Celebrating the life of a little dog.....who's big brown eyes sparkled with wisdom that surpassed my own. Bootsie is in Heaven, now...but her pawprint is still indelibly stamped upon my heart. This is Bootsie's story. A dog and her girl.
The following are links that relate directly to canine epilepsy and liver disease.
http://www.canine-epilepsy.com/Resources.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canineliver-d/
More links to be added, as I find them or learn of them, so please check back from time to time.
I wanted to let you know about an excellent e-book that I have discovered online. It's called
"Hope For Healing: Liver Disease In Your Dog", and is written by Cyndi Smasal.
I have scoured the internet in search of such a book, only to come up emptyhanded. Until now, a book covering this subject has never been written. Most articles on canine liver disease seem to center upon the viral form of the illness, almost completely ignoring the type of liver disease that can be induced my meds.
If you or someone you know has a dog suffering from liver disease, please visit the website that I am providing below. From that site, you can read more about this books content, and how you can obtain a copy. If nothing else, for just an e-mailed request, you can obtain a link to download a free pre-release version of this book.
Please check it out. The info it contains is invaluable.
Here's the link:
http://www.hopeforhealing.com/
I'm worried about Bootsie. She has been seizure free for months and months, and I had done a good job convincing myself that the seizures she experienced all her life had somehow ceased to be. I was wrong.
In the past 3 weeks, Bootsie has had 3 seizures. The last one occurred last night at about 11:30. The prior 2 had been so mild that unless you know what it is, you may not even recognize them for what they are. Last nights was more severe. It began as Bootsie's seizures always do, with Bootsie bolting up to her paws and making a mad dash to get to me, her little legs crumbling beneath her, refusing to cooperate. I dropped what I was doing, (in this case, I think I was playing a game on Pogo), and I went straight to her, cradling her head in my hand and laying beside her. I always keep our faces very close to each other because Bootsie gets scared if she can't see me. I laid on the floor with her like this, talking her through it, and noticing that this seizure was more severe than the last. Her little muscles contracted painfully, her eyes took on a glazed look, and her brow furrowed as if in deep, worried concentration. By minute two, when the seizure had still retained a grip over my dog, I began to pray. These prayers are not the type that are beautifully spiritual and poetic in quality. They are more frantic words of pleading said in as much of a controlled tone as I can muster so as not to let Bootsie realize my mounting anxiety. I pray to God. I pray to St. Francis of Assissi, I pray to the entire Communion of Angels and Saints, begging them to help my Bootsie, I pray to God harder, and I beg my dad to beg God to help us.
Now into minute three, I grab my cell phone from where it lays abandoned on the sofa and hit the speed dial number to the emergency vet.
I never know what to do at moments such as these. When it comes to watching someone you love have a seizure, every second feels like an eternity. By three minutes, you begin to fear that there will be no end to it, and you begin asking yourself, "Is this the seizure that is going to do irreperable neurological damage? Is this the one that send me flying down the street with my dog seizing in my lap as I drive?"
Sometimes, the emergency vet cannot do much but say, "We're here, we're open, bring her in." And this is exactly what was told to me. Before I'd even disconnected from the call, though, thank God, Bootsie's seizure finally began to subside.
She laid there on the floor very still. Experience has shown me that Bootsie needs at least 10 minutes of "quiet time", where she can just lie still and recover a bit. I lay beside her throughout, because if I get up, she will try to get up also.
Boots somehow manages to give my face and hands kisses in the midst of these seizures. Her gratitude for my presence only increases once the seizure ends. I kind of gauge how long we should remain resting by the intensity with which she shows her affection to me!
It's the next morning now, and I am about to call her regular veterinarian and let her know what happened. I'm nervous. Bootsie already takes 1 1/2 tabs phenobarbitol two times a day. It's because of our having to medicate these seizures that she has liver disease in the first place. If this seizing continues, we will have to add potassium bromide to her cocktail of daily meds, and I am loathe to do it. The vet agreed with me last Friday, that we would assume a "wait and see" approach, only adding in the PB if it were absoltely necessary. Any extra chemical that enters my Bootsie's little body has to be processed by the liver, and most any chemical is going to be more taxing on her already compromised liver. It's a situation that I cannot win. I either give her the drugs that damage her liver to control these seizures, or I forego them, spare her liver, and risk the damage possible from unchecked seizing. What can I do??????
