4/11/16
This past week has been a tough one, lots of uncertainty & questions re: Jackson decline this past week.
On Wed. he ripped open his toenail down to the wick on his only good back leg, really Jackson! I had to leave him at the store for a couple hours while I went out to a store event. I got a text from one of my employees saying Jackson foot was bleeding, so I raced back to the store to find he had bitten into one of toenails so badly that the wick was cut & of course bleeding pretty bad. I am very thankful to have such wonderful friends because on my way home I called my friend Nicole who is an ER vet & she helped create a bandage around the foot to protect it & so he wouldn’t chew it anymore. I was afraid with it being on his back leg that he would have trouble hopping, which he did at first but when we finally got home he surprised me by hopping across the yard & back to his old self. Thank God.
On Thurs. I noticed his tail was acting funny hanging straight down at times against his hind quarters & not really moving, it usually is straight out behind him (perpendicular to the ground) acting as his rudder to help him with his balance. At first I didn’t think much about it then I noticed it slightly on Fri & Steve said he noticed it too. I thought about upping his Gabepentin as we had 100mg from before so I gave home (1) 300mg & (1) 100mg = 400mg figuring if he was in pain from his foot maybe it would help. It didn’t seem to do much.
On Sat we kept his back foot bandaged to avoid infection & from him licking it, he didn’t like it much but he knew we were doing the right thing. We started to notice his bowl movements became more difficult & we had to hold him up with his harness. He began to be more vocal than normal & at night like most nights recently at Steve’s he wanted to be in the bedroom with us.
On Sunday we upped the Gabepentin to 500mg to see if this would help, but it made him worse. (It had a similar reaction to in Sept. after his X-ray they had given him 600mg & he was agitated, panting & whining.) At night I was woken at 2:30 am with him crying out, so I took him outside & he peed & did his business. After bringing him back inside he continued being unsettled whining & crying out, it was toture & I felt horrible. Was he in pain, was it the medication? I got out of bed & tried to lay next to him & comfort him but it only worked for a short period & then he started up again. Finally at 4am I got out of bed & took him to the living room & settled in next to him on the coach & rested my hand on his chest. He finally settled down & went to sleep.
On Monday I finally got word back from our vet, she asked me to pinch Jacskon’s tail to see if he reacted, so I did & he didn’t do anything. Her assumption was that he was experiencing some type of nerve damage, from what we don’t Know? I think Jacskon’s unsettledness was definitely the higher dose of Gabepentin that caused his increased symptoms because on Mon we backed down to 300mg & he seemed much better the whining & crying stopped. Now we just had to deal with this nerve issue…It was very unsettling for us & Jackson too as I could tell he wasn’t himself, no wagging tail meant he couldn’t feel anything down there & now I was thinking this had to do with his increased inability to go the bathroom. Life has a way of stopping you in your tracks, so breath, give lots of kisses & pats & hold on to HOPE!
