A Trip to the Vet With the Cats
We took Dr. Nefarious and Zoni to the very yesterday. They were due for their yearly checkup and a couple of shots. It was an adventure just getting them into their carriers. We managed to get Nefarious in pretty quick, but once we got Zoni in, she slipped out and then the chase was on.
Read MoreUpdate
About time for my monthly blog check-in. Sorry, my life is boring right now. When does baseball season start again? Ready to hear Tom Glavine in the booth …
Me - Still running. Lately I’ve been running 4 times a week. I usually run 3 miles twice and the other two days I run 5 miles – so 16 miles total. Not too bad. I still run slow though. Oh well. I’ll never be a speedster.
The dogs - Ratchet is still (knock on wood) seizure free since starting the Phenobarb. Yay. He also has remained free of ear infections so those were definitely food related. However, he still has allergy problems. Lots of licking and chewing at his feet. I’m not sure if this is still food related or if it’s environmental or what. All I know is that it is frustrating. But paw licking is better than seizures and ear infections. Oh, and I mentioned in a previous entry about his weight loss. That’s no problem anymore. The last time we weighed him, he was at 57lbs and he looks like he’s put on a little more since then. Clank is doing great. Allergies are still well-maintained, and being his normal sweet self. He used to sleep in his dog bed at night, but now he has taken to sleeping on our bed almost exclusively. I guess he figures Ratchet does it so he might as well too. And they both sleep on my side of the bed. In related news, I usually sleep like crap. Hah.
The Cats - Nefarious and Zoni are doing great. I can’t believe how small they used to be and how big they have gotten now. They grow up so fast. Yesterday, they learned how to climb up on the top of the fridge and from there, the top of the kitchen cabinets. Heh. Zoni is a cuddler. She usually winds up in my lap at some point before the day is done. Nefarious is a trip. Every day he brings his stuffed bunny out of their room and leaves it in the living room or family room. He doesn’t do anything with it once he brings it out. Just carries it out and leaves it there. Always cracks me up.
Here are some recent photos of the crew:
Been a while…
Been a while since I’ve posted a blog.
This is what happens when you do the same things over and over. You really have nothing to blog about.
Dr. Nefarious and Zoni are doing great. We got Nefarious neutered and a few weeks later got Zoni spayed. They are top-notch. Zoni had to wear the dreaded cone for a few days because her incision got a little infected, but it looks great now. She’s way more active without that cone on. Heh.
Ratchet and Clank are doing well overall. We switched their food over to The Honest Kitchen’s Preference formula. It’s a dehydrated fruit & veggie base mix that you add water to (to rehydrate) and then you add in your own meat. I’ve been cooking up ground beef to add to it. (Might try other meats down the line – chicken, turkey, etc.) This is my attempt at eliminating questionable ingredients that may or may not be linked to seizures (rosemary extract) and also trying to get Ratchet’s allergies more under control. They have been on it for … I dunno, 3 weeks? But for most of that time they were still getting some of their regular dog food as well (I wanted to do a gradually switch — easier on the stomach). Ratchet is still itchy, but I know it takes awhile if it is indeed food related. We had to get him on steroids for a couple of weeks because he was just chewing himself like crazy. For the weeks he was on the steroid it was awesome — absolutely no itching — but he’s been off of that for almost a week now and he’s back at it. I DO think his frequent ear problems were food related, as those have been under control for the past couple of months with food switches, but it’s possible the rest of his problems are environmental. We’ll see. I will say that I think both dogs’ fur feels softer since being on The Honest Kitchen. Not that they didn’t have soft fur before, but I definitely feel a difference (for the better). As far as the seizures, *knock on wood* everything is good with that. None since being on the medication for them. Just taking it day by day and keeping my fingers crossed.
Hubby is good … going to work, playing video games, being awesome … the usual
Me – Still doing my running. I’m doing the two days on, one day off schedule. I’d still doing 5K on my “short” days and 10K on my “long” days. Well, that’s the distance that my GPS app on my phone says. My (still) uncalibrated Nike+ has me going farther (and faster) but I know that’s inaccurate, so I go with the lesser distance. In hindsight, I should have gone up a size in my running shoes. I bought my normal shoe size and that might have been a mistake. I don’t think I have enough room in the toe box, as the second toenail on my left foot has turned a lovely shade of dark purple. The nail is a little sore when you press on it but it’s not really bothersome so I assume it’s not a big deal. It wouldn’t surprise me if I lose that nail at some point though.
