Better

Our poor pup has been through a bit lately, and she’s come out of it better than ever.

After gaining weight, getting a bit sluggish, and a few other weird symptoms, we finally got quite a bit of work done to right the ship. It really started out with her peeing randomly around the house. The vet thought she might have Addison’s disease, which is bad news for a doggie, so we had her tested.

The good news was that she didn’t have Addison’s or Cushing’s, but looked like she was suffering from hypothyroidism. She started medication (which, for a dog, was really quite cheap — $10 for 120 pills), and was going to get tested again in a month.

And she was improving. One of the symptoms of hypothyroidism is a thickening and blackening of the skin around the back of the neck. Another is a thinning of the fur on the back. Sommie had both of those, and the medicine seemed to be improving her condition significantly. She also slimmed down a bit, losing a bit over a pound. The only side effect seemed to be that she drank (and still does drink) a lot more water, but everything else was going well.

Then after about 3 and a half weeks, she had a bad spell where she was throwing up and had completely lost her appetite — which is a big thing for Sommie because she really is a pig when it comes to food. We took her into a vet off base and they did a full workup on her. We thought it was the medicine, but the vet wasn’t convinced. And besides, to test her hormone levels, she had to go back on the meds. The vet did a real Korean thing — gave her a shot — and sent us on our way.

Within a day, she was back to fine — it seems it was something else that was bothering her. But now we had to get her tested again, plus we decided to throw in a dental cleaning.

That was all done today. Her T4 levels are too high now, so we’re adjusting the meds, and the cleaning went great. Her teeth are in really good shape, and her overall health has improved noticeably. She has more energy again, and is acting like a 9 year-old dog (instead of a 15 year-old, which is what I was thinking about her not long ago).

I’m sure she’ll be hanging out with us for quite a bit more time. But for now, it’s great just to know she’s better.