, but only when he is in a hurry to eliminate. I do assist somewhat with a leash on the cart but sometimes he is entirely on his own. He can walk up to a quarter mile but I take along the stroller so he can ride when he tuckers out, which is more often at about a furlong. He loves to ride in the stroller.

Then he comes back in to the recliner and evening pills, which is when he gets the Atavan to reduce anxiety. he barks until Bedtime, so usually around 9 PM I put him in my bed and he either goes to sleep or barks a little more.

He sleeps pretty well but occasionally wants on the cooler floor or some water or to go out at night.

No more diapers as he needs help or to be in the cart to go, so that is a relief. I am worrying about fall if or when we return to Fresno heat and he can't have his car naps.