More Beagle News

Kirby is home from the hospital.  He does not have a tumor.  He does not have any of the sort of disc compression that would explain what is happening to him.  It does not seem to be a degenerative disease, because that would not explain how he went so quickly from a little punky to can't walk in about 18 hours.
He does not have meningitis.  He did not get the surgery.  He seems to have some sort of inflammatory disease, which is like saying someone has a cough.  It's meaningless if you don't know the underlying cause--could be the sniffles; could be TB, you know?

Right now we don't have a clue.  It could be as simple as a severe reaction to the tummy meds he was on for his diarrhea, and will go away as soon as he flushes out the residual meds, or it could be something he never recovers from.    He's getting steroids and broad spectrum antibiotics.

Thing is, he still can't walk really.  He's kind of like a baby.  Sometimes he can manage a step or two, sometimes he can't even stand up, and sometimes he can go pretty far pretty fast if he gets some momentum going.  It's upsetting, plain and simple.  But.......he was a basket case in the hospital, anxious and nervous and frightened and refusing to pee to the extent they had to... um.... express his bladder and I neither know nor want to know exactly how that is accomplished.  Being in hospital was causing him so much stress that the vet pretty much directed us to bring him home and see what happens if he relaxes.  That was all Special Sweetheart needed to hear---he peed in the parking lot before we even got him to the car.  That's love, baby:  "I trust you enough to release my waste materials when you're around."

No stairs.  No jumping.  No putting him on the sofa and leaving him unattended.  No letting him skitter around uselessly on the hardwood floors.  No walks.  Is he acting like he wants a drink of water?  Then we bring his water dish to him.  Is he acting like he needs to potty?  Then we carry him outside and put him in a good place and hold up his back end if he can't do it himself.  Is he acting hungry?  Then one of us brings him his supper dish while the other one tries to keep Tiki under control.  Because he follows me everywhere, I am pretty much trapped.  I can't just get up and get a drink of water, because he wants to jump down and follow me into the kitchen, especially now that I sent him away for a couple of days.  Frankly, it's a pain in the ass.

However, he is at home.  He's still himself.  He feels safe enough to let himself sleep, and he's catching up on all the rest he didn't get in the hospital when he was on 24-hour red alert.  I could swear he's just a little more stable now than he was when we brought him home four hours ago.  He's dreaming right now.  His nose and feet are twitching like he's chasing rabbits.  We'll see how it goes over the weekend and see where we are on Monday.

Tiki is not happy.  From his point of view, it was bad when the pack was not all together, but at least he got a whole lot of extra attention and he got to sit next to Dirtbunny.  It's good that the pack is together, but now Other Dog gets supper and second supper but Little Tiki still only gets one supper.  Not fair.