September 13, 2008
My Baby Isn't Doing So Hot
Dakota has been having trouble breathing for some time now. For a while, we thought it was just a cold. Then maybe allergies or something. We had to video tape her "hacking" to show it to the vet. They did some antibiotic treatments but that didn't clear it up. So the next step was to put her under and stick a scope in her noes and throat. On Friday, we had it done. Of course, the answer wasn't quite clear yet. They found her airway is collapsing for some unknown reason. And she has 2 ulcers in the airway that are totally infected and disgusting. They took a biopsy of them and we will get the results soon.
As part of the earlier diagnosing, we found out she is having kidney problems too. So they x-ray'd those as well and found that she is losing functioning. Happens but its a bit early and aggressive in this case. Apparently, we are going to have to change her diet to fattier foods so the kidney have "more to grab on to".
The final step was the small bit of plastic surgery that I "treated" her to. Dakota had this growth on her side. It was way down in the lower layers of the skin so it was just like a big bump on her side. But everybody was commenting about it and pointing at it. My girl can't have that going on in addition to her other ailments. Plus, they kept telling me it was just benign and wouldn't be a problem, but I didn't care. I felt like somebody would eventually tell me it was a big cancer and I screwed up for not having it removed earlier -- although this is apparently impossible, I didn't care.
So she is back home and doing fine and strutting around with this big gash that should be all gone in 6 weeks. In the meantime, we will wait to see what comes next from the test results.