Some people may find it unusual to care about and love an animal as much as I love my Bootsie. I know that I cannot keep her forever. I also know how blessed I am that God brought her into my life. Trust me, I have thanked God every single day for this beautiful little present wrapped in fur. I think that it's by the Grace of God that Bootsie, given all her medical problems these past 6 years, is today 14.5 years old and in all, amazingly healthy despite the epilepsy and liver disease. I often reflect that there HAS to be a God, and he obviously knows how much I need Bootsie. Boots has been by my side through the worst times of my life. She knows exactly what my moods are, and she is a "mothering" little dog when I am upset.
I know that I cannot keep her here with me forever, and that a day is coming when I will have to let her go home to God, where she will wait for me, ever faithful to me on that celestial plane as she has been to me here on this imperfect earthly one. The very idea of it....going through a day without my Bootsie, it's one that I cannot think of without crying. I honestly do not know how I will deal with that. I am more bonded to my dog then to anyone I know or have known (besides my dad, who I lost to cancer in 1997). If I allow myself to think about a life without my Bootsie, I'm overtaken by feelings of utter loneliness and despair.
There are some people, my mom and Jason, in particular, who have been telling me from time to time that I will have to let her go someday. Do they think that I do not know this? Of course I know this. Normally I just nod my head in silent agreement and change the subject. Only this past month, their remarks have illicited a different reaction from me. I've noticed that the past few times they brought this up, I reacted explosively, almost violently. I told them to "just shut the hell up, and get away from me". I'm not sure why I am reacting this way...I know that they mean well. But I just do not want to hear it from them. Maybe because they could not possibly know what it feels like to love deeply and suffer the loss of that love. I honestly believe that.
Well, I just phoned the vet, Dr. Zakos. She is in the office today, for which I am SO THANKFUL!! She will be returning my call at the first chance she gets.
Bootsie goes to Diamond Veterinary Clinic, here in Everett. I am telling you, she has the very best doctors! I so completely trust their expertise. They truly go about their job of healing and keeping animals well because they LOVE animals. I couldn't take her someplace where that wasn't the case. Each of the vets and clinicians at this practice knows Bootsie well, and they all care about her. I am so thankful for them. They understand my deep feelings and concerns for Bootsie. Whenever Bootsie has required hospitalization, they have welcomed my phonecalls that come every 2 hours to ask how she is and what she is doing. Never once have they ever made me feel that I was a bother or an imposition on their time. And they have always made time for me, even in the midst of their most hectic and emergency-heavy days. I've never felt that I could not ask questions, even if it was the same question I've already asked. What a wonderful group of people they are, and I wish that all pet owners could enjoy such a relationship with their local vet clicnics.
I will let you know what happens after I hear from the doc. Right now, Bootsie has hopped up onto the sofa beside me for a nap, and I am going off to play Pogo.
Bye for now.
Now, who in their right mind can look at this portrait and say that dog's don't smile?!
Having a professionally rendered portrait of Bootsie has long been a dream of mine, and now I have made it a reality! I am so happy with it!
I began to seriously go about the task of searching for a highly skilled artist, and this was a quest that went on for months. Then I came across the web site of an artist living in Wales, by name of Melanie Phillips, and I was astounded by her talent.
Please visit her website at:
http://www.pet-portraitartist.com/index.htm
You will see exactly what I mean when you stroll through the Gallery of Pet Portraits! If you'd like, you can view Bootsie there, and see how her portrait progressed in stages! Just click on the "Galleries" link at the bottom of the page, then click the "Dog" portrait gallery link. Bootsie's portrait progression is found in Dog Portrait Gallery Six.
I think you will agree, Melanie Phillips is talented beyond measure!
