Sorry For The Interruption

I'm going to interrupt my two part Gem story for something else and get back to it tomorrow.

Last night was a crummy night. We have a senior citizen living with us - Hero, my 14 year old Cardigan Welsh Corgi. He is the man. He is one of those once in a lifetime dogs and while I have another dog currently (Bones, a 7 year old Doberman/Great Dane mix) and will have others in the future, nobody will come close to Hero.

For some reason I've always had it in my mind that he will live to 15 and that I will be okay with it when his times comes because 15 is a long time. As each year has passed I have said, no big deal I still get 4 years with him, 2 years with him etc... but when he turned 14 in February I realized even with my totally artificial timeline it meant only 1 year. I make the best of every day I have with him and for the most part you would never know I got him for my 18th birthday and I am now turning 32. He goes on hikes in the woods with us, plays a lot and is generally in a good mood and in good form.

But starting back in December he began this really odd anxiety/panic attack like behavior. I'm not convinced he isn't bordering on a seizure and just never gets there. His whole body shakes, he pants, and he won't stop pacing. He won't lay down or get comfortable. It happens intermittently and we thought it was due to over exertion. He was tired and sore and this was what ensued. In fact it almost always happens in the middle of night. In truth he is getting senile and will wander off and get freaked out and so we thought it could also be due to him waking up, not recognizing where he is and freaking out. He is on a dose of anxiety meds at night and when it happens we also give him Rimadyl in case it is pain based. And it goes away in short order.

He started again last night. I'm not sure when, but I know I woke up to it at 2 am. He was panting, pacing, shaking and asking to get on the bed. But if you put him on the bed he can't get down so he just paces on top of your face and pants until you put him down. Rimadyl did no good. An extra anxiety pill did no good. Benadryl did no good. He paced and paced and paced. We put him outside to see if the cooler night air would help. Nope. At 4 am the hubs took him for a car ride to go buy W some milk to see if that would help settle him. Nope. Finally we gave up at 530 am and got around for the day. He of course fell asleep when the hubs was in the shower.

So Hero went off to work with the hubs to have xrays and blood work and see what is going on. The hubs has asked his boss for an opinion in the past with the same reply "that's odd". Maybe we need valium at home for him when he does this. It isn't even all that often. Maybe two times a month but it is sad because you just can't do anything to calm him down.

Keep us in your thoughts and lets hope everything comes back normal. Hopefully we can keep these to a minimum and keep moving on down the road.