Sept 29 Pearl is better, symptom-wise. She has been eating "a little", and holding it down for the most part. They had to cut back on her IV fluids because it was building up in her feet, and causing her to sound congested. I think this young vet was frustrated that the treatment did not get better results. Pearl is being sent home tomorrow with meds for her stomach. The final evaluation is only poor kidney function. Nothing else, after they did 4 or 5 ultrasounds, a needle biopsy, 4 or 5 blood tests for various things, Xrays, and stomach meds. I told the vet on our first visit to him 12 days ago that it was her kidneys. They should have listened to me then and saved me tons of money. It totaled $5000.00 for the last 12 days. I went to see her last night and she was very glad to see me. But she was also very glad to see everyone else. She wiggled all over and licked everybody's face. They were all kissing her, so I couldn't kiss the dog face that was covered with everyone else's spit. First thing I am going to do when I get her home is wash her face with antibacterial soap. I will have to treat her with kid gloves from hereon. Every day is borrowed time. Oct 1 Pearl is doing very well (on meds). She is eating normally again, but still taking her nausea meds. Oct 5 Pearl ate a jar of Gerbers chicken and rice in her pan with her dog food. Then she ate the dog food. Then I put the rest of the can of dog food in her pan and she ate all of that. Total for this AM; one jar of Gerbers and 1/2 can dog food. Then a big drink of water. Oct 14 Pearl is up and down. She is losing weight from not eating. I have to make her food in a blender and give it to her from a syringe. Oct 15 We are getting the rain today. We need it but it is dark and dreary. It was so dark coming down the stairs this AM that Pearl fell down the whole flight. She was behind me so I didn't see what happened but it sounded like she slipped up near the top and then scrambled hit or miss the rest of the way down. Poor precious Pearl. I loved on her and she seemed OK. Oct 15 She just threw up everything. A big drink of water brought up everything that she ate or was force fed this AM. All on the family room carpet. Poor Pearl. Oct 16 Pearl is failing fast. I don't think I'm going to have her much longer. I know that soon the vets are going to start to pressure me to end it. While the nausea med is working she eats a little and I force more into her. When the nausea med begins to wear off, she throws up everything she ate all day. Oct 17 I took Pearl for more SQ fluids. She can't keep anything in her stomach for more than a few hours. Nausea (and the resulting weight loss) is the only visible symptom she has. She is alert, sociable, and interested in what is going on around her. She is low on energy because of the lack of nutrition. All I do is dog things, mostly cleaning up the carpet. She was a little better yesterday and this AM. Oct 18 Pearl is better. She is getting Ondansetron for nausea. She is not eating on her own but she is keeping down what I force into her. Oct 19 Pearl did very well yesterday and ate on her own all last evening. I fixed ground turkey and brown rice with chicken broth in the blender and she pigged out. Now she won't eat it. Like he said, progress, not perfection, sometimes 3 steps forward and 2 backward. Oct 20 Pearl spent the day at the vet getting IV fluids since I was going to be gone all day and would not be able to give her meds and feedings. It was good for me to have a day away from medicating, hand feeding, and cleaning up the floor. Oct 24 Pearl is up and down. She was eating on her own for a couple of days but not now. I am feeding her with a syringe again. Oct 27 2009 Pearl is down to skin and bones. She is totally emaciated. It has been cold here until yesterday, and I had a dog sweater on her all that time. I took it off of her last night so Jennifer could give her SQ fluids, and I was shocked. She is a skeleton with fur. She ate her little can of canine AD this morning and a half hour ago I gave her pureed egg with bacon drippings from a feeding syringe. A few minutes later she threw it up along with the can of AD she ate this AM. My heart is in my throat and my stomach is tied up in knots. We came home from doing errands and Pearl came into the kitchen looking for food, so I opened another little can of canine AD and she gobbled it up. She gobbled it up this AM too but after I gave her the egg a few hours later, that's when she threw it all up. So I guess I won't give her any more egg today. Maybe tomorrow I will give her the egg first thing in the AM and give it time to stay down before giving her the AD. I made a beef and rice puree to give her with the syringe because she needs something fattening that is not so rich. I give that to her throughout the evening. She doesn't like it but she needs it. Nov 8 The old memory kicked in. It was Thursday at the vet's office when I took Pearl for fluids. Jennifer saw us going in there (from PlaMor) and she walked over to see Pearl and me. That is when she said she thought Pearl was putting on weight. Nov 10 Pearl is about the same. She did not want to eat this AM. Last night she threw up for the first time in a week. When I gave her the evening pill I pushed my finger too far down her throat and gagged her, and up came the whole dinner and