The Boots is doing well, she's up to her tricks, though! Yesterday I came home from running errands, and had a hoagie that I brought back for lunch. Well, stupid me, I got up to do something real quick, and accidentally left the bag that my sandwich was in on the coffee table. Whenever I do this, I will suddenly have this alarm bell ringing in my head, blaring out "ALERT! ALERT! YOU HAVE LEFT YOUR FOOD IN PROXIMITY TO THE DOG!" and this sends me running from whatever I'd been doing! Sure enough, yesterday I came running back into the living room to find the little rugrat with a hoagie sandwich clamped firmly between her teeth! We had ourselves a little battle of the wills as we played tug of war with this sandwich, Boots growling, and me yelling "let -it-GO, BOOTSIE!" I won in the end, and just as you'd imagine, Boots went under the table to pout for an hour or so!
"THE BOOTSIE FILES"
The first malady to befall little Bootsie was in 1998. She'd gone in for a dental cleaning, and while there, the vet felt a lump under her skin on her chest by her front leg. It turned out to be a mast cell tumor, which is a pretty aggressive cancer. We had her operated on to remove it, and thankfully, have not had any problem with tumors ever since.
Then about a year later, Boots wasn't feeling well...for three days she would hardly touch her food. The final straw came when I took her out in the backyard to "do her business". As I stood on the porch watching her, she looked up at me and fell over in a faint. Off we went to the emergency clinic. They did test after test, and couldn't figure out what was wrong. We finally brought Bootsie to an internal medicine vet, and after keeping her another week, diagnosed the problem as a defective spleen. (It's actually uncommon for a dog's spleen to just "go bad" for no apparent reason). Little Boots underwent a splenectomy, and got much better.
Boots has had seizures since she was a puppy, but they weren't bad enough or frequent enough to medicate her for them. After the splenectomy, that changed! She began having seizures that were longer, more frequent, and more painful. Then they began to come in clusters. She was put on phenobarbitol to control the seizures. THIS caused her to gain about 4 pounds, which is ALOT on such a little dog! Look for yourself! Pretty chubby, eh!? 
Bootsie developed arthritis, which was even worse with the extra weight. We put her on a strict low-fat prescription diet, which she is still on today.
Fast forward two years. I sat up all night with a sick little Boots...she was throwing up hourly. Took her back to the vet, where more tests were done. She was diagnosed with two different things: Hyperlipodemia, which is almost exclusive to schnauzers, and means that their is a high amount of fat in her blood because her body can't process fat very well. But the second diagnosis was the worst: Bootsie has liver disease. The vet believes it was brought on by the meds I have to give her to control seizures, so there's not a lot I can do about it. At the time of the diagnosis two years ago, they gave Bootsie one year life expectancy. Well, I'm sooooooo happy to say that she's a year past that now, and she's doing great!
I've even managed to get her weight back down closer to where it should be, and her arthritis is much better. I give her milkthistle in her food every morning, as well as two other holistic supplements, and I also give her 200 iu's of Vitamin E every other day. If Boots gets into the garbage, it's almost a guarentee that she will wind up back in the vet clinic for an overnighter with a catheter and all that other un-fun stuff! It just kills me whenever I have to leave her there. I cry until she's home again, and I call the vet every two hours wanting updates! What a brave and courageous little dog Bootsie is. Next to her, I look like such a complete wuss!!
(Oh yes, Bootsie still has a penchant to pee in this inappropriate way, should the mood strike her! Whenever anyone comes over to our house, the first thing that comes out of my mouth is usually, "Don't greet the dog. Don't touch the dog. In fact, please do not even look at the dog." She gets too excited if they greet her w/ any enthusiasm matching her own! (Think, "Oh Boy-Oh Boy-Oh Boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..........Uh-Oh.")!
Sometimes she will roll over onto her back. Some people say this is what a dog does to display it's submissiveness....I, however, think that Bootsie just wants a comfortable position in which to gaze up and get a good view of our visitor! And should she get all revved up and happy in this position.....well...need I say more!?
Lol, bath time!
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