Read MoreThis and That
Running:
I did my second 5 mile run in like 44:40 and I was pretty stoked. “Wow, under 45 minutes! Wahoo!” And then my next two five-mile runs I promptly did them 2 minutes slower. Well, that deflated the ego balloon. LOL. I thought I was supposed to improve on my time as I went along, not get worse! Oy. Well, at least I’m still covering the distance!
At least I think I’m covering the distance. I never did calibrate my Nike+ so watch, I’m probably over here thinking I’m covering 5 miles when really I’m covering like 3. Heh.
Ratchet
*Knock on wood* So far, so good.
He actually hasn’t seemed that sleepy on the phenobarbital like we were expecting. He has seemed pretty normal. We have noticed him walking a little funny. Kind of a limp/hitch sometimes with his back legs. We don’t know if maybe the medicine has caused some weakness in his back legs, or maybe he pulled a muscle during his last seizure. Hopefully it’s not him showing signs of hip dysplasia. I mean, he’s got allergies, he’s got epilepsy … let’s at least avoid the hip dysplasia. He needs a break.
On the upside, we stopped giving him Benadryl (for his allergies) when we put him on the phenobarb because we were worried he would just be super sleepy with both drugs. Oddly enough, he hasn’t been nearly as itchy since we stopped giving it to him. So…we were giving him Benadryl because he was really itchy. Then we stop giving it to him and now he’s not scratching much at all. What the? Maybe he’s allergic to Benadryl. LOL. How funny would that be? I dunno, maybe phenobarb helps allergies and we just didn’t know it. Or maybe his scratching was all mental and the phenobarb is supressig the neurons firing off telling him to scratch.
I don’t know why and don’t particularly care. I’m just glad he’s not scratching himself til he bleeds.
Tom Glavine
He’s in the booth right now for the Mets-Braves game. His first away game of the year! He’s filling in for Joe Simpson who is at a family wedding. I get such a kick out of him being in the booth. Is he the best broadcaster out there? No, but I think he does a good job, especially for this being his first year and I think if he keeps it up he could be really good. I really enjoy listening to him. I think he tends to start the games off kind of slow but improves as the game goes along and he settles in. He has really good insight.
Since he’s doing the game in New York, I noticed a couple of Mets people tweeting that they wondered if he would make it through the first inning. (In reference to his last game as a Met back in ’07 when he lasted 1/3 of an inning). I admit, I laughed. Hey, it’s more creative than them bringing up the “not devastated” thing for the millionth time.
The Cats
Dr. Nefarious is curled up asleep beside me at the moment. We’re pretty sure he thinks he’s one of the dogs. He’s constantly trying to hang with them, whether it’s curling up with them on the couch, or following them around the house …. He’s just trying to be one of the boys. And Zoni? Oh, she’s a little lover. She gets in my lap and rubs her head on my chin. So sweet.
We got their last round of shots the other day. Now we just have to get them spayed and neutered. Our vet needs to offer a frequent visitor program or something. I tallied it up and we have spent like $860 at the Vet since mid-July. I’ve kind of had to get a little lax with the due dates on some bills, if you know what I mean. lol.
Clank
Clank is top-notch like always. His new gimmick is standing by the backdoor until you open it. Then he literally walks onto the porch, turns around, comes in and expects a treat. LOL. And yeah..most time he gets one. lol. Hey, he’s so persuasive!
September Is …
Did you know that September is Childhood Cancer Awarness Month? A lot of people don’t know that, though I have noticed more commercials related to it this month, and thank goodness for that.
I don’t personally know a child with cancer, but I’ve followed (and still follow) several websites set up for kids battling the disease. I’ve been following some for over five years so, it kind of feels like I know them personally. Some are now happy and healthy kids entering middle school or high school. Some have overcome the cancer but are now dealing with the after-effects of the chemo and other treatments. Some are still battling the disease and some have passed away. When you follow these kids for so long, you catch a glimpse of it all – the heartbreak, the hope, the humor, the anger, the dispair, the grief, the healing …. I’m always in awe of them — both the kids and their parents and siblings. Because I just have NO idea how they do it. I cannot fathom it.
