Charlotte has been on steroids since then.  They started her on [...]]]> Our dog, Charlotte has this condition.  I won’t go into the long involved details, her is a quick version. Her immune system has been attacking her muscle fibers in her head and jaw.  This started back in late March early April of 2008.

Charlotte has been on steroids since then.  They started her on a certain dose and then every month they have slowly weened her off the steroids.  Her last appointment was January 19.  Bogey took her to the Vet specialist.  The Vet completely took her off the steroids now.  We are supposed to keep an eye on Charlotte to see if any of the symptoms come back.  Well this morning Bogey told me when I woke up that he thot something was wrong with Charlotte.  She didn’t finish her breakfast and it took her a long time to eat her dog biscuit this morning.  I told him…I noticed that she was eating her biscuits and food slower lately too.  The only other symptom we noticed when this condition first started was that she whimpered when we would open her mouth to give her her thyroid medicine (another story).  I have been periodically opening her mouth to see it she whimpers, and she has not…whimpered that is.   Both the biscuit eating and the whimpering when mouth is opened seem like such arbitrary and subjective tests to determine if a dog has a medical condition.

Anyway, I called the Vet specialist and made an appointment for this morning at 8:45 (Bogey is taking her).  I haven’t heard from Bogey yet…and it is 9:50 right now.

The reason for my post is not really about Charlotte’s condition (well indirectly it is), it’s more about how I handle any problems (medically or otherwise) with our dogs.   I can’t even explain how attached I am to them.  Dog lovers everywhere know what I mean.  I could write 25 pages telling you how much I love them, but it would not convey to you how important they are in my life.  I know this is not good for my mental health, but emotions are very difficult to control, as most of you know.

Bogey seems to handle the dogs problems better than I do.  He would say…that’s because I am so emotional and cry at the drop of a hat.  Which is not true by the way, yes I am emotional about my dogs, but I do not cry at the drop of a hat.  I just wish Bogey could be more sympathetic to me when I am upset about the dogs.  It adds to my distress that he doesn’t always comfort me when I am upset.

Also, I used to take my little Charlotte to her appointments with the specialist, but now that I have a new job I don’t have the leave time to take her, which bothers me also.  I really like to talk with the Vet first hand about Charlotte’s condition.  Bogey did take one of my business cards to give the Vet so she could call me directly at work after she sees Charlotte.  That was a nice thing for him to do.  Although I haven’t heard from her either this morning.  I am so impatient.

Well that’s my sad, sad story for this morning.  I know even though we may have to put Charlotte back on the steroids, she will eventually stabalize and will be okay.  It’s just sad that she has to go through all that again.  The Vet did say we could reduce the steroid dosage over shorter periods of time if we had to start them up again, so hopefully shorter does really mean shorter.  It took 10 months to get her off the steroids the first time.

I am not asking for any sympathy, I know many, many people have a lot more serious problems to deal with every day.  I just wanted to let you know what was going on in my little corner of the world.