The Journey of Tonka

So Spoiled

2012-01-19T20:57:00.000-05:00

AP here:
This is what happens when you spoil the Tonka Dog and he starts demanding attention.

Turn up your volume and make sure you catch the ending.

Therapy is sooooo Hard!

2012-01-18T20:13:00.003-05:00

Once a week I go to physical therapy with Chris Allyn Fritsch, M.Ed, ATC, PT, CCRP and Diana Huey, RVT, CCRA. It is a really intense hour where I lay on my side and sometimes they flip me over to the other side. I have to stay down while I get lots of attention and treats and occasionally take a nap. They move my leg and my head around doing these things called nerve glides and make my "nose go towards my toes". I also get cold laser therapy and then finish with this thing called a Cranio-sacral release. You can see from the pictures that it is such hard work for me...... The cool thing is that I can then lift my foot pretty good for at least 4 days afterwards so all that hard work is definitely worth it.

Nerve Glide Obturator

Nerve Glide Peroneal

Kickin it at the Park

2012-01-13T22:00:00.002-05:00

AP has been getting home early enough to take me to the park and therapy has been keeping me mobile.
Mornings are still draggy but when I get to the park in the afternoon with my friends-

"I'm kickin it"

Life is Good!

A Modified Normal

2012-01-11T20:44:00.010-05:00

AP here:
So we started down this bumpy road 4 months ago and we have had to modify some things and our daily routine.

This is the Tonka Cave constructed from 2 exercise pens and pvc pipe to make a 4x6 spacious place for him to lounge around in. It has 2 canine cooler pads for him to stay comfy on and he has room to stretch completely out.

Everything we need

We have a multi purpose storage unit for medications, boots, duct tape, puppy pads etc. Note the camera to the left for all day monitoring of the Tonka Cave and the little white camera on the top corner which is one of 3 that are connected to the Lorex Snap baby video monitor. It has a small monitor unit that displays all the cameras with night vision. It is small enough to take to bed and be able to check on him where ever he is during the night

There are baby gates to keep him from trying to use the steps.

Ramp on the side of the house is now outfitted with commercial rubber mats with traction bumps and drain holes.

Sleep space with fleece blanky and toys. The fleece is great at keeping things from soaking the carpet if there is an accident. The dog bed in the back corner is actually a memory foam bed from bigdogbeds.com. and is comfortable enough for me to sleep on. I got it for my last Pyr and neither she nor Tonka would have anything to do with it so it has become mine to lay on when he is having a bad night and I end up sleeping next to him.

Our day now begins at 4:30am so that I have time to get him up and in his boot and stumping around the block. We usually have a little standoff on the corner where we would normally turn to go to the park since he still thinks we should be able to go that far. This is frustrating for both of us and neither of us really wins the battle. On good days he gets around fairly quick and gets done with his potty business for the morning. Bad days we stop a lot, standing in the cold, and when he will poop is any ones guess. Occasionally we run into his friend Marie and she walks with us for a while. Tonka adores her and it is much less of a fight with him when she is around. Then it’s up the ramp and into the kitchen for breakfast followed by a nap (him not me) while I get ready for work. Tonka eats from elevated bowls which are kept downstairs since that is where he used to eat and they don't fit real well in the kitchen. So for breakfast and dinner I have to go downstairs make his bowl and then carry it all upstairs to the kitchen. When he is done I have to carry it all back downstairs again which I don't mind doing - I would do anything for my boy it's just the time factor for everything has changed. What once was something so simple that took a few minutes is now a whole process that adds time to the day. You don't realize that until you have something like this happen. Your normal routine gets changed and the amount of time for that routine has to be changed as well.

Then it’s a fight, and more often than not a bribe to get him back down the ramp to go potty and into the Tonka cave. Some mornings that becomes CM's job especially if I go in early.

I can monitor him on the Tonka cage cam from my phone and my PC at work, as can my parents so we know what he is up to during the day (usually just sleeping). Mid-day my mom or dad comes by to let him out and he hangs out either in the yard, on the porch or out front sniffing the breezes and perhaps taking another nap. It is apparently very tiring being a Pyrenees.

In the afternoon/evening we take our second stump around the neighborhood and again hope that all potty business is taken care of. Then we stump up the up the ramp and in to the house to take a nap before dinner. Once dinner is done its time for another nap before he gets his frozen peanut butter Kong treat. We play for a while with some of his toys or he tries to attack feet or bathrobe sleeves depending on his mood.

Tonka likes to sleep downstairs but he starts off upstairs which means anytime between 11 and 2 he will wake me up by barking and want to go downstairs. So out the door into the cold and down the ramp we go to get from point A to point B (really love this when it is cold and rainy). He tends to pee while he is walking down the little hill to the back door and that means it gets all over his front legs so I have to wash them once we get in the door. It would be much easier if we could start off downstairs in the beginning of the evening but Mr. "creature of habit" is not fond of that. Once downstairs he settles onto his fleece blanket and goes back to bed unless it is a whiny kind of night and then he will whine and cry and want me to stay with him. It is very rare I get a full night’s sleep anymore - usually the night when he has had PT he sleeps at least till 4. The therapists have given me some things to do with his leg that might help settle him down for the night so we are going to try those tonight.

One modified day at a time......

Pimp my Ride

2012-01-10T06:00:00.002-05:00

AP contacted the makers of my cart and hopefully they can figure out something to do with my cart. When we go to PT today she is going to talk to Chris and Diana about what nerves are involved and maybe Dr. Parkes can make something work for me. I hope so I'm getting awfully skinny.

Pain Meds and the Dribbles

2012-01-10T04:52:00.000-05:00

AP put me back on some pain medication since I have been whining a lot and she thinks I might have hurt myself cause I keep falling . We discovered that whatever sensation problem I have with nerve damage is made even duller with pain meds. I hadn't dribbled in the house since Christmas but when I stood up from my nap I dribbled on the carpet. AP says the medication must mess up the signal to my sphincter - whatever that is - so now I have to wear my belly band until the medication is out of my system. I hope that is the cause because I don't like the belly band and I don't like making a mess in my house.

Of Carts and Friends..

2012-01-09T08:35:00.004-05:00

AP here:
So Tonka's cart was a bust. I am thinking he needs a softer type saddle/sling so I contacted some other cart manufacturers that have soft saddles to see if we could get something and modify it to work with his existing cart. I was told that they could not help me and that I would have to get a whole new cart. It is a liability issue for them if you start swapping pieces from one brand to another.
--
-
I happened to be walking Nala for Carol in her neighborhood the other day and ran into a friend that I hadn't seen since this all started with Tonka. Tonka has lots of friends in other neighborhoods that we used to walk through and they all miss seeing him. I was telling him all about the whole ordeal and the engineer in him immediately went to trying to figure out away to either build something new or work with the existing. It's nice to know my boy is so well loved.

I Need a Ride

2012-01-08T05:11:00.004-05:00

Well my new ride is not working out. The saddle that my back end sits in is pressing on something and is not only uncomfortable but has made me slide backwards a bit. AP is very disappointed as she was counting on the cart to allow me to get back to some normalcy. I am back to really dragging my foot and have fallen quite a few times. I am really tired of not being able to do what I want. I have therapy next week and hopefully they can get me back to New Years Day status.AP is going to contact the cart people and see if there is anything we can do. It would be nice to be able to walk all the way to the park again.

The Disappearing Dog

2012-01-07T17:13:00.014-05:00

AP here:
The other night Tonka was in the backyard with Nala and wandered over to dig in his digging spot. He ended up falling and getting mulch stuck in his fur and his tail. I retrieved a brush to clean him up and it was the first time I had brushed him standing up in months. I started brushing him out and realized how much size he has really lost in his back end. I was actually shocked at how thin he is becoming. The cart was supposed to let us go further on out walks and let him run a bit to help keep his muscle tone and his sanity but that is not an option at the moment since it seems to be hurting him.

He was due for his vitamin B12 shot so we all went to the vet together and when we got there and I got him on the scale. Carol said "you don't want to look at that" and when I looked up and saw 108lbs it really hit me hard. Tonka is a big boy and at his heaviest was 130, I prefer that he stay at 120-125 but for him to be 108 is scary. Last week he was 122 and at this rate I am afraid he wont be able to get himself up and around at all. He already has a hard time getting up on his own anymore.

He has Therapy next week and I am going to have to talk to them about swimming even though he is terrified of the pool but I need to get him doing something to put muscle back on. I need to find a place that will allow either the therapist of myself in the pool with him. Swimming now seems to be the only thing left for us.

UPDATE: - Took Tonka to PT on 1/10 and the scale read in the 120's - so happy the other scale was way off.

New Years Day 2012

2012-01-01T22:12:00.001-05:00

AP here:
2011 was a horrid year for Tonka with all his medical problems so we were happy to see it go. This morning we got up around 5:00 and at 6:00 I was sitting having my coffee and he was laying next to the chair. All of a sudden he rolled onto his back and belly'd up for just a few seconds. Now you may be thinking "big deal" but it is - IT IS A HUGE DEAL! Tonka used to belly up every night to be brushed and he has not physically been able to do that for the past 2 months.
Granted it was just for a brief instant but I am thrilled.
The whole day has been great.

This was the beginning of our morning walk today. It did not last long before it became a drag and a scuff but he was actually lifting his foot.

This afternoon we picked up Carol and Nala and went to the park and he did really well. His knee seems to be floating a bit because his foot twists outward and his hip is not quite right but it was a real walk and lift not a drag and knuckle. He has not been this good since a month ago. I don't want to jinx it because a month ago we were here and then slid backwards but this is at least going back in the right direction. They tried some new things at Physical Therapy last week and I believe it really made a difference.

Add this to the fact that he has not had to wear the belly band for a week and that my friends is PROGRESS! He has lost 5 pounds in a week and some of that is definitely muscle mass but I think once we get the cart and get back to being able to go further he will build the muscle back up.

Happy 2012 :)

Wheels?

