I was so sure we'd be digging all day today. We lost Piper, Jesse's mom, and Josh, his brother in late March. Jesse has not handled the loss well at all but the past few weeks have been really bad. He was in a lot more pain so I started giving him Rimadyl figuring it was his arthritis which has always been very bad. The Rimadyl didn't agree with his system and he started having terrible diarrhea, liquid squirts. Unfortunately to stop the diarrhea we had to stop the Rimadyl so the pain came back. Last night he was in agony! Took him to the vet today and wish I'd gone sooner. The problem is in his neck and/or upper spine. The Rimadyl caused a problem because he's on prednisone for seasonal allergies. Oy! So we've got some new pain killers, muscle relaxers and anti-inflamatory meds to try and see if we can get this under control. The Rimadyl helped before so this ought to help. We can try anyway. Part of his prognosis depends on the cause and we don't know the cause. If it is a slipped disk, he may come out of it ok with some muscle relaxers for a while. If it is arthritis and a piece has come lose and is knocking around in there, he may never really come out of this. Anyway, here's to a little more time to spoil Jesse! It really is so hard to decide at times but this step is clear - there is one more thing we can try for him! His tail still works vigorously! He does NOT want to move though so the whole vet visit was quite the painful ordeal for him. He's sleeping it off now and snoring beside me.
