Riddick can't do a play bow stretch yet, and I'm hoping it won't be long anymore... You can see him trying to start getting into position before he stops. We left him home with the other dogs for white a while yesterday as we were out at an event with our Guide Dog puppy and then had lunch with friends. He was tired when we got home, but he seemed to be okay, thank goodness. I've increased his food quite a bit to bring his weight up, and I am waiting for pay day so he can spend the day at the vet to do another sugar curve (I have to wait 'coz I already owe them money ). I found this picture on my blog this morning, one of my favourites, and you can see his eyes looked like big green marbles before he developed the cataracts. I've never seen his irises but I supposed they would be chocolate brown like his siblings. Its quite amazing how often people asked if his eyes were green, even though he has no visible pupil (its fully dilated and fixed)! And now people often ask if his eyes are blue!
Riddick is going to the vet tomorrow for a sugar curve, so they can work out if his blood sugar is high and staying high, or if its bouncing up and down through the day. If its going up and staying high, then increasing his insulin should sort it out. And someone mentioned adding VitB12 as a stabiliser, so I am going to ask about that. He's looking very skinny now, even with 100g extra food for the last 10 days. The vet was thrilled with how much better his mobility is! He's trying very hard to scrape the ground after a busy, but he's only managing it with his front feet. We are now seizure free for a month, so the Pexion is working! And the Pheno is out of his system since its almost 2 weeks since his last tablet.
We're also making an appointment with an ultrasound specialist - she brings her machine to our vet and you have to book her in advance, but we would like to check that Riddick doesn't have a growth or a tumour or something somewhere that could be affecting his blood sugar but not being "found" with blood tests, which have all been pretty much normal...
Thank you @Cath The sugar curve showed Riddicks's blood sugar goes high and stays there, so we're increasing his insulin dose a little for the next week to see how it goes, then we'll go back to the vet for another curve. And he will continue to get extra food until his weight stabilises - he lost a kilo between Monday morning and Thursday morning! He's very ribby now! I forgot to ask about the VitB12... His mobility continues to improve! This evening he was thirsty, and when we went outside he put on quite a lick of speed to head for the water bowl - almost a trot! He's still showing a new little sign every day that he's getting stronger, like being able to get his front legs and chest up onto our bed without his back legs collapsing - although they are not yet strong enough to get him up onto the bed.
That he is! Today he managed a bit of a "run" for the first time - he was hopping along with his back legs rather than striding, but he was moving pretty quickly! We had been out with Guide Dog Puppy Riggs and he was excited to greet us all when we got home - he sniffed the car all around, "ran" with Riggs to the water bowl, had a busy, followed us inside, didn't need help with the few stairs (he hops up with his back legs) and made sure he greeted us both with his typical enthusiasm before he needed to sit down for a rest! And he's now able to walk into the house from outside without losing his footing on the tiles. Its a dreadfully slow process, but he is definitely improving all the time and there are small signs every day!
GUESS WHO JUST CLIMBED UP ONTO THE BED BY HIMSELF - ONE FOOT AT A TIME! He just made it up before he sort of collapsed, BUT HE DID IT!!! Oh I am BEYOND thrilled!!!
Last night Riddick managed to get up onto our bed with a little bit of a hop from his back legs, rather than climbing up one foot at a time, and he's been doing it today too! It so awesome to see... As skinny as he is. He still woke me at 3am this morning to help him up onto the bed though, and I am really hoping he will stop doing that now he can get up on his own! We haven't made any progress with his blood sugar on the new dose, so we will be increasing his insulin dose on Thursday - he will spend the day doing another sugar curve at the vet so they can decide on the new dose. We are now FORTY DAYS SEIZURE FREE!
Riddick spent the day at the vet yesterday for another sugar curve. His blood sugar is lower than it was, but its still too high, so we have increased his insulin a little again. It doesn't make any sense and there shouldn't be a link - but looking at his log book there seems to be a direct correlation between decreasing his Pheno meds, and his blood sugar going nuts again. The new meds is definitely working for his epilepsy, thank goodness! And he's so much stronger - he's even managing a little run every now and then (here's a little instagram video from this morning: https://www.instagram.com/p/BWzQfAyBaO8/ )!