2011-12-22T19:10:00.002-05:00

AP here: Today Tonka and I traveled to Oxford, Maryland to K-9 carts east. It does not appear that Tonka is going to be back to blippity blopping on his own anytime soon. When all this first started people immediately started talking about having Tonka in a stroller or a wheelchair. My initial reaction was "NO WAY" the logistics of a 130lb blind dog in a cart seemed impossible and honestly I felt like even thinking that would be giving up hope that he would return to normal. The reality of the day to day dealing with my boy and his multiple disabilities has reminded me that:
1. there is no such thing as normal
2. if there was a normal he never has nor will he ever fit the criteria
3. he needs to be mobile for his emotional and physical well being.
4. It has been 3 months and several specialists and no one seems to be able to find the problem let alone fix it

So after hours of research on the Internet and talking to several people and companies I still have no clue what will work for him. It is hard to research them because when you think you know something is good about one model another manufacturer goes to great lengths to tell why it is not. It appears to be a very competitive and cut throat market. Since I have no experience with carts and being the type A that I am I need to make sure that he absolutely needs a cart and it is the right cart for him. Unfortunately there is no dog cart store where you can go and test drive different models but there is a company within an 2 hour drive that has been making carts for over 40 years so off to Oxford we went.

The company K-9 carts East is operated by retired orthopedic veterinary surgeon, Dr. Lincoln Parkes. Each cart is individually made based on specific measurements and the website walks you through how to take them or you can make an appointment to visit and they will take them for you. We met with Dr. Parkes and he watched Tonka limp around and we discussed Tonka's varied medical background. His staff took his measurements and showed me how the carts are made, they did not have any quite his size but I did get an idea of how big it is going to be.

If all goes well we can go back in a week and he can try it out and they will tweak it to meet his needs. I am still not 100% sure how I feel about my boy in a cart and I feel like I have failed him with this problem. This has been the first thing that I have not been able to fix for him and it breaks my heart on a daily basis. Perhaps when he gets mobile again things will turn around.

It may be all in his head!

2011-12-08T21:49:00.003-05:00

AP here with an update:

I took Tonka to see Dr. Jay McDonnell to see if he might be able to shed some light on what has happened with my boy. He went over the MRI with me and he did not see anything different than what Dr. Harris had seen.

The MRI is a device that uses strong magnets that spin around the patient, and picks up the magnetic signals emanating from the cells as they demagnetize. This gives a picture of the inside of the body without having to use surgery and is more precise than X-rays.

In a dog there are 36 pairs of spinal nerves of the 36 spinal segments which are categorized into the 5 spinal cord segments labeled cervical thoracic, lumbar, sacral and caudal

8 cervical; 13 thoracic; 7 lumbar; 3 sacral; & 5 caudal = 36 total

His lumbar and lumbosacral areas of his spine look great so there is nothing to suggest that his problem is due to a disk problem or stenosis which is a narrowing of a spinal area that would put pressure on the spinal cord or nerves.

He does have some intramedullary (within the spinal cord) hyperintensity within the thoracic part of his spinal cord. A hyperintense signal is a "bright spot" on an MRI. In order to eliminate fluid being the cause such as cerebrospinal fluid they use FLAIR "Fluid attenuated inversion recovery" which is a pulse sequence that essentially removes fluids from the picture. This allows any lesions to be visible. It is not known what has caused his bright spots and in order to get a fuller picture of what has happened we would have to MRI his cervical area and his brain. The plan at this time is to do that in January. The brain and spinal cord are surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and this fluid nourishes the nervous system and protects the brain and spinal cord so it directly reflects what is going on inside the nervous system. Dr. Harris checked for CSF problems at the time of his MRI with a spinal tap and it came back normal. It could be that there is too much CSF and perhaps a narrowing that is inhibiting the normal flow and creating elevated intracranial pressure so he is now on Prilosec. Prilosec which is omeprazole relieves heartburn in people but in dogs it reduces the production of cerebrospinal fluid.

We have seen some improvement with the foot drag which is now a lift and stutter until he gets tired and then it is back to a drag. The incontinence seems to come and go – some good days, some bad so we are just going to create as normal an environment and routine as we can. The advice was to “do the things that he likes and that seem to work and avoid the things that make him worse” and we can certainly do that. We will continue with the acupuncture and anything else that helps him physically. Twice a week I will take him to the park and let him “see” his dog friends and once a week we will go visit his human friends and that should keep him emotionally happy.

I cannot say enough great things about Dr. McDonnell and Dr. Harris. I never felt rushed or pressured into any procedure. They both took the time to go over the MRI results with me and the support staffs were and are always extremely professional and helpful. You can tell when people really care and understand what you and your pet are going through and this group does. I hope you and your pet never need a neurologist but if you do Tonka and I would recommend you check in with Veterinary Neurology of the Chesapeake and Dr. Jay McDonnell, DVM, MS, Diplomate ACVIM (Neurology) and Dr. Jeanene Harris, DVM, MS, Diplomate ACVIM (Neurology)

Throw me a Rope

2011-12-02T12:33:00.002-05:00

AP here: I have now been dealing with Tonkas gradual decline for almost 2 months with no answers. The poor boy has been poked, shaved, prodded, physically manipulated, lasered and scanned with no definitive answers. Through it all he has been such a good sport and a gentleman and I have no doubt that he will keep on being such a "very good boy". It all seems so unfair since he is such a good boy. He will be 4 soon and he has never growled nor even snarled a lip towards anyone or anything. It is very frustrating that we have no answers and equally as frustrating that it is only about a 1/4 of an inch lift that the foot/leg needs to do in order to not drag or scuff.

We have had good days and then really bad days on good days he sort of lifts the foot with little drag
and on bad he drags and knuckles under. His bad days seem to come after medical consultations with
lots of pushing and prodding. Acupuncture seems to be the only thing that has not caused a bad day yet. I have noticed that lately when he stands at the food bowl his back end starts to sag and his legs bend. When he goes to lay down he starts down and then falls all the way back and then slides his front legs down with his left leg way out to the side in a straight position with very little bend
at the knee.

It is very frustrating that this does not seem to have a cause, or fit any particular known problem. If nothing can be done and this is how he is going to stay that is fine but I would like to know what the problem is. I don’t let him do too much because I don’t want to hurt him in any way but if this is it then I would like to get him back into a normal pattern (a new normal of sorts). I will take him to the park and let him see his friends and we will create a schedule for the urinary problem. I just want to him to keep him safe and happy.

Oops I'm Leaking

2011-11-29T22:36:00.001-05:00

Sometimes when I stand up I dribble a little pee on the carpet. AP is not happy that I am not getting better and we still dont know what is wrong with me. We are going to see a new Dr. in Virginia next week and maybe they can figure something out. In the meantime I have to wear a belly band. AP could not find a belly band big enough for me so she made one out of a fleece sheet and an abdominal brace. She bought some Poise Pads and puts one in it and wraps the brace around my waist. I really dont like it but I will deal with it till someone fixes my problem. My friend Carolyn from Carolyns Originals is going to make me a real professionally made belly band. She also made my beach hat that I really like, I am sure I will like her belly band better than this thing...

Home Made Belly Band

MY BOOT

2011-11-28T12:11:00.001-05:00

We found a boot that is light enough for Tonka to walk in. It's the ruff wear Skyliner boot.

OK more like stump around in but it protects his nails and his pads so I like it.... On bad days we revert back to the sock and duct tape and it only took 2 days to wear a split in it.

Thank goodness for shoe goo and duct tape.

Acupuncture

2011-11-18T22:01:00.001-05:00

I had acupuncture today with Dr. Phillips at GAVH
She stuck some little needles in me (even one in my head). She read through my very large file before our appointment and knew all about all my medical challenges. Maybe this will make my leg work again. She uses these little needles and they don't hurt at all. You can barely see the one in my head.

Pinhead

Physical Therapy

2011-11-11T21:30:00.001-05:00

Today Chris Allyn Fritsch, M.Ed, ATC, PT, CCRP and Diana Huey, RVT, CCRA met with me and AP to decide a course of action to get my foot working again. Chris found some swelling in my back and was pressing on things to see if she could get them to go back where they belong. She did some Laser thingy on my back and then they showed AP some things to do with me everyday to try and help me walk better. We have to play a game of tickle the toes which makes me curl my foot up and another game where I have to lay on my side and turn my head up and to the side. I have to have ice on my back 3 times a day and can only go for short little walks.
I'm not sure if I like physical therapy but I hope it helps me walk right again.

Pyr Feet and Duct Tape

2011-11-10T20:16:00.002-05:00

My foot is just not working right and it drags so AP is worried that my toe nails and pads are getting torn up so she is making me wear my Woodrow Wear Socks. You can usually get the socks for a discount if you don't mind getting an out of season pattern. Right now I am sporting the Easter Bunny print but hey they were 4 for $10.00. My Ruff Wear boots and my Ther-a-Paw boots are just too heavy for my leg to lift and if I don't wear something my toenails bleed.
The socks don't last because they were not made for dragging so AP has been sewing up the ones I already put holes in. She is now making a duct tape sock/boot which seems to work well.

She starts with the sock on my foot

Then she takes Duct Tape and overlaps strips over the toe area. The trick is to come up high enough in the back to where my foot makes the bend so that I don't wear a hole in the back.

Then she goes around the foot with another strip.

Then repeats the process once more and then she either slips it off and puts it aside for later, or we go for a walk. The duct tape holds up really well unless I get it really muddy and wet, then it starts to un-adhere from the sock. She keeps a spare with her in her pocket just in case.

