PIPER'S SURGERY, by Piper's mom

Piper had an ultrasound yesterday which showed some inflammation and loopiness in her intestines, plus a possible blockage in her stomach.  The internist gave me the following choices of treatment:

1) Keep Piper under observation at the clinic, giving her IV fluids, and wait to see if things would improve.

2) Do an endoscopy to try to figure out what was happening in the stomach.  This might or might not show the true state of affairs, and it might have to be followed up by surgery.

3)  Operate to look at everything and remove anything that was creating a blockage.


I chose option #3, even though it was the most expensive and invasive.  I really wanted to know what was going on and get it taken care of, once and for all.  Besides which, I am always looking for new and exciting ways to run up huge vet bills.  Hahahaha!

The result of the surgery was that some small pieces of fabric were removed from Piper's stomach.  Evidently, none had passed on through to block the intestines.  Biopsies were taken from the stomach and intestines.  Piper should be able to come home this evening.

I hope the next blog entry will be written by Piper herself, and not by her Chief Research Assistant.

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I'M HOME!

Mom came and rescued me yesterday from the horrible doggy hospital jail place.  I had already chewed up a catheter thingy they stuck in my leg, which was my way of saying "Let me out of here!"  My usual doctor who takes care of me at VCA Mission, Dr. Grigsby, wasn't there because she had a baby. The baby, whose name is Lily, came 6 weeks early, which surprised everybody.  So now there are two other doctors who are caring for Dr. Grigsby's patients.

My doctor was Dr. Nikki, who Mom already knows because Mom got Dr. Nikki elected to the board of the Humane Society, which Mom is also on.  Dr. Nikki is very young and cute, and I like her, but I do not like being in the hospital.

I got stuck with a bunch of needles, and filled with a bunch of fluids and who knows what else.  They did a little blood test of my cortisol, and it turned out okay.  Then they fed me and I ate, so Dr. Nikki decided I didn't need to have an ultrasound.  I didn't have that distended stomach thing anymore.  And I had normal poop.

So Dr. Nikki told Mom that maybe I had just had a stomach upset.  She sent me home, and said to bring me back in a week to get a much bigger test of my cortisol levels.  Mom took me home, and I went in the back yard, and I had a whole bunch of squirty diarrhea, just like I had before I went to the doggy hospital.  Also, I wasn't too excited about eating supper, but finally I did eat it.

Mom did not want to take me back over there, so she decided to wait and see if I would get better in a day or so.  I'm taking antibiotics and antacids and stuff like that, so maybe I will get cured pretty soon.  I really hope so, because I am tired of feeling lousy.

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Okay, well, I wrote that part last night, and now it's morning, and I am still not feeling any better, so Mom is about to take me back to that awful doggy hospital place.  I don't know what is wrong with me, but I wish it would go away.  And I think Mom should get a refund because I didn't get fixed properly the first time I was there.

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PIPER IS IN THE HOSPITAL! by Mel the Dog

Mom said I would have to write the blog for today because someone has to do it, and Piper is in the doggy hospital, where she does not have internet access.  I would rather take a nap, but since Mom needs me to do this, I will try to help her out.

There are a couple of things wrong with Piper  that made her end up having to spend the night at the hospital.  The first thing is that when her latest blood test results came back yesterday, they showed that Piper has a high potassium level.  Dr. Patricia said this could mean that Piper's medicine dose for Cushing's Disease is too high.  The internist raised the amount recently because the last cortisol test showed that Piper's medicine was too low.  But if the dose gets too high, it will make Piper be Addisonian instead of Cushingoid.

The other reason Piper is in the hospital is because she might have a blockage in her stomach.  Dr. Patricia took an x-ray, and it showed that Piper's stomach is distended, even though she didn't eat a meal recently.  As you already know from reading Piper's May 5 blog entry, she ate a bunch of bad stuff out of the litter box.  (Well, I personally don't think it's so bad, but Mom does.)  Also, Piper ate some of her blanket.  Anyway, if all of these items are still inside Piper, and if they don't come out on their own, Piper will have to have surgery.

So that's why Piper is in the hospital.  Mom had to take her there late yesterday afternoon, at exactly the time when she was supposed to be at home, feeding us supper.  At the doggy hospital, they made an estimate of how much money it would cost to take care of Piper last night and today, including doing an ultrasound.  That estimate came to about $1,100.  Mom was not happy, to say the least.  I just hope she has enough money left to buy dog food next time we run out!

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MORE, NEWER KITTENS AND OTHER NEWS

On Tuesday, Mom went over to the shelter, and she brought home 5 little gray kittens who were about 3 weeks old.  These kittens did not have a mama, so we hoped that Eliza would be all motherly and let them use her as their milk bar.  But Eliza said there was No Way she was doing such a thing.  She hissed and growled at them at whole bunch.  Mom finally got Eliza to let the kittens nurse one time, but then she got up and walked away from them.  So Mom had to feed the kittens goat milk, and she even had to get up in the middle of the night to do this.

