Morning (and Evening) Meds – Whole Dog Journal
What you see in the photo here are the morning meds. I thought it was bad that all three of my dogs are currently receiving daily medication; then I was prescribed something, too!
Last week, I had to have oral surgery – a molar that was anchoring one half of a bridge had its root canal go bad and it had to be removed. So, the yellow pill on the left is my antibiotic, to be taken three times daily for a week.
The blue pill is 7-year-old Woody’s current antibiotic, to be taken twice a day. In February, he broke yet another toenail – it seems like he breaks one at least once a year! It was a bad, high break, leaving his quick completely degloved – and of course it got infected. He had to go see the vet and get on antibiotics about a week after the broken nail was treated. It was healing well, and the new nail was almost all the way covering the now-toughened quick, when a little abscess surfaced on the side of his toe near the base of the nail – a little pocket of infection that had survived the previous antibiotic. So now he’s on a new one – for two weeks this time. He’s nearly done with this round of antibiotic and the toe and its nail is looking really good – but he’s having a mystery lump surgically removed from his thigh as I write this, and I’m not sure whether he’ll be sent home with more antibiotics or what. I’ll find out this evening!
The pill-and-a-half are antibiotics for 1-year-old Boone! Yes, three individuals in my home are on three different antibiotics at the moment – not a great advertisement for fighting antibiotic resistance. I’m waiting to hear whether Boone has tested positive for a tick-borne diseases (TBD) – the tentative diagnosis for the symptoms he displayed a couple of weeks ago for the better part of a day (as I described here), and then again for an entire day a week later. My vet feels pretty certain that his waxing and waning symptoms could be caused by Lyme or another TBD – and fortunately for Boone, vets are more inclined than doctors for humans to proactively dose dogs suspected of having a TBD before getting a positive test, just based on symptoms and an exposure to ticks. Boone was exposed to ticks the day before his first “sick day” – and I found and removed two engorged ticks from him later that week.
One of the hallmarks of Lyme disease and other TBDs is that, if treated promptly, the symptoms often resolve very quickly once the doxycycline (the most effective antibiotic for treating most TBDs) has been started. I’m hoping beyond hope that Boone’s lack of symptoms over the past 11 days (as I write this) is due to the fact that he did have a tick-borne infection and we caught it quickly.
The last set of pills are for 15-1/2-year-old Otto. Thank goodness, no antibiotics for him! That’s his morning Tramadol (given twice a day) and Gabapentin (three times a day). He gets a different set at midday: more Gabapentin, an NSAID, and an acid reducer for his chronic acid reflux.
All of this pill administration has made for some very alert and attentive kitchen dogs, who come crowding around every time they see me reach into the refrigerator for the canned food that I bury their pills in. And all I can say is that they are more alert than me; as far as I can recall, I’ve only given the wrong pills (Boone’s doxycycline) to the wrong dog (Otto) once. UGH! I knew it was wrong the moment Otto slurped the gob of canned food out of my hand – but he’s gotten so pushy for his thrice-daily dollops of canned food, and he’s the only one who never gets chastised or sent to the back of the line for this behavior.
You may ask: Why do I have my own antibiotic lined up on the cutting board with the dog meds? Because while I never forget the dogs’ pills, in the first couple of days after having my tooth pulled, I kept forgetting to take mine! Putting my pill bottle alongside theirs is the only way I can be certain to take my own meds. If that sounds lame – well, at least I haven’t taken any of their meds yet!