Back to the Beginning

2011-11-09T21:38:00.002-05:00

Dad and AP took me to CVRC and today I met Dr. Prostredny, AP had him operate on Myatuk years ago and he is really great. He pushed and pulled on my leg and my knee and then had Mike take some x-rays of my knee. I liked Mike so I was really still for my X-Ray.
CVRC houses several different specialties in one building, it's where my cardiologist, my internist, my neurologist and now my orthopedic Doctors all are. AP says when I walk in I am like Norm on Cheers(whatever that means). Dr. Prostredny talked to AP about my dragging foot and he said that even though I have the hip dysplasia and some arthritis that is not my problem. He said we are definitely dealing with a neurological problem and left for awhile to talk to Dr. Harris. Then all of us sat down and talked about what is going on with my leg.
All my Dr.s all say the same thing about me - "I don't make anything easy". When they run tests I always come back right on the edge of normal and when they try to diagnosis me I don't give them a lot of clues. I don't mean to be difficult its just the way I am!
Dr. Harris said there is another test we can do but I would have to have anesthesia again so AP said we will have to wait on that. In the meantime we are going to try some therapy and acupuncture to see if that helps me pick up my leg.
I could have had an FCE that is not being shown on the MRI but thankfully if I did it was small. Some dogs that have an FCE are completely paralysed from the shoulders down. The other good news is I can get off all these medications and hopefully soon I can get back to my normal walk to the park. They took another bunch of blood for some tests. I sure am tired of them putting holes in my leg. I would like for the hair to grow back on my leg and my head and for CM to quit calling me Hannibal Lecter head. Idon't know what a Hannibal Lecter head is but AP says its not very nice. All the technicians all told AP I was a good boy and Ms. Gloria from CVCA gave me cookies which was a good day to end my visit.

AP has ordered a boot to try and protect my dragging foot.The boots we already have are too heavy and my Woodrow Wear socks are too thin and I drag holes in them almost immediately. I don't mind the socks so AP is working on a duct tape solution using them for now till my boot gets here.

MRI - Oh My!

2011-11-04T02:00:00.014-04:00

AP here:
I have to say I am not good at waiting and even worse at it when I am waiting on important news. Today was Tonka's MRI and that was an adventure in itself. I had him at the VNoC at 4:30 to get his IV catheter in place and then we waited for about 20 minutes for everyone to get ready. We had to follow the technicians over to the MRI facility which is about 5 minutes down the road fro the CVRC center. Once in the truck Tonka kept licking at the catheter bandage and so I had to keep putting my hand int he back pretending to have treats to distract him. When we got there I had to find a low place to back into the ramp would be at a very gradual slope for him to get down out of the truck. Once I got him out I gave him to the technicians to hold onto while I went to park the truck. They took him in and one of them came back to get me. When we walked thorough the door and I saw that we were in a stairwell with way too many steps he would have had to navigate my face must have dropped because the tech said "it's OK Ryan carried him down". Well Ryan probably weighs a whole whopping 5 lbs more than Tonka so all I can day is he must be in great shape. Then as we got further down I smelled the Tonka poop smell and she said "oh and he left us presents as he was carrying him" and there on the steps were some Tonka poops which she very kindly cleaned up for me.
I hope this is not becoming a habit with him since he pooped all the way up the walkway at Greater Annapolis last week.
The facility does 4 dogs in an evening and Tonka was #3 to go so the humans and the little Maltese that was going last (Vince) sat in the waiting room and did just that- waited. Vince has the same type of symptoms as Tonka but he is 12 years old and he is a very sweet little guy.
They came out once to tell me they were starting the MRI and then again to request permission to do a Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tap. Then at about 6:30 they told me they were done and Dr. Harris would go over the results with me.
The great news was that there were no disc problems or any other issues with the spine other than some bright spots on the cord and that is why she did the tap. Dr. Harris is great and she went over all the images with me and explained all the different areas and what we would be seeing if he had a problem.

I had to wait some more because my lightweight of a big dog takes forever to come around after anesthesia and they ended up carrying him out to the truck.

Once we got home dad and I had to lift him out of the truck (still in his bed). I thought his ear was flipped over so I reached down to flip it back and realized they had shaved his head for the tap.

We then dragged the bed with him in it still out for the count around the back of the house and through the back door.

I setup my little bed next to him for the night and he never moved until about 1:30am and then he got up staggered around, ate a little food, drank some water and went right back to sleep.

We still have to wait for the spinal tap results but it is looking like this is an Orthopedic problem.

Two Weeks Out

2011-11-02T23:29:00.201-04:00

AP here:
It's been 2 weeks since the original Neurological appointment and I have had the boy on leash walks and a ton of medication. I actually have an excel spreadsheet to track it all which in and of itself is disturbing. I have had to modify the household schedule (including sleep) to try and keep the boy on some sort of normal routine. He cannot use the stairs so every time he needs to be shifted to another level of the house we have to use the ramp off of the porch outside the kitchen door. Just getting him to the door is a 5 to 10 minute process while he thinks about it. If you try to get him to go somewhere that doesn't suit him its another 5-10 minute process to talk him into it. Needless to say I spend a lot of time waiting.
Our morning goes something like this:
Unlock the kitchen door. Go downstairs and spend 10-15 minutes lying next to him petting him (checking his heart rate) and getting batted at with the giant paw. Give him his 2 pain pills and 2 pepcid in some sweet potato. Throw on sweats, a Jacket, shoes and a hat, run out front and unlock the gate. By now he is up and at the basement door so I put on his collar and leash and out we go to the end of the porch where he stops to sniff for a few minutes before actually setting foot out on the lawn. Then around the house we go and out the gate to the front where he stops at the end of the driveway to sniff again for a few minutes. We have a small court up the street to the left and down the street to the right so once we pick a direction the goal is to walk around the court, go to the bathroom and then home. That sounds like it should not take long but it never quite goes as easy as it sounds. Once we get to the entrance of a court he puts on the brakes. He wants to walk the big 2 mile loop like we have almost everyday for the past 2 years and he knows he is being short changed. Tonka does not care that he is hurt he just wants his routine and he wants to go meet and greet all his regulars on his walk. I cannot force him to turn down the court without pulling him and possibly hurting him so we have a standoff. I at one end of the leash headed into the court and him on the corner at the other end refusing to move. This is where a little dog would be nice, you could just pick them up and walk on, that is not practical with Mr. 130lb stubborn boy. After 5 minute or so and with me getting down and explaining in his ear that he does not have a choice he will usually give in.Once around the court the same routine plays out again because he does not want to go home. On my lucky mornings one of his favorite neighbors will happen to come by and will sweet talk him into going around the court or home. Usually it is Marie and he adores her and will willingly go wherever she wants. It is very nice of her to detour from her walk to help us and makes my day start off a little less frustrated. It is also nice to have a second person on those walks where he does not stop to squat but keeps on walking because I have to go back to pick up the poop. If I have a second person they can keep walking him while I double back. He refuses to go back so if I am alone I have to tie him to a mailbox and then go back. He is a good boy so if it is real early and no one is around I can tell him to wait and he will stand still while I go pick up.
Once home we go through the gate and up the ramp to the kitchen door and inside. Thank goodness for the ramp but it is still hard for him going down as his hind end starts to go sideways and come around on him. He settles down in the living room for a little while and I get his breakfast and his Thyroid pill.
He eats in the kitchen and then we go out the kitchen door where he stands for a few minutes deciding if he wants to go. Then its back down the ramp and out the gate to the front door and the landing which is where he would love to spend most of his day. While he is lounging I give him his anti-inflammatory which is a liquid and a stinky treat to wash it down with. When I am ready to leave for work I have to coax him to get up and come back around the house, though the basement door and to get into his crate.

His crate is 4x6 and is constructed from 2 exercise pens put together around a PVC pipe frame with 2 Layers of carpet and 2 canine coolers. See Canine Cooler

The Tonka support team comes by midday and lets him out to go potty, gives him his next rounds of pain meds and takes him around front to lay out for a while. They come back again in the afternoon to let him out and stay with him until I get home. He loves to lay out on the driveway and listen to the kids come home from school. He is usually still out there when I get home and we go in and he waits at the landing while I get changed and text his Aunt Carol to bring Nala by for our short little walk. When she gets there we head to one of the courts and go through the same routine as the morning. He is a little more accommodating because of Nala but he knows he is getting shortchanged and will stop on all the corners.

Once we are home it is back up the ramp and through the kitchen to hang out in the living room for awhile. I fix my dinner and then go fix his and he eats in the kitchen again and takes his 2nd thyroid pill. His favorite part of the evening is after dinner when he gets to have a frozen peanut butter kong as a treat.
If he is feeling good he will go and surf the counters and the recycle bin or perhaps stand in the kitchen and bark for treats. Once he gets tired of that he comes back toe the living room to settle in for bed and belly rubs. He starts off sleeping upstairs and then wakes me up between 1 and 3 to take him downstairs, which again is 5 to 10 minutes to decide to go down he ramp. Once inside the back door he has to get settled and then I get to go back to bed for a few hours until 5:00am when the cycle repeats.

During the 2 weeks I have seen improvement, although not "leaps and bounds" but rather small "baby steps". He postures in a semi squat at least for part of a bowel movement now instead of just walking and pooping and he does not drag his toes as much. He still drifts sideways and a hard sneeze will cause him to stumble. We are going to do the MRI to rule out anything degenerative which would leave just Orthopedic and that we can deal with. The surgery for the Lumbar Sacral Stenosis also known as Cauda Equina Syndrome
or anything with the nerves and the spine does not read like something we want to have to go through. Read all about it here

This was not the intent

2011-10-21T14:08:00.005-04:00

AP here:
I started this blog to be a lighthearted, feel good kind of place to tune in and learn about how normal a blind dogs life can be. It has now morphed into more of a medical blog about the extreme (not normal) genetic mutant that is my boy Tonka and his varied and continuing medical problems. This was not the intent and I truly wish that he would never have another problem and we could go back to fun and silliness. I do hope that what I write about at least helps someone looking for information or direction. I know with some of his issues I could not find a lot of personal accounts from people going through the same thing and it would have been helpful.

lumbosacral stenosis - say what?

2011-10-19T06:44:00.059-04:00

AP Here:
Tonka and I have been to see a Neurologist, Dr. Harris http://www.vetneurochesapeake.com/index.php?page=dr-jeanene-harris at Veterinary Neurology of the Chesapeake www.vetneurochesapeake.com/ . His left hind leg is still not right and he is walking sideways. While he was there he was also seen by Dr.Burgess http://www.cvssvets.com/surgeons.php as an orthopedic consult. The presumptive results were-

Assessment and Diagnosis

Neuro Localization - Spinal lumbosacral cord (L4-S3): Tonka's neurologic exam is revealing subtle lower motor neuron deficits in his left pelvic limb. Given these findings in association with pain on tail elevation, the most likely location for the problem is at the lumbosacral junction. Possible causes would include lumbosacral stenosis (Type II disk disease, arthritis of the articular facets, and enlargement of associated ligaments and soft tissues). Other possibilities would include neoplasia (primary or metastatic cancer) or infectious/inflammatory diseases; however these are thought less likely.

