Very Long Day

Coulee, Lacey and I headed up to Calgary yesterday to get Coulee checked out by a specialist. Unfortunately they couldn't tell what was wrong just by looking at it. Just like our vet, this vet suspected auto-immune or some other mystery illness affecting her pads. We decided the only option for answers was a biopsy. She also wanted to retest her kidney function as her creatinine levels were high last time.

So Coulee stayed there and Lacey and I went off to go for a walk and do some shopping.  The clinic called around 4 p.m. to let me know that they had knocked her out and that they were going to biopsy her left foot instead of her right one.  We had seen some damage starting on one of the toes on her left front foot and they thought that the right one wouldn't have enough good tissue left to stitch back together.  Turns out, almost all her toes are starting to become affected. I had noticed some greying on her other toes but thought I was being paranoid.  I'm so glad we decided to move forward as they are obviously all getting worse quite quickly.

They removed a section on the side of her pad and have stitched her pad to the skin surrounding it. They thought this would heal better than a chunk out of the middle.  Her foot is wrapped up with a split so she doesn't open the wound every time she steps.  She is supposed to be confined to a small room (I'm crating her when we are away), wear a cone when left unattended and go out in the backyard on a leash for potty breaks... for 2 weeks.  Then the splint can come off, the two external stitches will be removed and we'll see how well it is healing.

The blood work results (for kidney function) should be back later today and the biopsy results will be back early next week. We have a 70% chance of the biopsy telling us exactly what is wrong.  At the very least, it will help us narrow down our options to the remaining 30% and hopefully we'll be able to pin-point it from there.

I was a total emotional wreck yesterday (actually had a meltdown in the middle of a sidewalk) but I didn't get any sleep after 2:30 in the morning so I'm blaming it on exhaustion. LOL. I feel a lot better today.  I know we made the right decision to get the biopsy done and there is nothing we can do to change the results of the test -  we'll just have to adjust and cope with whatever they tell us.

She is currently hobbling around like a pirate on a peg leg.  I'm going to get out the clicker and see if I can teach her "Sad" and "Play Dead" in these next two weeks.  I'll keep you all up to date!  Thanks to everyone for their well wishes, advice and encouragement.  It has helped a lot.