So Long Dixie...

I just can't get that Blood, Sweat and Tears tune out of my head. Tonight is Dixie's last night with me. She is returning with her "mom" to Florida tomorrow afternoon. And despite all efforts to avoid attachment, it will be very difficult to say goodbye to her tomorrow!

She has been with us for a month. She has traumatized Guinness the cat on a daily basis; she has played with Della until Della has passed out on the couch from sheer exhaustion; she has reaped the wrath of Buford on so many occasions that it has become a game to her. Dixie has caused me to become an expert carpet steam cleaner, as well as the new MRS. Clean of the laminate and linoleum flooring. She has eaten her way through 3 nylabones, assorted tennis balls and 4 rope toys. And she has left her permanent mark by chewing a 4" X 1 " portion along the edge of my new carpeting in the family room.

And yes, she is the only basset I have every known who literally leaps into your lap when you are sitting in a chair and wraps her front paws around your neck while giving you "kisses." She is going to grow up to be the most loyal and affectionate basset ever....and it will be in someone else's home.

I hope she has the perfect life because she is a perfect basset hound. So long Dixie----for whatever reason God had in mind, you graced my life with yours and I will be forever thankful that you did. We will miss you little one!

New "Addition"

Her name is Dixie. She is 18-months old. She is currently a "boarder" in our home until her "parents" get settled in their own place and out of THEIR parent's house. (Hope that made sense!)

She is a handful, but actually is also a VERY good dog--and smart! She has only had one "accident" in the house since her arrival. And it was my fault--I wasn't paying attention to her when she was pacing by the door to go outside. She is much like Della in that way: quiet. Doesn't TELL you she needs to go out, but rather just goes to the door and thinks that is enough to let me know. So I need a keener sense of awareness with 3 in the house, all of which have slightly different habits.

Della is exhausted from all the play time! Of course, Della is a tad overweight these days too! But a full-time playmate will probably slim her down in no time.

Buford: simply doesn't care. He sees the "girls" playing so he gets TONS more "mommy" time!!

Guinness: simply smacks Dixie with a paw when she gets too rambunctious. Gotta love it!

Tempting Fate...

Buford seems to be out of the proverbial woods--he's gained some weight, hasn't had diarrhea in over 3 months and has slowed WAY down on all his water consumption.

Della is simply a tank and is doing great--my little 3 year old!!

...ok, so Buford made me pay for my "sins" when I had him stay at the "puppy hotel" for 9 days. He came home with double conjunctivitis, had a quick spurt of "tummy rumbles" complete with one "runny night" (but it was NOT a set back as he was perfectly fine the next morning), and then decided to gas up like a balloon the next night and make me ALMOST race with him to the emergency vet in fear of bloat. But he belched twice and "deflated" ....and attempted to asphyxiate me throughout the night as he slept soundly and passed "silent bombs."

God I love that dog!!!!

We Board Waddled!!! ...sort of...

Della: "We waddled! We waddled!"

Buford: "No, I was dragged down part of a road I didn't know, and then made to go up on this wooden walkway, and then some stranger carried me part of the way back to the car."

Mom: "Well, we TRIED to do the Tri-State Basset Hound Boardwaddle today, but Buford just doesn't have the stamina for it. He's probably still very weak from the winter--I know he suffered a small setback this week, and after all, he is 8.5 years old. So I've learned, Della can handle it for a few more years and the "stately old gentleman" should probably call his first Boardwaddle his last. Poor guy!!

...and yes, a complete stranger actually carried Buford for a few blocks back to the car!! Ann, if you're reading this I just do not know how to say thank you enough!!!!

---heidi

OH! Boardwaddle Photos!!

no, No, NO!!!!!!

Strange men are tearing out my carpeting mom!!! STOP THEM THIS INSTANT! I worked so HARD to get the carpet to smell just like me--it took 200 nickzillion years!!!

--Buford (I am formulating my plan for paybacks!)

STOP ALL THAT NOISE!!!!

MOM!!! MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is some strange man in the family room banging and banging and banging! He tore up part of the carpet (MY CARPET!) and he's putting down a floor on top of the floor!!! MAKE HIM STOP!!!!

MOM?!?!? CAN'T YOU HEAR ME?!?! MOM?!?!

--signed, your very distraught older hound, Buford

NOT COOL!!!

Now mom is moving the furniture OUT of the room!!!!! She said something about tomorrow being a "rough day" and that we wouldn't be happy. What did she mean by "new floor???"