The best diagnostic test to determine the exact cause for his defecits would be an MRI /- a spinal tap and electrodiagnostics (EMG, MNCV, etc.).

Tonka's mild neurologic deficits are further complicated by concurrent orthopedic disease. An orthopedic exam revealed discomfort on manipulation of both of his hips (left more than right) and radiographs of his pelvis reveal evidence of hip dysplasia and osteoarthitis of the left hip. Tonka also resisted manipulation of his left stifle (knee) and there is concern that there may be a meniscal tear. There is no evidence of cruciate ligament rupture at this time.

Since Tonka had his heart surgery this year and just had the rhinoscopy a month ago we are opting to try medication for a few weeks to see if there is any improvement. If not then we will have the MRI to rule out the Lumbar Sacral problem. I am hesitant to put him back under anesthesia so quickly after the last one and we are just now getting the prednisone out of his system and he is acting more alert and like his old self. We have known about the hip since 2009 and it has never been an issue until now so I am not sure what to think. We will just have to deal with whatever comes our way like we always do. I know he is tired of being poked and prodded and I don't blame him. If you are curious as to what an MRI for your dog costs these days in the Maryland area try $1750.00 and that does not include any additional items like a dye test or spinal tap.

Sylvia Swims

2011-10-10T06:42:00.016-04:00

A long time ago AP and CM took me to the canine fitness center and took me swimming. I really didn't like it much and prefer the ocean over a pool. My friend Sylvia who had hip surgery http://blinddogsrule.blogspot.com/2011/02/sylvia-and-her-fho-surgery-trishs-blog.html has had a rough time getting all the mobility back in her leg so she has taken up swimming. AP stopped in to see her at the canine fitness center pool and took a little video of her paddling away. She is much better at than I am and it is really helping her hip.

PICNIC

2011-10-09T21:16:00.003-04:00

On Sunday AP and I got to go to a really cool park and meet some new friends and some of our old ones. The new friends were dogs and kids that all have had heart surgery like me. It was a great day and I got to forget about my medical problems for awhile. It was put on by the great people at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children and the Chesapeake Veterinary Cardiology Associates.

I met a Collie named Annie

A Newfie named Bouy

Bouy and Annie are also therapy dogs.

I got lots of love from everyone.

The kids were all great and some of my Doctors were there. Dr. Rosenthal was there along with Cari who took really good care of me and AP got to meet Dr. Schmitt who was also in on my surgery

A really cool kid liked my bionic eye.

It was a really fun time and I loved all the head pats, ear scratches and belly rubs from all the great kids.

Thanks to CVCA for inviting me and to Bouy's mom for the chicken.

p.s. AP borrowed 2 of these pictures from the CVAC Facebook site - we hope that is OK

The hippy hippy shake!

2011-10-07T20:59:00.004-04:00

In 2009 I was diagnosed with a problem in my right shoulder and my left hip. The x-rays of the left hip showed a gap between the ball and socket of the joint. This means that my hip can slip a bit - the humans call it subluxation. Well my foot slipped off of the step downstairs and I sub-luxed something and now it is really hard for me to lay down. AP and Dr. Woodburn talked about it and they can't give me anything for inflammation because I am just weaning off the prednisone that I was on for the nosebleeds. Dr. Woodburn gave me Tramadol for pain and I have to take it easy. I am supposed to go to the Cardiac, Pediatric picnic this weekend so hopefully I will be feeling better in a day or so.

Ray the Blind Dog

2011-10-03T08:14:00.002-04:00

Tonka and I have never met Ray the Blind Dog but we follow his adventures closely. There are alot of similarities in their behavior and they both have Aussies as best friends. Ray's parents put together a video montage of Ray's first two years with them and we loved it so much Tonka is re-posting here:

Fredericksburg Dog Fair

2011-10-01T21:26:00.003-04:00

We got up really early to go to the Fredericksburg Dog Fair. AGPR http://www.agprescue.com/ reserved a spot at the adoption park at the fair and my friend Donna http://www.goldenretreat4k9s.com/ organized our part in the event. She has her own boarding kennels and helps AGPR by fostering some of my friends before they find forever homes. Two of my friends Charlie Bear and Snowball were with her today and I got to hang out with them. We setup a tent with a table and chairs and got ready for the dogs and humans from the big downtown dog parade to show up.

Ready for the day!

I met a Mastiff puppy who will one day be bigger than me.

Monster Puppy

Snowball is a great guy. He whispered me the secret of looking really cute so humans will give you more treats.

Snowball

Not sure of this Dog

I met a really big dog but he smelled an awful lot like a human.

My friends Tom and Mindel showed up in the afternoon with two puppies Ziggy and Micky. They are very smart and already know how to sit and shake paws.

Mindel and Pups

Tom and Pups

Puppy

My new friend Emily took care of Charlie Bear and after lunch he tried to take a quick nap.

Emily and Charlie Bear

Charlie Bear

Then around lunch time my Uncle Charles, Aunt Brenda and Aunt Texie came by. I had never met them before and it was awful nice of them to come see me. My cousins Betty, Virginia and Chris came as well and bought some of my younger cousins to visit. It was great to "see" them.

Brian and Kaelyn

Connor

AP and Aunt Texie

Chilling with Brian

We had lots of people come by and meet us and talk about adopting a Pyr fromAGPR. It would be great if the humans would open up their homes to one of my many friends that AGPR is taking care of.

Every dog should have a forever home.

Thyroid Shmymoid - Who's Afraid of a Thyroid

2011-09-29T19:50:00.002-04:00

Dr. Woodburn called to tell AP that my Thryorid levels are not what they should be.
He talked to an Internist and my Cardiologist and they have decided that I need to try a low dose of medicine to try and straighten it out. I will be off the Prednisone soon and am feeling more like my old self. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired....

T-shirts and Coffee Mugs - Oh My!

2011-09-27T21:32:00.002-04:00

I love the beach! AP says its like I know that there are no fences or trees to get in my way and I can run around like crazy and not have to worry about hitting something. I also love to dig in the sand - it is so easy to dig a big hole, really quick and then there is the water which is fun to leap in and out of. A special rescue for blind dogs http://www.blinddogrescue.com/ asked to use a picture of me at the beach to show that blind dogs can have normal lives. AP sent them pictures of me playing in the water and if you go to this website you can see what they came up with.
http://www.cafepress.com/blinddogrescuealliance/8103328

Its me- blippity blopping in the surf and I get to be on t-shirts and coffee mugs and AP even ordered "me" on a sweatshirt. A percentage of the money goes to help blind dogs get medical attention and find homes. How cool is that?

So Tired

2011-09-22T17:40:00.024-04:00

AP and CM took me to Annapolis this past weekend and I really wasn't interested in anything which is so not like me.

City Dock Annapolis

I did show interest in the pancakes CM made for breakfast.

I'm just waiting for my pancake...

So AP took me to the see Dr. Woodburn today since I have not been myself and I have a cyst on my back that is not healing. He listened to my heart and looked me over and then talked to AP about the fact that I am not myself lately. I have been on this steroid drug that has changed the way I act and think and AP wants me off of it. They also did some blood work to test for something called a thyroid. We will get the results back next week.
I have all these cool events coming up so I have to get better quick!

Diggy Diggy!

2011-09-18T21:28:00.001-04:00

AP here:
I spent the morning trimming trees and putting down top soil and the afternoon digging out dirt and adding on to the sand garden I created last year. Tonka perked up enough to come out and give me a hand for a few minutes.

He does love to dig!

Tonka Loves a Good Picnic

2011-09-15T21:05:00.000-04:00

I got an invitation to a picnic coming up in October. The great people at Chesapeake Veterinary Cardiology Associates sponsor a picnic with the Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children every year. It's the pediatric heart surgery CELEBRATION. There will be my favoritist things in the whole world there "KIDS". They will have had heart surgery just like me and we get to hang out and have a picnic. AP says there will even be hot dogs - whats better than KIDS and HOT DOGS. I can't wait.

Time to wean off the drugs...

2011-09-14T21:12:00.000-04:00

AP spoke to Dr. Gonzales today and we can start cutting back on the medicine I am on. That is a good thing because I have not been myself on this stuff. I just want to sleep and eat. I am really, really hungry and AP won't let me eat a whole lot because the medicine has upset my stomach. If I start getting bad nosebleeds again we might switch to an inhaler. I don't know what that is but I don't think I will like it much. I have really bad doggie manners right now when it comes to food and even tried to break in to AP's little backpack to get some Bill Jacs and I tried to take a pan that had chicken in it off the kitchen counter. I keep getting in trouble but I can't help it I am so HUNGRY......

Tonka Goes to Home Depot

2011-09-11T21:34:00.001-04:00

AP here:
Since Tonka is not allowed to do long walks we went to Home Depot for a little visit. The ladies in the garden center gave him a warm welcome with lots of pats and scratches. Then we went in and checked out the different departments. We met some really nice employees that fussed all over him and told him he was a handsome boy...

Picking out carpet

Mom Rent me a Ditch Witch Please!

Lets build a new deck...

Roid Rage (well more like roid naps)

2011-09-11T20:46:00.003-04:00

AP here:
Four days of the prednisone and benadryl combo and Tonka is a slug. He has no interest in going for a walk, he does not care that I am in the kitchen making English Muffin pizzas (which usually brings him running for CHEESE), he just does not care about anything.

The results are in!

2011-09-08T20:35:00.002-04:00

AP here:
Dr.Gonzalez called this morning to give me the results of Tonkas biopsies from the rhinoscopy.
Diagnostic findings and information:

Nasal biopsies: Mild lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis, left and right
The results were suggestive of mild lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis in both nasal passages. This type of inflammation can be seen with allergies or an autoimmune rhinitis. However, the changes were mild, so it is difficult to say if this could be the cause for the rhinitis. However, rhinitis can results in epistaxis in some cases. No obvious infection or cancerous changes were noted on biopsy.