I’ve added a sidebar badge for CURE, an organization dedicated to Childhood Cancer Research. They are a great organization. If you have the means to donate to them, or would just like to learn more about what they do, be sure to click on it.
Another great organization to check out is CureSearch (www.curesearch.org), also dedicated to Childhood Cancer Research.
Hopefully we’ll reach the day where we see a cure in our lifetime….
Read More28 Minutes, Ratchet scare and Kitten Love
Today was Week 8 Day 2 of the Couch to 5K workout I’m doing. I had to run for 28 minutes. I really had to push to get through the last five minutes. Made it though. I really want to buy some new shoes. I want some Nike plus ones and also a Nike plus sportband so I can track distance and whatnot. But, I don’t have any money for them right now so…make do with what I got.
Ratchet gave us a big scare on Thursday. He had a seizure. Hubby was at work and I was lying on the couch while Ratchet slept in his dog bed in front of me. He got up and started barking. I thought he had heard a noise until I looked at him and realized he was disoriented. He was barking at the ceiling and he ran into our TV stand and our coffee table. It was like he was unsteady. And when I went over to him he didn’t really seem to register that I was there. Then he fell on the floor and had a full body seizure. His whole body convulsed, he foamed at the mouth, made a whiny/grunty noise and peed. It was horrible and scary and I was in such a panic. I just rubbed his back and said “please be okay” while I called my husband. It probably only lasted 30 seconds or so but it felt like forever. After, he kind of sat up for a minute or so just staring and drooling and then he got up and seemed pretty okay. He was a little different — pacing the house and jumping up on me several times, but after a few more minutes he was back to his old self.
We took him to the vet and our amazing doc (Dr. K) said everything looked good with him – eyes, heart, acting normally, etc., etc. He did bloodwork and we got the full results today – all completely normal – so he thinks it’s just epilepsy. He said if it was an older dog you would worry about a tumor, but when they are as young as Ratchet it’s usually just epilepsy. He didn’t recommend any medication unless he starts having cluster seizures (multiple seizures in the same day) or if he started having them more than once a month. For now, we just proceed as normal and write down whenever he has one for our records.
He hasn’t had another one (knock on wood) and I hope he never does. I’m in the process of switching his food over to a grain-free one, since Dr. K mentioned some people theorize that grain-free diets help with seizures. Hopefully he’s not allergic to any ingredients in the new food. 
If so we’ll move to another one.
BTW, Dr. K is so wonderful. He’s been Ratchet’s doc since birth and Ratchet loves him. He is SO calm around him and if you ever met Ratchet you would realize why that is so amazing. lol. He’s an excitable little fella. And I really appreciated the fact that when the blood work results came in, Dr. K himself called us to let us know. He could have easily gotten one of the vet tech’s or front desk people to call and say “hey, results are normal” but he called himself. I like that.
The kittens? No longer stay in their spare bedroom and instead roam about the house. Dr. Nefarious and Ratchet are buddies I think.
See? The sweetness almost kills me….
I Did It!
I ran 20 minutes today without stopping! That might not sound like a big deal to some people but seriously, it was a big deal for me.
The first part of the run was the hardest. I ran, and ran, and ran and thought surely it had been at least 10 minutes but it was only 8. But, once I hit the 10 minute mark, it was a lot easier after that. And by the 5 minute mark I was running with a big smile on my face.
Wasn’t running very fast, but I felt like I kept the same steady pace throughout. I was happy with myself.
On to Week 6 in the C25K program!
In kitten news, we’ve allowed the dogs to visit with them for a few minutes periodically. Clank is absolutely fine around them. Ratchet is doing a lot better. I mean, Ratchet was always fine with them but he was just a little too excited. But he’s been a bit calmer. They’re good boys.
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My name's Amanda. I'm 32 years old, am married to my best friend and love animals. I have two dogs - Ratchet and Clank - and two cats - Dr. Nefarious and Zoni. They are awesome. I dabble in freelance webdesign, and I'm also a runner, albeit a kind of slow one. Tom Glavine is my favorite athlete of all-time. 