meta grete: March 2008

Saturday, March 29, 2008

The X-Rays

After talking to Dr. Aimee Smith this morning, we decided to go through with the x-rays to give me the piece of mind that I think I needed. I dropped Grete off around 10:00. They took care of her until noon when the x-rays were done. Dr. Smith gave me the good news around 2:15. Grete was coming out of sedation, looking around, and at first inspection, the x-rays looked great. Dr. Smith also tried to manipulate various joins while Grete was under sedation, and she found absolutely nothing abnormal. At 2:45, I zipped over to Elliot Bay Animal Hospital. There, Dr. Smith walked me through each part of the x-ray. Again, it all looked good, but she was going to have another doctor, Dr. Kramer, give a second opinion. More on Monday, but at this point, thing sound perfect. (This means that the limp was probably just a tiny little soft tissue damage too small to see or a minor sprain/strain.)

It's 4:30 now, and Grete is still quite groggy. They had to put gooey drops in her eyes to keep them moist during sedation so she looks like she's been crying. It's pretty rough for me to see her look so sad and tired, but I'm elated to know that her x-rays were so beautiful. Because I was thinking about getting a Bernese Mountain Dog before I got her, I know more than the average Joe about things like hip dysplasia. When I saw how well seated her hips were, I felt so happy. She's got great hips. I saw them. They're beautiful. Her back vertebra were beautifully spaced as well. Ankles? Great. In short, Grete is still my "perfect" dog.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Weight

At the vet on Tuesday, Grete weighed in at 46.7 lbs. She's grown 1.6 lbs in the past 31 days.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Grete's Emergency Vet Visit

We just got home from the vet about 20 minutes ago.

This is taken from my email to Jason.

The good news... It was reproducible at the vet's office.

The bad news... They don't know. We got to show off our walking skills in the hall for at least 15 minutes, and we were in the exam room for about another half hour plus. I was definitely at the office for over an hour total.

Right now, she's on Rimadyl twice a day. The vet will be in on Saturday -- so they'll call to follow up on Friday. If she's not better by then, x-rays on Saturday. If she's worse, I should call ASAP.

She refuses to put her right rear paw down about 50% of the time. It all depends on how distracted she is. If she's just trying to meander from one side of the room to the other, she'll keep it drawn up to herself really high. She's clearly in pain. If she's trying to escape a vet, she'll push off with it pretty hard (and thus hurt it more that she'll draw it up again.)

I told them that something still seemed "off" off-and-on ever since Marymoore on Saturday. I don't know if this is really related. It's impossible to know.

However, the immediate cause seems to be was simply going after a ball and tweaking something. She was on soft grass. It wasn't anything special. She ran down the hill, to the flat bit just fine, and eventually caught the ball on the ground. She didn't yelp. She just pulled up her leg and looked quite upset. We limped back into the
office, and I immediately called the vet. In the office, she continued to hold it up about 50% of the time. Thus, I felt like going to the vet was the right thing to do.

Possible "good" causes include soft tissue damage and/or tweaking her back. It could also be damage to a growth plate. That's somewhere between good and bad, I think. Not sure. Still in the "it will heal" camp, I think. I'm sure the vet was trying not to scare me.

Possible "bad" causes include all the usual suspects... We won't get into those -- xrays will involve sedating her so the vet would prefer not to do them if she gets better by Friday.

I'm supposed to keep gently feeling her from her toes, through her ankle, to her knee, to her hip, to her entire back-spine to look for pain points. She was too tense at the vet's office to really get a good read. The vet seemed to think it could have been her knee, but since she couldn't move it side-to-side out of the joint, it possibly was not that.

She's on strict bed rest for the next 4 days. No stairs. No jumping. No chasing the cat. Short walks only to eliminate. The Rimadyl is for the next two weeks. Also, no ball or other fast turn-on-a-dime behavior for 2 weeks.

She's sleeping in her kennel. I gave her a bunch of chicken-dipped toys to lick, and she seems darn tuckered out from the stress of the vet's office.

In short... Wait and see.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Seattle Metro + Dogs + Flexpass ::The Final Word

My Email

From: Me
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 10:10 PM
To: Comments, Customer
Cc: Program, Employer
Subject: Flexpass Question

I have a Flexpass that says $4.75 on the front.
I currently drive every day because I take my dog to work.
Can I use my Flexpass to pay for myself and my dog?
She is about 45 lbs. She is not a service dog.

Thanks in advance for your authoritative and prompt reply.

Sincerely,

Quincy Hunt

p.s. FWIW, paying $1.75 each way for my dog seems strange to me, given that it would quickly add up to be about $70/month. I would like to be one less car on the road -- but I pay much less than $70/month for gas each month for all my driving.

Their Reply:

From: Gayle
To: Me
CC: "Comments, Customer" ,
Date: Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 5:52 PM
Subject: RE: Flexpass Question

I'm sorry, Quincy. Your FlexPass is good for one ride up to $4.75 per trip, not including your dog. I'll send your comments along for agency review.

I'm pretty bummed about this. It's what about 60% of my friends predicted. Oddly enough, it was not what the Flexpass administrator at my work predicted. FWIW, a monthly pass isn't even that much cheaper. It's $63. For comparison, it looks like I fill up every 3-4 weeks, and I pay about $40 to fill up. However, that's for ALL my driving, so I almost imagine the work-related driving to be fairly less than that.