The recommendation would be to start a course of corticosteroids (prednisone) to treat the inflammation noted to see if this helps with the intermittent epistaxis. If the epistaxis persists and no improvement is noted with the steroid, we discussed that the next step in trying to manage the epistaxis would be to consider ligation of the carotid artery or referral to U. Penn to discuss embolization therapy for epistaxis.

The plan at this time is to continue the antihistamine and to start a course of prednisone.

Assessment:

1) Intermittent epistaxis

2) Mild lymphoplasmacytic rhinitis

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sylvia Comes to Visit

2011-09-01T21:50:00.004-04:00

My friend and fellow rescue Sylvia went swimming today at the canine fitness center. AP and CM took me there once but I didn't like it much see http://tinyurl.com/4ys38mh
Sylvia is still working on getting her hip back in shape after her FHO surgery http://tinyurl.com/3vfu3zf
and swimming is good therapy. Since the fitness center is pretty close to my house her and her human Trish stopped by to say hi. I have been sort of groggy after my anesthesia on Tuesday but I perked up for my guests and strolled the yard with Sylvie. AP said Sylvia is looking really good and the hair has almost grown completely back on her hip and leg.
I really like Sylvia she is so sweet.

Trish will be updating everyone soon with a new blog post and AP wanted to put up some pictures so everyone can see how well she is doing. Isn't she a cutie?

Tonka update

2011-08-30T22:37:00.002-04:00

AP here:
Tonka and I returned to the CVRC at 7:30am this morning and the minute he got out of the truck he started sneezing blood everywhere. They hurried him to the back to take care of him and I setup camp for the day in a corner chair. Dr. Gonzales http://www.atlanticvetintmed.com/pages.aspx?content=35 was not free to talk to me until about 11:00. They put Tonka and I into an exam room and he checked him out and made him sneeze a few times. He then explained how the rhinoscopy procedure would go and what they would be looking for. He was very thorough and wanted me to understand that it would not be a fix for the nosebleeds unless they found a cause such as a tumor, polyp or foreign body. He would take some biopsies to send out to a lab to look for other cases such as fungus, allergies or a blood disorder. There is a rare platelet disorder that is found in Otterhounds and Great Pyrenees. http://ahdc.vet.cornell.edu/clinpath/modules/coags/Glanz.htm . Since Tonka had trouble with his femoral artery and bleeding during his heart surgery he wanted to make sure I understood that the scope procedure could become messy. He wanted to do a clotting test before doing the procedure and take some skull x-rays. I started to think that perhaps we should wait and do another week or so of medicines and see it that would stop the nose bleeds but it also seemed like it was the perfect time to do it if we were going to do it. The Cardiology center CVCA is part of the same group and Tonka's heart surgeon Dr. Rosenthal happened to be working at that location so I consulted with him as well. In the end we had the procedure and this is the update:
No nasal tumors, no polyps, no foreign body,l no obvious cause of nosebleeds
Took biopsies to send out for infection and possibly some rare platelet blood thing that Pyrs can have.
He did real well with the anesthesia - heart was solid- some bleeding still so can't come home till tomorrow.

Now we wait

Yay for the Eyeball - Boo for the Nose

2011-08-29T22:25:00.045-04:00

AP here:
I spoke to Dr. Woodburn this morning and he felt that we should have a rhinoscopy done to try and figure out what is going on with these nosebleeds. I called the internal medicine department at Chesapeake Veterinary Referral Center (CVRC) and scheduled it for 8:00am Wednesday. Tonka's recheck for the pressure problem in his good/bad eye was also today and we got to Dr. Weigts office at 3:30. As soon as he walked down the ramp from the truck he started to sneeze and blood went everywhere. He bled down the ramp, down the sidewalk and into the office. The staff hustled him into a room and Dr. Weigt put some drops of Epinephrine in his nose and stopped the bleeding. Once that was over she numbed his eye and took his pressure and it was down to 10 which is the best news we have had in a while. The debris in the eye is also down so the medication is working. We can drop the pred. acetate down to once a day again but keep the azopt twice a day. Once we got home Tonka's kids came up and visited for a few minutes and then he took a nap. Around 5:45 he got up and went outside and after a minute he started sneezing and the blood started pouring. I tried for about 15 minutes and couldn't get it to stop even with some epinephrine so off to the ER we went http://www.aavec.com/. They checked him out and we all agreed that he should get the scope done Tuesday instead of Wednesday. After a complete blood work up and chest x-rays they let me take him home for the night and we are to return at 7:30am to transfer him from the ER's care to Internal Medicine.

Out Go the Lights!

2011-08-29T06:40:00.039-04:00

AP here:

Cathy's sister Julie came to visit and they were supposed to go to the beach for a long weekend. They drove down but the next day they were forced to leave the beach and come home due to mandatory evacuations. Then Hurricane Irene came and took out the power. Not that Tonka cares about the lights but he does care about the Air Conditioning. I care about the monsoon rain since I have to drag him out to go potty even in regular rain. The wind was whipping and the rain was really coming down but we had power when we all went to bed on Saturday. At 2:00am the power went out and by 3:00am the house was stuffy and Tonka was barking to go potty. He went out and laid down under the porch where the sideways rain had already gotten the carpet wet about a quarter of the way in towards the house. I stayed up to keep an eye on him and the water and afeter about an hour he came back in and went back to bed. I sort of slept another hour in the recliner in front of him for a while and then got up. Time to get the generator in place and full up with gas. Thankfully the generator we have (thank you Mom and Dad) can power the refrigerators, the fish tank and some fans just fine. It stayed windy for most of the day and Tonka was enjoying the breezes. Once the wind died down the sun came out and it got hot and humid. Everyone moved to the basement for the night since it is cooler and that is where Tonka usually sleeps anyway. The power was only out from 2:00am Saturday to 12:30am Monday but definitely long enough to make you miss it. When it came back on of course all the lights that we had flipped the switch on came on and woke us up. Julie and I shut all the windows, and put the house back in order. It was great to turn off the noisy generator and climb back in a real bed in the air conditioning - it was not great to wake up to a blood stained carpet where Tonka had another nose bleed.

Back to the Bus Stop (well almost)

2011-08-23T21:49:00.000-04:00

I love it when the kids go back to school because I get to "see" them at the bus stop. Today was the first day back and I took off on my walk in the hopes of hitting all the stops. When I got up to the field by the pool it was so nice outside that I decided AP and I should run around and play.
Then I got to the 7'11 and Mr. Steve was there with Henry so I stopped to try and beg some of his breakfast pastry but AP said NO. I didnt realize it but that made me just late enough that when we crossed the big street the kids were already getting on the bus. I was not happy that I missed them but then the Moms fussed all over me and told me how handsome I was so that made it better. Tomorrow I will make sure I get to "see" the kids.

Oh Poop!

2011-08-21T12:17:00.002-04:00

AP here:
I am very happy to report that there have been no nosebleeds for the past 3 days. I am not so happy to report that the other end of the Tonka has been emptying it's contents profusely. He started with diarrhea yesterday and it continued on into today. he got me up at 1:30 then again at 3:30 to go out and then one last time at 4:00. The 4:00 woke me up and I basically just stayed up because I was not sure which end of him a large clump of hair actually came out of. It was centered in a puddle of rust colored liquid. Rust colored or dark brown vomit is not a good sign and usually indicates blood from an ulcer. Prednisone and NSAIDs can cause this and since he is on a steroid drop for his eye and nose I was concerned. Not being 100% sure of where it came from I bagged it and stayed up with him and monitored him for any signs of distress until the vet opened. His breathing and heart rate where normal and his gums and capillary reflex were fine so I didn't want to drag him out to the emergency vet unless he either showed signs of stress or we had another episode. Now his vet is only open on Sundays for emergencies and I respect that and he was not in any obvious distress. Of course in my mind suspected vomiting of blood with a huge hairball that could be part of a larger obstruction is an emergency. So I was at their doorstep with the sample bag when they opened this morning but they were really busy. Their phone was ringing off the hook and we did not have an appointment so... off we went.
Since my first concern was for Tonka I went up the road to the emergency clinic which I should have just done at 4:00 in the morning. We saw Dr. Coles at Anne Arundel Veterinary Emergency Clinic http://www.aavec.com/ and she was great. I had to give her the whole history and she took the sample and came back to tell me it was not vomit which was a great relief. She told me that the amount of steroid he is on for his nose and eyes would not be enough to cause stomach bleeding. The hairball is most likely from him licking his paws to clean off the blood for the 3 days last week. I showed her his youtube video of him romping at the beach last weekend and she also told me that sand can cause stomach upset and diarrhea. We started Metronidazole today so the hind end of him should be fine within 24 hours and now I need to go take a nap

First Aid and CPR for Pets

2011-08-20T23:10:00.001-04:00

AP here:
Today I attended a class for First Aid and CPR for Pets in Columbia Maryland. It was the PetTech^® Pet Saver™ 8 Hour Program taught by Merrill Warchal owner of PetStructor www.petstructor.com/
The class was really informative and the other students were all engaged and eager to share additional knowledge and help each other out. I hope I never have to use life saving emergency measures on an animal but it is good to know that I now know what to do if I had to. Merrill kept the infomation easy to understand and the hands on helped reinforce what we were learning. You can find out more about the course here www.petstructor.com/petsaver_curriculum.html and I recommend it to pet owners as well as those working with animals such as rescue and shelter personnel or pet sitters. She has a snout to tail assessment sheet that is well laid out and should be used by all pet owners to help notice and keep track of any changes in their pet. Catching things early is key in keeping your companion happy, healthy and leading a long life.