Anyway, Mom took the gray kittens back to the shelter on Wednesday, and a mama cat from some other rescue group was there.  She thought the kittens were pretty nice, so she let them nurse.  Then the other rescue group took the mama cat back, and they kept the babies, too.

Meanwhile, Mom brought home 5 more kittens, but these kittens have their very own mama to feed them, so Mom doesn't have to get up in the middle of the night to do it.  This mama cat got brought to the shelter after some teenagers found her in a park, under a bush, where she was busy giving birth to her kittens.  She is a very nice cat, so we think she was somebody's pet.  We don't know how she ended up having her kittens under a bush in a park.

The kittens were born on April 22, so they will be two weeks old on Monday.  Mom let her friend Rob, who is the dad of Trouble the Bunny, name the mama and her kittens.  Uncle Rob lives in Los Angeles.  He really likes kittens, but he can't have one because he is allergic to them.  Anyway, he decided to pick out some names that start with the letter A.  Then he and Mom made a short list, and Uncle Rob decided which names would go with which kittens.

Mom took pictures on Wednesday, when the kittens first came here, but she has not taken any since then.  Mom says that so far the kittens just look like sleepy little rats, so there's not much to take pictures of.  But anyway, here they are.  The first 2 are girls, and the other 3 are boys.  The mom's name is Audra.

Autumn

Abra

Anderson

Adrian

Alec

Okay, so with all these kittens in the house, Mom had to move the "old" kittens out of the Kitten Room and put the new kittens in there.  This was very confusing for Eliza and the old kittens, but everybody's pretty much getting used to it now.  Mom had to put an extra litter box in the downstairs bathroom for Eliza and her kittens to use.  I really liked this arrangement, because it meant I could go eat yummy stuff out of the litter box anytime I wanted to.

So I ate a bunch of kitty litter goodies and also a little kitten food, when I could get it.  And I chewed on my blanket sometimes, because I've always liked doing that.  But then, yesterday morning my stomach felt really icky, and I didn't want to eat any breakfast.  This got Mom worried because I always eat my breakfast.

Then later, I puked up a whole bunch of stinky stuff and some little chunks of blanket, which Mom had to clean up while holding her nose, or at least her breath.  She ended up taking me to Dr. Patricia's office and leaving me there while she went to work.  I had a bunch of diarrhea while I was there, so when Mom came back to pick me up at lunchtime, she got some Metronidazole for me and also some probiotics.  Now if I can just keep all my food down in my stomach where it belongs, that will be good.

Sadly, Mom figured out a way to keep me from getting to the litter box.  She put a child gate across the shower stall where the litter box is.  There is only enough room at the bottom of the gate for cats and kittens to go under there.  I can't go under it because I am too big.

This morning, the naughty kittens discovered Toilet Paper, and they unrolled several yards of it on the bathroom floor.  But that's another story.

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THE DOGUE DE BORDEAUX

I think these dogs look very sad and grumpy all the time, but I guess they can't help how they look.  They also drool and snore, but they can't help that either.  And really, they're supposed to be very nice dogs.  Other names for this breed are Bordeaux Mastiff, French Mastiff, Bordeaux Bulldog, or Bordeauxdog.  But mostly what I've heard people call them is Dogue de Bordeaux.

Nobody is sure how the breed got started, exactly.  There were Dogues in France as early as the 14th century, especially in the south part of the country, near the city of Bordeaux.  Some people think that the Dogue de Bordeaux was around before the English mastiff, but other people think the mastiff came first.  Anyway, these dogs are all related to the Molossus, which was the big war dog of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

But besides being used for war, the Dogue was also used to guard flocks, herd cattle, hunt boars, and bait bulls, bears, and jaguars.  A bunch of Dogues got killed during the French Revolution.  I'm not sure why, except maybe it was because they belonged to the nobility.

In the 1960s, a group of breeders in France started to work on making the foundation of the breed better.  In 1970, they wrote a new standard for the breed.  Meanwhile, in the U.S., Dogues first showed up in 1890 at dog shows, but they weren't very popular, and a new standard wasn't written until 1970.

The breed got noticed a little more when an American anthopologist named Dr. Carl Semencic wote an article about Dogues for Dog World magazine.  But when the movie Turner and Hooch came out in 1989 is when Americans really discovered the Dogue de Bordeaux.  Another standard was written for the AKC in 2005, and the breed was officially recognized in 2008.

Male Dogues de Bordeaux usually weigh about 150 pounds, and females weigh 125.  Their coats can be any shade of fawn, from light to dark red.  A few white patches on the chest and toes are okay, but they shouldn't have any more white than that.
















Dogue heads are supposedly the largest of any dog in the world, in proportion to the rest of the body.  Dogues have a short muzzle and thick upper lips that hang down over the lower jaw.  Their neck skin is loose, which gives them a really big dewlap.

Because of their short muzzles, Dogues de Bordeaux can have breathing problems.  Also, they don't tolerate heat very well.  Other health issues include heart problems, hip dysplasia, and epilepsy.  Their lifespan is pretty short, only an average of 5 to 6 years.