Please help us! We're being mentally and emotionally abused by all the changes!

Buford (I want things back the way they were)
Della (I am scared and will stay under the kitchen table forever now)
Guinness (whatever--I'll find somewhere else to lounge)

NOT HAPPY--NOT AT ALL!

I am NOT happy! Mom is still painting and the furniture is all in the wrong place. And to top it off, this strange man dropped off boxes of stuff (mom calls it "flooring"--- but we have a FLOOR already. I don't understand!!!) that is in the middle of the room so that I can't take a nap in my sun spot today!!!

I am NOT happy! So I decided to teach mom a lesson: I pooped in the living room!!!

---Della

When Will She Stop!?

Hello World, Buford here.

I want to thank everyone for all their "drool" and well wishes these last few months. I'm doing mucho better and even gained some weight! Mom said that I'm starting to look like a "basset hound" again---I don't understand though, as I AM a basset hound so when did I stop looking like one?

Anyway, I have a MAJOR complaint! Mom moved all the furniture around in the family room, took down all the curtains and blinds (do you know how hard it is to sleep in there now?) and has tape on all the baseboards and woodwork. SHE'S PAINTING!! And this has been going on for a nickzillion years!!

The house stinks, Della has paint on her left ear, and that stupid cat Guinness was covered in spackle dust the other day (idiot wouldn't stay out of the room--stupid cat).

I WANT MY ROOM BACK---NOW!!!

Basset Gets Evening Bath

I wish the lighting was better, but you'll get the idea....

Lovely Morning

Breakfast @ 6:30 AM (thank you Daylight Savings Time!)---picture the following:

2 bassets and 1 cat all fed;
Cat sitting on counter beginning vomit noises;
Bassets come running into kitchen for "special treat;"
Cat pukes over counter top.......
...right onto Della's head.

Nice, real nice.

Another Installment of "BS"- "Buford Saga"

It is anything BUT bs, but I just couldn't resist.

The boy's latest round of tests, one specifically for Cushings, came back barely as a borderline case. The suppression test was done and while the numbers were a little higher than wanted, raising a slight eyebrow from my vet, his body did indeed do what it was supposed to do in reaction to the cortisol. We decided not to treat for Cushings but to monitor it in case he develops it later in life. In other words, we're treating this as a false positive, but not turning our back on the possibility in the future.

We switched antibiotics to Tylan powder: 1/4 teaspoon twice a day--just sprinkle on his food. The switch was made Monday and this morning Buford made an ALMOST normal poop! This is incredibly exciting--but I'm still not announcing the "all clear" yet. It is Buford, and that means all bets are off until we achieve success for a much longer period of time.

So now we're back to just treating the intestinal situation with the hopes that as that clears up his weight will increase, and his drinking / urinating will decrease. The rationale is that as any animal does, when they don't feel well they do whatever they can to flush their systems.

He has never lost his appetite, and his energy level has been typically high....except when he's snoring away that is. :-)

Time will tell....my boy, the medical mystery!

Buford--latest....

Ok, here it is in short:

Still sick. Diarrhea not clearing up as quickly as we hoped--but my understanding is that it is a minimum of a 6 week process and we're just finishing week 3.

Urine is still very dilute. New urine test done for Cushings--revealed that he MAY have the disease but more test need to be done to confirm it as well as what type of Cushings it is.

So....

Tomorrow (Friday) he goes in at 7 AM for a day-long adventure of blood test, etc., to see if we are, indeed, dealing with Cushings.

There is a very big part of me that prays the tests come back positive. For if they do not, the thought of facing early kidney disease and failure with my baby is ripping my heart out.

Please send drool--please!

Buford---cancer free!

Buford_at_rest
Originally uploaded by hsarver.

Yesterday we went and had an ultrasound done. The poor boy! First he is thinking all morning that he is a "bad boy" because he is being denied food and water. He couldn't get close enough to me--not in the car nor in the waiting room of the emergency clinic.

But first, the good news: no intestial or abdominal abnormalities were found!!!

So we proceed with the assumption that SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth) is the primary cause of Bufe's distress. As the 6+ week long treatment progresses, if we do not see improvement we then need to "assume" something else is in play.....let's hope that is not the case.

Meanwhile, back at the emergency clinic part of the story---time to make everyone smile and laugh a little:

Buford made friends with EVERYONE! Each time a doctor or nurse or tech or even another owner and pet walked past him he wagged uncontrollably and down right demanded to be pet! Even the custodian (sweet woman!) came right over, hunkered down and gave him love.