Dear Mother Nature

2011-08-19T23:06:00.002-04:00

Dear Mother Nature,
Every animal is special to the people that love them and my dog is no different. My Tonka dog is also very special to those that know him and I could not ask for a better companion, but Tonka is also physically special as well.
He is classified as a special needs dog. He was born blind, with a hernia and a hole in his heart; he averages about 2 seizures a year. He has had glaucoma and a cataract and now has either seasonal allergies or a nasal polyp or tumor that is causing nose bleeds. He is a genetic misfit and there is no doubt that in your grand plan of "only the strong survive" he was not supposed to make it this far. However, he is not in the wild where "only the strong survive", he is with me and a whole lot of other people that love and support him.
Every time you throw something new at us with the intent of weeding out the weak, we fight you, and we are going to continue to fight you. So Mother Nature it is you against US. The US also happens to include an amazing team of Doctors and all the technological medical advances of the human species. This tends to even the playing field a bit.
In the end you ultimately always win and death is inevitable for all, but that should be many, many years down the road.

I am simply requesting that for now you just give the boy a break.

Sincerely,
Tonka's Peeps

Bloody Nose

2011-08-18T22:47:00.004-04:00

AP here:
Tuesday Tonka and I went for our morning walk and he had some blood on his right front leg so after looking all over I found some on the floor next to his red rubber nylabone. I chalked it up to a tooth or gum thing form chewing on the toy. We played a little at the park and he was prancing around.

We looked under some toadstools trying to find the toads.

When we came home we had a normal morning routine, he ate well and everything seemed fine.

In the evening we went for a early walk because we had a vet appointment to discuss his breathing, sneezing and his itchy ears. We ran into his friend Pepe and walked with him for awhile.

Then we were off to the vet. Tonka was seen by his good friend Dr. Woodburn who came back with a diagnosis of allergies and no ear infection. So Benadryl twice a day and Genesis spray for the ear flaps. So much for no more medication - now it was drops for the pre-glaucoma eye and pills and spray for the allergies.Oh well allergies we can deal with right?

Wednesday morning was just like any other until after he ate his breakfast. I heard him go out the doggie door and went down to check on him. The first thing I noticed was something liquid on the bottom of his food bowl and when I swiped my finger at it I came back with a finger covered in bright red blood. I immediately went out and found him in the yard and checked his mouth, his gums, his tongue and found -nothing. I called the vet and they suggested I come in so I grabbed his leash and out the door we went. As he was making the turn to go up the ramp in the truck he sneezed and bright red blood came running out of his nose. He licked right off and you couldn't even tell it had been there. Mystery blood solved and now I knew the blood from yesterday was not from chewing a bone! I got him up the ramp and started up the truck and called the vet on the way to tell them the origin of the blood. I then called the cardiologist to see if this could be heart related and then called the opthomologist to see if it could be caused by the new drops. the specialists all came back with a no-not likely but wanted to be get up to date with whatever the primary care vet had to say. Dr. Woodburn was in surgery so we saw Dr. Gerity whom Tonka also really likes (she took care of him when he had the heart arrhythmia). She looked up his nose, checked all his vitals and had his blood pressure taken. Since Tonka had just been there the night before and had been fine the belief is that he has allergies that have caused rhinitis of his nose and has probably broken a blood vessel and when he sneezes it breaks open and bleeds. So she added to his on going medicine list two additional drops of the same steroid that goes in his eye but these two go up his nose. I also now carry a bottle of Epinephrine to use in case the bleeding will not stop.

Thursday morning came and Tonka got up and went outside to sleep on the back porch. When I went out to check on him I found him with bloody paws and a small puddle of blood in front of him. I cleaned him up and he laid his head back down to go to sleep. He came in later and wanted to go for a walk so we started off down the street and ran into his friend Marie who was coming up the street. He decided he wanted to walk with her so he turned and we headed back up towards the house. Once we got past the house he decided that it was best if we just turned and went home so that is what we did. Hopefully the medicine will start to work and this does not turn out to be anything other than a blood vessel.

Beach Friends

2011-08-14T21:58:00.003-04:00

I got to go to the beach and Saturday night I hung out with my human friends Wally and Gwen and their granddaughter Sydney. We made Smores and I got to have a mini marshmallow. Sydney went with me for a walk and we went up on the jungle gym and since the slide was too steep for me she helped me get back down the steps by telling me where they were.
Sunday morning I went to the beach and ran into some old friends and made some new ones. AP took some video of me but missed me playing in the surf and I was really blippity blopping in the water.

Then we went and picked up breakfast from Robin Hood down on main street and after we ate we walked around and window shopped. I dragged AP and CM to Odysea to say hello to Rick but the store wasn't open yet. AP tried to get me to leave the door and I wouldnt it I wanted to wait and dug in and kept my nose to the door. She finally told me we would go get her coffee and come back so I agreed and when we came back the store was open but he wasn't working. I got some treats from his employee and laid down and took a little power nap while AP and CM shopped.

We walked around some more and I got to kiss a kid on the ear and met a 7 month old puppy named Mickey. Hopefully I will "see" Mickey again down on the beach and we can play.

I had a great weekend!

Sneaky Glaucoma

2011-08-11T20:59:00.002-04:00

Today I went to see Dr. Weigt to have a checkup on my eyes. They used the Tonometer which is a device that measures pressure on my right eye (they don't have to do my left anymore since it is a prosthetic) and the pressure came back at 26. The normal reading range is 11-22 which means my pressure is high. This is what happened with my left eye before it started to swell due to secondary glaucoma. Pressure build-up causes glaucoma and it happens when the fluid that nourishes the iris (aqueous humour) cannot drain away.

The eye has two chambers, the anterior and posterior, separated by the lens. The anterior (front) chamber contains the visible eye components, such as the coloured part you can see(the iris), and is kept plumped up and nourished by fluid called aqueous humour. The aqueous humour has to keep draining to keep a constant, normal pressure inside that anterior chamber. When the fluid can't drain away, it leads to a build-up of pressure inside the eye. This is called glaucoma. and there are 2 types, primary and secondary. Primary occurs without previous trauma or eye disease and secondary is caused by trauma or is a by product of some other eye problem. It is a sneaky disease because it has no symptoms in the early stages.

Secondary glaucoma is now sneaking up on my right eye and so I have some new medication (drops) to take to try and get the pressure down. Dr. Weigt says we have other options with this eye as well so if this doesn't work AP will have to do some research to see what option would be best for me. She says she should go back to school and become a vet because she already has to do so much research for me.

First Day Medication Free

2011-08-04T21:33:00.000-04:00

Today is the first day I did not have to take heart medication so AP kept a close ear on my heart. I have been on Sotalol since March which keeps my heart beating correctly. We have been decreasing the dose over time since my surgery and today I didn't have to take any.
AP has to monitor my heart rate but I make it difficult by not staying still. If I am laying on my side I bat my paw at her and knock her arm away or roll on my back for a belly rub. If I am standing and she puts her fingers under my arm to start counting then I walk away. She decided that it was best to get a stethoscope and see if I would be better and behave since I am always good for the Doctors.

She has gotten pretty good with it.

I had a good first day without the medication and got to play with my friend Nala and go for a long walk!

PDA 3 month Post Surgery Follow up

2011-07-26T22:41:00.011-04:00

Today I got to go to see Dr. Rosenthal http://www.cvcavets.com/doc%20bios%20-%20steven%20rosenthal.html for an Echo-cardi-arf-agram. It was my 3 month checkup from my heart surgery to make sure the ductal occluder is doing it's job. AP put me in the truck and my support team came and climbed into the Tonka Truck to wish me good luck.

My Peeps

Once we got to CVCA http://www.cvcavets.com/ in Annapolis Jamie http://www.cvcavets.com/staff%20bios.html took my blood pressure using my paw and then Dr. Rosenthal came in and listened to my heart and talked to AP for a little while. He said he was really happy with what he heard and then we went in another room for the Echo-cardi-arf-agram. Dr. Hickey http://www.cvcavets.com/doc%20bios%20-%20michael%20hickey.html was also there, he was another Dr. that assisted in my surgery. They lifted me up and put me on a special table for the test. The table has a hole cut out so that the Dr. can take a special wand and run it over my chest to get pictures of my heart and see what it is doing. I had to lay on my side and Jamie and AP leaned over me to keep me still. AP sang me the Tonka Truck song real soft in my ear to make me feel at ease. Dr. Rosenthal put the cold goopy stuff on my chest and moved the wand all around on my chest while flipping buttons and switches to get some good shots of my insides. The first time I had one Dr. Peckens did it and I tried to help. See http://blinddogsrule.blogspot.com/2011/03/be-still-my-beating-heart.html I tried to help Dr. Rosenthal as well but Jamie and AP caught on too quickly and grabbed my paw.

These are pictures from my first one and all the yellow in the bottom left and right shots meant my heart had a hole and was leaking.

March 2011

These are pictures from right after my surgery and the bottom right shows no more yellow which meant the ductal ocluder was in place and doing it's job.

April 2011

These are pictures from today and the top right shows everything in place and doing well.

July 2011

Dr. Rosenthal told AP that she can cut back on the meds and eventually stop them and to just monitor my heart rate.

Since I was such a good boy I got to go for a long walk with Nala.
After dinner I curled up with a peanut butter kong

ummmm Peanut Butter!

and then fell fast asleep.

A reminder to "seize" the day

2011-06-02T03:26:00.005-04:00

AP here:
I share my life with a blind dog. Funny thing is that is never in the forefront of my mind. I don’t ever consciously think of him as the blind dog, and there are plenty of people we have met that loved on him and chit chatted with us and then left not ever knowing he was blind. Our lives and routines just incorporate his lack of sight and we just go on with our days. Then every now and then something happens to remind me.

Tonka’s first seizure occurred on March 11, 2009 when he was just a little guy. Now his seizures are nasty, insidious things that strike out of the blue and then don’t return for long stretches of time - just long enough to make you forget about them. He has had a handful of seizures over the last 3 years, not enough to warrant medication and I usually remark about them medically as a footnote or an afterthought.

Tonight’s was definitely not a footnote or afterthought!

Seizures have 3 components pre-seizure or pre-ictal, ictus or ictal and post ictal. In the pre-ictal you might have some warning that a seizure is about to occur perhaps some odd behavior is present. WE don’t ever have a pre-ictal warning.