pill. These pills cost $1.50 apiece. My life revolves around feeding and medicating Pearl. The pills make her very sleepy and she is not the same dog that John remembers ands says he misses. I miss her too. I don't think she's happy. We are going to FL on Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I hope Pearl makes it there and back. She has been getting a bag of SQ fluids every day for the last month. She is down to 42 lbs. (Dec 8-10 Pearl has been gobbling up stewed chicken, and keeping everything down.) (Dec 11-12 Pearl had been taking 32 cc a day by syringe of thick, pureed KD , cereal, egg, butter and bacon drippings.) Dec 14 For the last 36 hours with Pearl, she has been very bad. She tossed up a lot of her food yesterday afternoon and last night, and then today she has been locking her jaws so that I can't force the feeding syringe into her mouth. If I pry open her mouth and stick it in, she gags. She was doing so well until yesterday midday. I am going to wait a little and try again in a half hour. I leave for FL once again next Monday. I think this is the last time I will drive down. Dec 16 My prayers however are very much hindered by my overwhelming emotions due to Pearl's extremely bad condition. She took a turn for the worst on Monday and I can't get any food in her. She clamps her jaws shut tightly and won't let me insert the feeding syringe in her mouth, and when I force it, she won't swallow the food that I force into her mouth. She is a dog skeleton with fur. Until this week she had seemed to feel very good and I am going to take her to the vet tomorrow for IV fluids and a new stomach medicine to see if she improves at all. If she doesn't improve I'm afraid I will have to do the unthinkable. This time last week I was getting so much food in her that I had hopes of her gaining some weight, and she was gobbling up stewed chicken that I fixed her. What a difference a week makes. Dec 19 I had Pearl at the Vet for 2 days to see if IV fluids would help her. It wasn't snowing when I left at 5 to go get Pearl. It started when I was going down our road, and by the time I got to Ashland there was 2" all over everything. Coming back I had to drive about 10 mph. 95 N was a parking lot so I took Rt 1. When I got to Ashland conditions were treacherous. The forecast was way off. They said flurries Friday afternoon and night with heavy snow developing Sat afternoon. Wrong. It came in with a blast on Fri. evening. I spent 4 hours stuck at Blunts Bridge last night with Pearl in the back seat of the truck. I didn't know if she was still alive or not. Three different people tried to pull me out. They almost pulled me into the ditch, and one got his Jeep stuck and had to be pulled out himself. Finally some neighbors came along in their big Ford F350 4WD. He tried to pull me out and almost slid into the ditch himself. But their boys were there with an ATV so Julie got out of the truck and lifted Pearl into their truck and she got into the ATV with the boys, and her husband drove Pearl and me home. His truck skidded and spun all over the hill. We almost didn't make it. My truck is parked at a little driveway right before the bridge. JC measured 15" here at dawn. We got 2" more later. Daniel shoveled a path, and Pearl went out to pee and fell in the snow. She couldn't get up. Daniel carried her back into the house. Dec 20 A neighbor told me that the road plow went through yesterday afternoon. A tow truck is on the way to pull my truck out of the ditch and tow it to the neighbor's driveway. They can't get around the big tree that is down across my driveway. Hope he can do the job. And my Navigator SUV is hooked up to the battery charger. It was dead this morning. If all these things work out we will leave first thing tomorrow AM for FL, but I am going to stop at the Vet's and have Pearl euthanized. She can barely get to her feet and she was crying in her sleep last night. I've been wondering if I should bury her or have her cremated but with 17" of snow on the frozen ground I think I have my answer. Dec 20 4:40 PM We did not wait. The SUV was charged and the driveway was cleared, so we did the most difficult chore today. We took Pearl to VRCC for her last Vet appt. Pearl was euthanized today at 2:32 PM at VRCC in Manakin Sabot. It had to be done. She could not stand up and she didn't want to live anymore. This was where her JRD was diagnosed by ultrasound 5 and 1/2 difficult years ago. She was born at the end of the NC winter storm of the century, and she died at the end of the VA winter storm of the century. We are leaving in the AM for FL. My hard time will be when we get back after Christmas. I will never again have another pet. Too many heartbreaks have ended that. I have put away everything of hers except her bed beside my bed. I can't do that yet. I wanted to bury her but 17" of snow on top of frozen ground prevents that. She will be cremated. This was a wonderful dog who was very much loved, and lived a very difficult life. No expense was spared for her well being. I want to encourage every dog owner to have all breeding dogs DNA tested for JRD. It is no longer necessary to bring dogs into the world with this genetic defect. It should not be an option. The AKC should require testing for registration. JRD is a vicious killer and should not be passed down through the breeding lines. TOP