Then the tech came to take him to his ultrasound....can you say "flat basset!!" He became one with gravity, flattened out on the tile and refused to move. Then he rolled over for a belly rub. The tech got down on her hands and knees, rubbed away and he sprang up onto all fours and trotted off down the hall with her. Guess he was trying to get a message across to me after all the morning denials of eatery.

25 minutes later she brings him back, all shaved on his sides and belly and tells me about how good he was! He didn't want to lie down on the table at first, but once he did he rolled right over and enjoyed everything--the shaving, the ultrasound procedure (must have thought it was a fancy belly rub) and when all was done she gave him a treat---it's a wonder he didn't take her fingers with the treat.

She gave me his leash and we all trotted off again down the hallway to an exam room to await the radiologist.

A few moments later this man (looked like Rob Hammerton's twin--for those of you who know Rob) walks in the door and in one fluid motion is on the ground rubbing and petting and mushing it up with Buford! And the dog is happier than ever! I'm thinking: no matter what he has to say, I like him because he obviously loves animals and understands them.

He proceeded to simply sit on the floor with Buford the entire time he's telling what he did NOT find! We then talked about where we go from here, etc., and then he invited another doctor (an animal gastroenterologist) in to talk more about SIBO.

They will be calling our regular vet with results and we will go from there.

And then we went home....ok, I had biscuits in the car so while I was driving Buford was slopping up the back seat with crumbs and drool! (Good thing leather cleans up so easily :-) )

Buford is sick---today is his ultrasound

Ok, here we go:

Ultra sound---- 1 PM Today
no food or water since 8 PM last night

Go ahead, re-read those last two sentences....does anyone have any idea the true meaning of the phrase "a living hell?" Come on over right now to my house and see it LIVE! Buford is miserable and making sure everyone around is miserable too. He's starving (quite literally I might add). He's thirsty. He's pawing at the bathroom doors to get at the toilets....he actually banged his head against one a little while ago. He's crying and whimpering. And he's also getting a bit aggressive with Guinness, Della and yes, me.

...and it's only 10:30 AM!!!!!!

I will post again sometime this afternoon/evening after the ultrasound....let's hope it's clean so we can focus just on getting his bacteria back in balance.

Buford is sick---but now a direction!

Tuesday night, January 31st, 8:06 PM: Buford's vet called with his test results. We wanted (yes WANTED) it to be a problem with his pancreas because we knew we could treat it. His pancreas was fine.

So were his B-12 levels....BUT:

His Folate levels were HIGH! We have a digestive problem--hence the chronic diarrhea, the ravenous appetite and all the water. He was eating, eating, eating and not absorbing any nutrients. He was drinking, drinking, drinking, and not getting rid of the bad bacteria in his intestinal tract.

So, 6 weeks (or more) of antibiotics to kill off the "bad" bacteria so that the "good" bacteria has a chance to grow back....

But we're not done. He needs to go get an ultrasound of his abdomen to rule out any "abnormalities."

....I'm losing my mind.

Buford is sick---more tests

Monday, January 30th: Buford went back for more tests today. Another full CBC panel was done just to make sure nothing was missed....nothing was. Once again it came back clean. Time to start ruling out things. It was not:

diabetes
kidney disease
liver disease
thyroid problems
Cushings
Lyme
Addisons

...the list goes on.

Time for go to the next step--another blood test to check the pancreas and digestive enzymes.

Wait time: 36 hours.

Buford is sick--the background story

Around Thanksgiving week Buford looked thin to me. Now this is a basset hound who once topped the scales at 84 lbs. Specific diet got him down to a healthy 56-60 lbs where he has been stable for over 5 years. Suddenly he looked thin....

Off to the vet who said, "I never thought I would see the day that I said Buford looked skinny. Too skinny." And yes, he was down to just barely 50 lbs.

For the last 2 months we have tried to put weight on him--he has been eating more food and treats than he has ever eaten before....and gained 1.5 lbs. Not good.

Full CBC panel revealed---nothing! EVERY SINGLE THING IS RIGHT DOWN THE CENTER OF NORMAL FOR HIM. He was ravenous, drinking tons / peeing tons, and had chronic diarrhea. And his energy level? THROUGH THE ROOF!!!

Nothing made sense....so more tests....