Good news, bad news

Molly, Molly, Molly. Lately, everything is about Molly. The poor dog has been such a trooper through all of this so far. She still gives me looks that just beg me to make it go away, but she is adjusting to having limits. Most of the time, she can jump on the bed again. She wants no limits on food intake, and has gained back all of her weight loss in just two weeks.

However, we were having a bit of a pee problem. It took me a while to figure it out. Anyone who has been reading me for a while is aware of the "servant bell." My dogs do not come to me when they have to go out. They used to just stand at the door to their dog run, and then expect it to open because they wanted it to. This was a problem for me, since I was often in another part of the house. So finally I stuck a bell on the doorknob, with the hopes that they might learn to use it. Sure enough, within 24 hours both of them would whack the ball to go out.

Then, Molly decided to use the bell for anything. If she is hungry, thirsty, wants a walk, whatever, she rings the bell. Sometimes I think she does it just to test the emergency bell system. It gets me up, since she will also ding the bell if she has to throw up, if she has time. Once the cat somehow got a dog treat and was keeping the dog away. Molly rang the bell - Mom, get that away from her and give it to me, OK?

So Molly has been whacking that bell about every, oh, three minutes for food. Every time, I would go to the door and ask her if she needed to go out, since the prednisolone not only makes her more hungry, but also more thirsty, which means more pee. She would say no, I just want to eat. Then she would pee on the carpet. Molly is totally, completely perfect with not going in the house normally.

What was happening, is that she was so hungry she would not go out, with the hopes that I would give her food. Then the pressure in her bladder would get so strong she would be unable to hold it. So I started shoving her out now and then, and the problem was solved. No accidents since.

Today was her two week check up and blood tests. She did not want to get in the car, even with Baby there, all excited and howling with joy for going any where. Molly shook all the way to the vet's office, which is only two miles. Addison's dogs are not to be stressed ever, and I was worrying.

We got to the vet's office, got out of the car - somehow Baby manages to get out first always, and into the office. Just as we were being shown to an exam room, Molly had seizures again. I almost lost it at that point - so far I have not cried over Molly's illness. But that was just so sad, she was so scared of what they were going to do to her. She didn't fight me on the leash or anything, but yet was so scared that she caused herself to have seizures. Luckily, they passed in a few minutes and she seemed OK. No treatment was given for them.

The vet pronounced Molly as progessing well, but the seizures concerned her. Me too! I have done some reading on Addison's, and know that the blood tests Molly needs right now are just electrolytes, so I asked if that was all that was being done. I don't need to pay for a full CBC if she doesn't need it. The vet said she was doing a full renal blood scan. I didn't ask, but I fear she is concerned that Molly is in renal failure, which could be causing the seizures to happen.

Since Molly was pronounced as doing well, we came home, took a little rest, and went for a walk. We hadn't walked in 3 weeks, although we had spent an hour a day walking all summer before that. We went a mile and a half, with first me holding them both back from going to fast, then slowing down more for Molly. We went to the frog path. We saw a lot of squirrels.

They are now both sleeping off the walk. All of us enjoyed the fresh air, and it's beautiful out today, even though it's cool. It was a good walk. I hope we have thousands more to take in the future.