December 12, 2017

White Dog suggested it was time to move CA Stormer from the backup vet to the care of Dr. Julia. "He needs her insight and healing skills," she argued. "Stormer's mobility issues have gotten serious and he is in pain, SHE will have some ideas and know how to provide comfort if not healing."

Stormer has hip dyplasia and arthritis. He is an old man of 17 and his body suffers the wearing of age. The backup vet was adequate for maintaining his quality of life with the usual approaches but now Stormer needs more intuition and help to control pain. We need someone to guide us in developing a plan that helps Stormer to keep moving, to be able to rise and lie down without wincing, to be able to enjoy interacting with the rest of the Army.

So today CA Stormer met Dr. Julia.

We were handcuffed because the records sent were incomplete. As her staff recalled and begged for the information, Dr. Julia ran bloodwork and physically examined her newest White Dog Army patient.

Stormer was his usual stoic self...meaning crying and whining and whimpering. To his credit he did not try nipping but I suggested we muzzle him just in case. He can be anxious and reactive. Stormer gave me a look but let Steve slide on the muzzle.

Dr. Julia could feel the areas of concern with his deterioration and agreed that even without seeing xrays, his body was aching. But she was pleased with the story of his weight loss and advised that he was now at an ideal mass.

His blood work showed liver enzymes were elevated which is not uncommon in the elderly but which would be important as we developed a pain protocol. We did not want to aggravate the issue and that ruled out a couple of pain options.

The pre-kidney disease indicators that seemed meaningful to his old vet made Dr. Julia shrug. "It is more like pre- pre-KD. Not even enough to consider." He had been on Benson's restricted diet. I asked if he could go back to enjoying the meals that the rest of the WDA eat. "Heck yes, we are going to be watching him so if we see things moving up we will change that but for now let an old man enjoy life."

She put her hand on my shoulder. "His hematocrit number is low," she said. "Geez, no!" "It could be a result of the liver values let's bring him back in a week and retest. Then we WILL have the entire file and xrays. I might want to do additional views once I see what we have. And I know, but do not let your mind go tumbling."

Stormer bunny hopped into the blizzard of waiting siblings when we got home. They moved with him to get a long drink of water and settled around him as he sank onto his bed. "Just rest, brother," Opal told him, "Dad is going to make dinner." These were the perfect words as Stormer wagged and then rested his head on paws for a quick pre-dinner nap.