Here's why it's been so long since my last post

Charlie bed bound

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted to my blog. A number of things have kept me from getting to it but the biggest reason was that our dog, Charlie, was really sick. Or at least he acted very sick. Just so you don't worry through this post, he is better now. The pictures here are older pictures but they illustrate the point. The top picture shows him on his bed where he stayed for about three days - not wanting to move. The bottom picture showed him after we'd taken him to the vet and he'd taken his medicine (good boy, Charlie!).

Feisty Charlie barking at me to go for a walk

I won't go into what started Charlie's problems (you might be eating you dinner while reading this) but the scary part was that after a few days, he started limping around with his tail between his legs. He would just lie on his bed whimpering and not wanting to get up or do anything. When he was able to lay down and sleep, his breathing was heavy. The only good news was that his nose stayed wet (is that really an indication of a dog's health?) and he never lost his appetite

The vet wasn't sure what was wrong but since Charlie has arthritis, he thought that perhaps he hadn't been absorbing the Chondroitin and Glucosamine from his "old dog" dog food which generally helps his joints stay limber. Here's a link discussing the effectiveness of these additives - for humans. I've seen its good results in Charlie and I'm convinced it is good for dogs. So, besides pills for the original problem (which we won't discuss here), the vet gave Charlie some Chondroitin and Glucosamine supplements to jump-start their re-absorption. The vet also had us put him on a bland diet and took some blood to check if anything else was wrong.

After a couple of days, Charlie was obviously on the mend. The blood work came back telling of no other problems so we're greatly relieved that the old dog is going to be fine. He is anxious to go on his walks again and is peppy and happy, too. Our pets look to us for help and when we don't know what is wrong, it is frustrating. Once again, the veterinarian has earned my respect. I think human doctors should have to do a few rotations in vet school to learn how you treat a patient who can't tell you what is wrong and who has a great capacity to suppress pain.