The ictus is the seizure event and big ones are ugly and very scary to see. In Tonka’s case he lies rigid on his side and "swims" moving his legs in a swimming motion and arching back and forth violently. He chomps at the mouth and emits a thick slimy, frothy drool that seems to never end. With tonight’s he also lost bladder control and urinated on himself. It happened in the kitchen on the linoleum so it was fairly easy to clean up the floor, not so easy to clean up him. I was asleep when CM yelled for me at midnight that he was having a seizure. She had gotten in late and luckily she was still up. It was over in less than 5 minutes which is good because seizures lasting over 5 minutes are an immediate emergency. Thankfully he just stayed lying in the kitchen while I called the cardiologist on call and the emergency vet. CM cleaned up some and got me some towels and I cleaned off the drool and wiped him down underneath with a washcloth. When he finally got up he wandered down the hall and laid down in a bedroom and CM went off to stay with him. The cardiologist called me back and since he did not seem to be in any further distress told me to just monitor him through the night. I finsihed mopping the kitchen floor and readied myself for a long night.

The post-ictal phase is actually scarier to me because you don’t know how long it will last and he forgets everything, me, his commands, and where he is. This is the HUGE reminder that he is blind as he stumbles into things that he easily navigates every day and gets set to walk right off the top step not knowing it is there. So here we are 3 hours later and he is just now semi navigating his house that should be so familiar. He lies down for short bursts and attempts to clean himself a bit then gets up looking very confused. He has been through the whole house bumping into things and sniffing everything. I can just follow and try to direct him but he acts like he has no clue what I am saying and will stop to sniff me every now and then. Hopefully he will fall asleep soon and get some rest and I will call all his vets tomorrow and give them an update.

Robin Williams did a movie called the Dead Poets Society and made the quote Carpe Diem quite popular. Carpe Diem translates to "Seize the Day" and tonight’s "seizure" is a reminder not only that Tonka is blind but that I need to treasure every moment I have with him and Seize the Day -every day.

Hot Dogs & Memorial Day What Could Be Better....UNLESS YOU'RE CAUGHT!

2011-05-30T21:04:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day. I did until CM caught me that is, since I am now grounded- she will have to share the reason why.

CM here, as Tonka shared it WAS a good Memorial Day, and there is nothing better than a cook-out. I don't know why, but it just seems that things just taste better off the grill. Today wasn't a big get together, just at home doing things that needed to get done.

AP had left to go help a friend with a computer problem and I stopped working to grab a bite to eat. I remembered that there was still some hot dogs from the grill. I knew that would be the perfect snack to hold me over since later that evening we were having RIBS! =)

I picked the two that looked the best from the grill...I like them when they have all the grill marks and are bursting. So I put them on a plate and warmed them up in the microwave. I got out the buns, ketchup and mustard. I pulled out a glass and poured myself some iced tea, I then put my nice warm hot dogs in their buns on my plate. I had to go to the bathroom, so I left them there to cool a minute.

On the way back to the kitchen my phone rang so I picked it up to have the person on the other end hear me yell..." NO TONKA NO" in their ear. Needless to say I shouted "I'll call you back" and hung up. To which Tonka took that to be his signal EAT FASTER!!

Now, you might be saying about now “WHY" would I leave hot dogs unattended. But you see Tonka has NEVER taken food off the counter or table before. He has "begged" after you, but NEVER helped himself to human food even if he could reach it.

So as I tried to get them from him, he pushed them up under the counter on the floor and then "BUTT/TAILED" blocked me so that I could not reach them! As I was pulling his solid 125 pound body from the hot dogs yelling at him to "drop it". I now wish that I could enter him into the NATHAN HOT DOG EATING COMPETITION! He wouldn't even need water to make the buns go down easy! He ate(inhaled) BOTH hot dogs and buns. Thank goodness I hadn't added the ketchup and mustard!

Now you would think that after being scolded and being made to go out of the kitchen and lay down he would have realized "I'm a bad boy". NOPE!! When I went back to start over again, this time NOT leaving the kitchen. He proceeded to have a temper tantrum!

Tonka came into the kitchen and began to "talk" at me and when that didn't work then he started to bark. Now most of you know Tonka rarely barks and when he does he has to work it up. Not this time! When he still didn't get his way, that being another hot dog; he took it out on the kitchen towel! It was a nice towel...RIP kitchen towel.

Okay, now I'm thinking with his heart surgery and all his meds are hot dogs okay? So knowing that even if I didn't tell AP, that Tonka's evening/morning BM would! So I had to track her down to fill her in....NOW I'M GROUNDED FROM "BABYSITTING" THE ANGEL!!

So it was a nice Memorial Day and I now can NEVER leave an unprotected hot dog in the house.

Tonka Goes Back to School

2011-05-28T19:51:00.004-04:00

I went back to school yesterday but not for obedience. I got to go to a school with "kids" my most favoritist things in the whole world. Dr. Weigt who takes care of my eyes called AP and needed a "show and tell" dog for a career day talk she was giving and asked if I could go. AP thought it would be good for me since I have been through so much lately. We went to 2 classrooms and Dr. Weigt showed a slide show and let the kids look in her eye with the slit lamp microscope which is what she looks in my eyes with. When they were finished with the microscope they got to pet me, it was so much fun. I showed off a little at the end with a few tricks and I kissed a few ears. I was very tired at the end of it and Dr. Weigt even said to AP that I was not my pre surgery energetic self. I hope adjusting my meds helps perk me up - see http://blinddogsrule.blogspot.com/2011/05/results-are-in.html .

The Results Are In

2011-05-27T21:00:00.001-04:00

AP here:
Tonka is still fine and we are walking everyday but he is not his regular bouncy self and he tires very easily. The results from the Holter Monitor are back and it shows that Tonka has some long pauses in between heartbeats. Dr. Ferguson wants to cut back on his medication a bit and see how he does over the weekend.

Back to the Beach 2011

2011-05-21T21:26:00.001-04:00

I had such a busy weekend "down the ocean". I hung out on the new deck that CM had built for me, she calls it Tonka's playpen! It was constructed by JDG Construction Group Inc. http://www.jdgconstruction.net/ and I love it.The guys all had pizza for lunch and I got to have a little crust- yummy. I went for a walk with my girlfriend toots. AP thought she had a good picture of her put it didnt come out that well. We will have to get a new one next time we go. She lives with my good friends Wally and Gwen.

Chillin on the new Deck

Almost Done

My Playpen

Toots

We went into town and I hung out with Rick at Odysea and met lots of kids and people. I also got my favorite cookies at Critter Beach.
It has been 6 weeks since the heart surgery so AP and CM took me to the beach to play. I love the beach and I was going blippity and bloppity all over the place. I was picking up sticks and throwing them and digging holes, it was so much fun.

Stuffed Sausage

2011-05-20T21:52:00.002-04:00

I had to go early yesterday morning to get a holter monitor put on to measure what my heart does during a typical day. We went to CVCA in Annapolis where Jamie shaved some of my chest and taped on some wires and things to listen to what goes on inside of me. Then she squished me in a neoprene vest with Velcro on it. Just an FYI Pyr hair and Velcro are not a good mix. I was not comfortable at all and looked silly even though AP kept lying to me and telling me I was handsome. It was like being a stuffed sausage. I tried to get her to take it off.

I gave AP my best "I am mad" look

Then I tried to look real pitiful.

Nothing worked and I was stuck wearing it for 24 hours.

It was hard to walk down the steps

I couldn't get comfortable

It was hot on my evening walk

It was a long night and I didn't sleep much. AP and I went real early this morning to get it taken off. Jamie got it all off of me and was careful when pulling off the tape but I was still irritated and itchy.

Itchy Spot

I am so happy that it is off and I hope I never have to wear it again. AP says the results will be back in about a week and then we will know if my heart is doing OK.

Ahh no more vest!!!

A Smelly Subject

2011-05-18T22:07:00.003-04:00

AP here:
Look Poop happens! It is a fact of life and if you have a baby or a dog you have had a discussion about poop with your vet, your peditraician and/or your friends. Dog owners that really care for their pets know that not only does "poop happen" but you should be paying attention to it. It is a marker of your dogs health and dietary habits. No one likes to pick up poop but if you really care about your dog and others you will. The consequences of not picking up after your dog are really nasty. All dogs harbor so-called coliform bacteria, which live in the gut. The group includes E. coli, a bacterium that can cause disease, and fecal coliform bacteria, which spread through feces. Dogs also carry salmonella and giardia both of which can make you, your dog and others very sick. Coliform bacteria is what can and does contaminate streams, rivers and lakes and make them unsafe. I personally do not want to step in your dogs waste nor do I want Tonka, his friends or anyone else to have to deal with it. So instead of polluting the environment and poisoning other animals including humans just PICK UP THE POOP.

Some Old Friends and Some New Friends

2011-05-16T22:19:00.001-04:00

I went to the beach on Saturday and came home Sunday morning. I had a great time "seeing" all my friends like Wally, Gwen, Jeff and Jill and going to Odysea http://odyseabeach.com/ and saying hi to Rick. While we were walking down the street a voice from above on a restaurant deck asked "does that dog have a prosthetic eye". When AP looked up to answer she saw it was Dr. Wiegt my opthomologist. She takes really good care of my eyes and it is always so nice to "see" her.

When I got home my friends Patty, Ed and Buttercup stopped by with Helen and Raja from the blog http://www.traveldogbooks.com/. Helen and Raja also wrote a book called the Journey of the Shih Tzu that is all about the breed and its history. AP and I were guest bloggers a while back and Helen and Raja have been really supportive to AP during my heart problems.

Since Raja and Buttercup are a bit smaller than me so I tried to be really careful not to step on one of them. I ended up laying down but not before I gave Helen lots of kisses. It was really great to finally meet them.

Saying Cheese for Ed

Hi Raja

You have my full attention!

