Here we go again (grady) -- UPDATE Page 3

pphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ---

(Dat was ME Tinkerbell -- blowing you LOTS of Faireeeee Dust!!!!) (and no, I got more this morning so I wouldn't run out on ya Grady!!)

Grady...you feel better soon.  I know what you mean about the not his normal self.  When Heidi is being all lovey and cuddly....something is just not right with her. 

Sending good thoughts your way!

 Good vibes for Grady! And ((hugs)) for you Annie!

Hope everything goes well. Get better swiftly Grady

Awww, Grady man.  Be brave and let the nice doctor help you. 

sending vibes...sending vibes....sending vibes......

*Get better* vibes coming for Grady.  Hope  you're feeling like your old self soon, big guy.

Joyce

Wow, thanks everyone for your thoughts.  I am not going crazy.  His gums were pale yesterday & this morning.  We get to the Vet's & in comes a woman with a cat in a carrier.  Grady's favorite...feral kitties...I do what I can to get his attention & distract him from the kitty with minor success.  Then this pretty little Bully girls comes into the waiting room with a cone of shame & an owie looking eye.  Grady wants to play with her.  Nope, sorry bud.  She's owie & you're getting ramped up.  We get into an exam room & wait for the Dr.  In the meantime his gums turn nice & pink.  Dr. S pulled some blood.  I thought it was going to be for a complete panel AND a packed blood test (my technical name for it.).  Packed cell test came back looking awesome.

He's just not right.  We're home now & he's zonked out on the bed.  This is not like him.  Either he's just all of a sudden become an old dog or there is something wrong.  I called my vet again to make sure I didn't miss something.  They did not take a full blood panel but will on Wednesday when G & I go back.

On the funny/pecular side...Grady is the only dog I know that calms down when he's being combed at the vet's office.  I took a dog comb with me when we went today.  When Dr. S was prepping to draw blood I started combing G.  G LOVES being combed.  We both calmed down right away.

Thanks again for all the good thoughts.  I'll let you know when I get the results of the blood panel.

I've had that happen -- you ASK for a full blood panel but when it looks like "nothings wrong" it doesn't get done and you *sigh* gotta go back. 

HOWEVER -- I will say this.  If a dog sleeps with his head on his paws (enter Mr. Billy -- King of the Fluffy Paws and it's apparently a danged nice pillow) they can actually shut off some of their own circulation. 

Post-IMHA Billy scared the bejeebers out of me more than once with that trick.  And it takes a good hour for the blood flow to return to normal.

NOW -- all that said -- I ain't sayin NUFFIN about the fact that your radar says something's not right.  Don't back down!!

Good thoughts for him, feel better big guy!!

I missed that Maghee passed, I am so sorry!

What'd the vet say?  Hope Grady's on his way to feeling better, whatever it is!

Aww, my thoughts and vibes to you and Grady!! 

I think it's cure that he likes being combed!!!!

I'm glad that at least the initial check and bloodwork didn't show anything alarming. I know what it's like to just know that your dog isn't right though. I hope whatever it is, it passes and Mr. Grady starts to feel better soon.

Shamrock, Maghee crossed in January.  I just haven't been able to write something about it in the Rainbow Bridge section.  It just makes me too sad.  Thanks for your kind words.

Dr. S seemed to think that his pale gums are due to him being chilled.  I guess that could be the reason but my mama radar says that there's something else.  He's just acting off enough to raise red flags.  I don't know.  I'm trying not to worry until I have something to worry about.  Easier said than done.  This is going to be a long week.

Lauren, I think I'll need to start a new fad.  YEARS ago it was cool to have your big handled comb sticking out of your back pocket.  I'll start carrying around a dog comb in my back pocket.  Think it will catch on? :)

We should start a club. Fellowship of the Comb. Hang in there, Grady. The humans will figure it out soon enough.

It could be that Grady's getting old and straining muscles. I've had a few episodes with Shadow. The first thing was a lump on his throat hide that disappeared the day I called Callie. Most likely a bee sting or spider bite. Second thing was one day, he couldn't seem to bark, couldn't catch his breath and couldn't stand for very long. I called Callie on that one, too. By the time she could call back, he was already getting better. I thought he had eaten something that didn't agree with him. From eating a cotton rat that went down the wrong way to maybe eating a cotton rat that had ingested some poison. Anyway, regular poops and his silly self by the end of the next day. Then it happened again, a moment or two after a barkfest with the hound mix next door. I surmised, from both times of him nearly favoring his right front leg, that he had strained a muscle and it hurt to breathe or do much of anything. A day or so (about as long as it takes to get over a muscle strain) and he was back to his goofy, gallavanting self. OTOH, Shadow's gums were never discolored, which more than likely meant that his problem was local and muscularly repeatable, as opposed to system, such as washed out gums. Maybe it really is just a circulation problem. I can just see Grady wearing support hose and doing a commercial for some med for peripheral artery disease, like they do for humans.

BTW, as if ya'll didn't know, Callie rocks.