When Dogue de Bordeaux puppies are born, some sad things can happen, probably because of their large heads.  For instance, a lot of puppies are stillborn or die right after they are born.  Which is why about 27.8% (5 of 18) Dogue litters are done by caesarean. The size of a litter is usually about eight.

The Dogue de Bordeaux has a very good temperament and gentle manner, even though it looks fierce and scary.  This kind of dog is loyal, patient, and devoted to his family.  You can actually even keep a Dogue in an apartment, if you make sure he gets lots of exercise every day.

Mom and I agree that this breed of dog is way too big for us.  Also, we don't like dogs that slobber a lot.  Mom accuses me of snoring, and she says that having one dog who snores is plenty.  But I've never heard myself snoring, so I don't know what she is talking about!

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KITTEN PIX

The kittens turned 8 weeks old yesterday, so Mom took a bunch of new pictures of them.  They will get neutered and spayed on May 7.  They all weigh over 2 pounds already, except for Esmé, who weighs 1 pound, 14.5 ounces.  So by the 7th, they should all be big enough for their surgery.

Some people came over a few nights ago, and they met all the kittens.  They already thought they wanted Edward, and they decided they would also take Etienne, so those two are spoken for.  There are some other people who want a white kitten, which means that their only choice now would be Esmé.  If they adopt her, then we will only have one kitten left to find a home for, and that is Erica.

Of course, Eliza will also need to have a home.  But first her milk has to dry up and she has to get spayed.  Mom was talking to Aunt Tania yesterday about maybe trying to get Eliza to nurse some "bottle baby" kittens, if any more come in during the next week or two.  There are just way too many kittens right now, and all the foster homes are full.

Anyway, here are the latest photos of our own kittens.  I am sure they are much cuter than anybody else's kittens.



Here's Esmé:

And here's Esmé having a discussion with Chloe:

This is Erica:

And Erica exploring Mom's plants:

Edward likes the Kitten Tower:

And he also likes playing with his mama:

Etienne is exploring the bathroom:

After they romp around for a while, the kittens all line up at the milk bar.  It's harder to get in there than it used to be because the kittens have grown a lot.

Eliza doesn't let them nurse very long these days.  When she gets tired of them, she just gets up and goes away, because sometimes all she wants to do is lie around by herself!

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USEFUL YIDDISH WORDS

Yiddish is a language that got started between 900 and 1100 C.E.  It is pretty much a mix of medieval German and Hebrew, and it is written with the characters of the Hebrew alphabet.  Yiddish was spoken by the Jews who lived in central and eastern Europe.  At one time, about 100 years ago, 11 million of the 18 million Jews in the world understood the language.  A lot of these people spoke Yiddish as their main language.  But then Jewish people stopped living so much in isolated little communities.  And also, during World War II a lot of Jews got killed.  Which meant there weren't as many people speaking Yiddish anymore.

Nowadays, fewer than 250,000 people in the U.S. speak Yiddish.  About half of these people live in New York.  But even if they can't really speak the language, most Jews know a bunch of Yiddish words.  And quite a few of those words got adopted into English, and we all use them.  Most people probably know more Yiddish words than they think they do.

Here are some of the most familiar words:


OY VEY -- People say this when they feel pain or sadness or horror.  Or sometimes just when they are annoyed or exasperated.


SCHMOOZE -- To hang out with somebody while you do some friendly chatting and gossiping.

NOODGE -- To pester, nag, or whine, especially if you're trying to get somebody to do something.


TUCHES, TUSH (TUSHY) -- This is your butt, bottom, or rear end.  In a basenji, the tushy can be very cute!


CHUTZPAH -- Nerve or gall.


KLUTZ -- Somebody who is awkward and uncoordinated.

KOSHER -- Originally, it meant food that is prepared according to Jewish law.  But now it also means something that is legitimate and okay to do.


YENTA -- A talkative, busybody woman who gossips about everybody's business.


SHLEP -- To carry something around.  A variation is shlepper, which means somebody who doesn't have any ambition.



Okay, well, here are some Yiddish words you might not know, but they could be really useful for you to learn and use.  Mom wouldn't let me put any "naughty" Yiddish words in my list, even though there are quite a few of them.  Mom says I have to keep my blog G-Rated because kids read it sometimes.


SCHNORRER -- A beggar, somebody who whines until he gets what he wants.

TCHATCHE -- Little knick-knacks and toys that you might find at a garage sale or thrift shop.  Also, it can mean a trophy wife or pretty young thing.


NUDNIK -- A pest , a bore, a pain in the neck.


SHMATTA -- A rag.  Also used to describe somebody's unfashionable clothing.


GONIF-- A thief or tricky person.  Somebody that you can't really trust.

KVETCH -- To gripe or annoy.  To be an annoying person.


MESHUGGE or MESHUGGINA -- Crazy (in a long-term way).


MISHEGOSS -- Crazy, bizarre actions or beliefs.


NEBBISH or SHLEMIEL -- Someone who is crazy or inadequate.  A dummy, a loser.


MENSCH -- A person with a lot of character.  Someone who is recognized for how noble and good he is.

Anyway, my advice to you is to always try to be a mensch, even if it might be more fun to be a nudnik!

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