Happy Crew

5 weeks post PDA surgery

2011-05-14T06:35:00.003-04:00

AP here:

Earlier in the week we went back to the cardiologist. Tonka has been sluggish and not his usual happy bouncy self. He was vomiting every so often and refusing to eat his breakfast. The bigger concern for me was that he was not interested in anything being cooked in the kitchen. His pre-surgery blood work had showed an abnormal creatinine level which can be a marker to show a kidney problem so we had a new blood panel run. Fortunately his blood work came back with everything normal so Dr. Ferguson started him on Pepcid AC twice a day. This seems to have done the trick and he is now eating with no more vomiting but he is still sluggish and with the hole in his heart fixed he should be just the opposite. Next week he will be outfitted with a cardiac holter monitor. The report generated from the monitor measures the number of PVCs (Premature Ventricular Contractions) or heartbeats that happen before the normal heartbeat, present during a 24-hour period among other data. Tonka's original heart episode was an arrhythmia which is an abnormal pattern of heartbeats either too fast or too slow. His arrhythmia was Atrial fibrillation (AF or “A-fib”). Usually, atrial fibrillation is associated with an underlying structural heart disease with severe secondary heart chamber enlargement (usually left atrial enlargement). His heart is enlarged on the left side and now that he has had the surgery to stop up the hole it should remodel back down a bit. The top chambers (the atria) get the blood from the body and lungs, and their job is to squeeze extra blood into the lower pumping chambers (the ventricles). When the atria fibrillate, the ventricle lose this extra “kick” from the atria, and this leads to less filling of the ventricles, and less forceful of a contraction. Typically the heart rate becomes extremely fast and irregular during atrial fibrillation, and patients may have heart rates above 200-220 beats-per-minute. This leads to decreased filling time for the ventricles, and even less cardiac output. Tonka’s heart rate was above 200 the day he collapsed. The readout from the monitor should be back and interpreted within a week so we will then have a better picture of what his heart is up to

Walk for the Animals

2011-05-01T22:18:00.002-04:00

Today was the Walk for the Animals at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis so Nala and I went to check it out. http://www.aacspca.org/component/content/article/171 It was really cool and I knew a lot of the people that were there at the booths. I "saw" my friends at the GAVH booth and even Dr. Woodburn was there. They gave me some treats and AP filled out a raffle to win a free office visit so cross your fingers that she wins. Kelly the owner of Pet Barn was there and gave me lots of love and some really good treats that I tried to steal some more of on my next pass by. Darwin the turtle was there and I had never met a turtle before so that was something new for me. There was a really big dog walking around on 2 legs and he and I got along great. Nala and I did some of the walk but not the 5 mile walk since that would be too much for me right now but we had lots of fun meeting all the other puppies on the trail. On the way home even Nala closed her eyes and started to fall asleep and she never stops...

Darwin

What is a Darwin

Don't Bite My Head

That Tickles

I Love This Guy

Walking

Out Like a Light

Love to Walk

2011-04-27T21:32:00.002-04:00

I went for a walk tonight with Nala and we ran into one of my kids at the park by the pool. I hadn’t seen her since before my surgery and she gave me lots of hugs and a kiss. We crossed the big street and my friend Patty who was out for a walk caught up to us. Patty is Buttercups mom and she has known me since I was first adopted. I got lots of love from her and she walked the whole way back to my house with us. I love to walk and I love to "see" all my friends.

Almost There

2011-04-25T22:20:00.000-04:00

AP here:
I am happy to report that Tonka Man is almost back to normal. The blind boy is very OCD about his daily routine and he has not been right since he collapsed with his heart problem. Our usual predictable days have been anything but -and full of medication schedules, ice packs and warm compresses.

This morning he had the stitches removed and then he got to spend the day without the cone on his head. He was such a good boy today at the vet and just stayed real still while the stitches were removed. It is still amazing to me that just 2 weeks ago he had a hole in his heart fixed.

I also don't think he has had a good night’s sleep with that thing on and I know I haven’t since this all started.

Tonight he went for a walk with Nala, had a good dinner and then tore through the recycling bag to make a mess in the kitchen- so pretty much back to normal for the evening.

Happy Tonkaversary and Hooray for Technology

2011-04-17T06:46:00.002-04:00

AP here:
With all the craziness about Tonka's heart we are celebrating Tonkaversary a day late. We will be having a can of Grammys Pot Pie with dinner and a frozen peanut butter kong for desert. In the midst of all this controlled excitement we will raise a paw to the wonderful Doctors and staff that have allowed us to have another Tonkaversary and to the inventors of the amazing technology that now resides firmly plugged in the bionic dogs heart.

Busted by the Babysitter

2011-04-16T17:39:00.000-04:00

AP had to go to work today and so her parents came to watch me while she was gone. I am still on pain medication and my leg is still swollen and sore but I had a really good morning. I went for a walk with Nala and came home and ate almost a whole bowl of food. AP left for work and I was sleepy for most of the time she was gone but I woke up after a while and wanted to chew on my bully stick that Aunt Carol left for me. I was laying there like a good boy chewing on my stick and then got up and went to the door to go potty. AP's parents let me out and I walked out in the yard and went (I am still peeing crooked thanks to the swelling from the surgery) then I headed off towards the ramp. AP's mom went back in to open the kitchen door at the top of the ramp to let me in -but I didnt go to the ramp. I veered off and went to my digging spot.
What I didnt know was that AP's dad was still behind me and he caught me as I spit out the last of the bully stick I had been hiding in my mouth to bury.
BUSTED!
AP says I am a sneaky snake...

4 Days Post PDA Surgery

2011-04-15T21:08:00.001-04:00

AP here:

Today is Friday and Tonka man had heart surgery on Monday. Tuesday was a good day, Wednesday not so good and Thursday really not so good. I should have expected that since the same was true with his eye surgery. It is the old "it will get worse before it gets better" saying.
The incision site to the femoral artery became very angry looking and he started to have swelling and fluid build up down the leg and up and out through the groin.

Wednesday

Friday

Tonka loves kids, walks and cheese - mostly in that order. So when he didn't seem to care that the kids were out and he refused to get up and walk or come for cheese then I knew he was hurting. I had been a little stingy on his pain meds so the Dr. said we should give him the full dose and see if he perked up any. When after a full day of meds he was still unresponsive and would not eat and refused water I started to really worry. I called CVCA and they responded really quickly and Tonka was seen early this morning by Dr. Ferguson in Annapolis. He and I discussed the swelling and fluid retention and he added warm moist compresses to his recovery and a round of antibiotics. During the exam they had to really poke and prod to make sure everything was OK and in doing so I think they unstuck something that was bothering the Tonk Man. Every time I would get him up this week he would whirl around every few steps like something under his leg was tugging on him. That stopped after his exam today. This afternoon he laid out front for a little while and went for a walk with his friend Nala. hopefully tomorrow will be an even better day.

Friday Evening

Home Again

2011-04-12T20:20:00.000-04:00

AP here:
I got to pick Tonka up and bring him home today. It is amazing to think that just yesterday he had heart surgery and today he is home. I cannot say enough great things about CVCA and the care that he received. I met with Dr. Rosenthal today to discuss his post surgical care and he answered all my questions and really put me at ease (heart stuff is scary stuff). Tonka was very happy to "see" my dad and had a good time in the waiting room with a very nice couple fussing over him.

Happy Boy

Smiling

He came home and slept on the landing for a little bit then went downstairs and wanted to eat so I fed him a small bowl. He wanted to go outside so I opened the door and he walked out and went potty and then just stood there looking a little lost. I went and got him and we came up the ramp and into the kitchen and that is where he has been the rest of the day. He is still a bit groggy tonight but he never does real well with medication.

It took me a little while to clean up all the gel from his armpit and chest where they did echocardiograms yesterday and today. That stuff is really sticky but I got it washed off and blew him dry with the hairdryer and he was loving being brushed -even though he was half asleep. I am going to try and scan the echo pictures to post. The pictures show the blood flow before the occulder with the leak and then after the occulder with no leak - very cool.
He has not messed with the very large incision and stitches on his hind leg but has been interested in grooming the shaved spot on his front leg. I'm sure he will eventually get interested in the stiches and I will have to break out the comfy cone which will make him mad.

Incision

His Aunt Carol came by this afternoon with a large caterpillar toy and that perked him up for a moment.

New Toy

He finally got up with a lot of coaxing this evening and had a little dinner. His leg is bothering him so I gave him some pain medication to make him more comfortable and now he is back to sleep. I have a feeling I won't be getting much sleep tonight but I am so glad he is home and doing so well.

Stop the Leak

2011-04-11T21:12:00.001-04:00

AP here - a very tired AP.
Today was Tonka's heart surgery and the amazing Doctors -Dr. Peckens and Dr Rosenthal http://www.cvcavets.com/ successfully plugged the 6mm hole in his heart with a 10mm ductal occluder. Tonka has a fairly large incision in the crease of his back leg where they accessed his femoral artery for the catheter. The placement of the occluder went very well but the artery did not want to stop bleeding right away so it took a little longer than I thought it would. The staff were awesome and everyone took really good care of my boy especially Cari and Heather. Cari called me this evening when her shift ended to give me an update on him she said he is still groggy but alert. This is what he looked like when I left this afternoon.

Still out from anesthesia

The leak is plugged and the murmur is now quiet. I cannot thank everyone enough for all the well wishes and prayers. Some rest and recovery and he will be blippity blopping and back to wrestling with his friends.

Upcoming surgery

2011-04-04T19:45:00.000-04:00

AP here: Tonka is scheduled for surgery this month to repair the PDA with the ductal occluder. If all goes well it will be great to take advantage of that since it is minimally invasive surgery with a shorter recovery time. If they get in there and the hole is too big we will have to cancel that option and go back at a later date to have the duct tied off. The fact that he is is now three and this was never caught until now is not in our favor - his heart is enlarged from the years of constant over circualtion. To compound matters his limp is back and so even slow quiet walks are having to be cancelled which makes him very depressed and angry. Pyr's are a very stoic breed and will ignore pain to do what they want. Tonka thinks he should be able to walk and run and play. Unlike a sighted dog he is not able to lay at the front door and watch the world and be entertained that way so it is very hard to keep him occupied or quiet. I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of support, prayers and well wishes and will try to keep you posted as we go.

Be Still My Beating Heart

2011-03-28T22:36:00.001-04:00

I went for a long ride today with AP and her Dad. We went all the way to Leesburg VA to the LifeCenter and Chesapeake Veterinary Cardiology Associates to see Dr. Peckens.
http://cvcavets.com/doc%20bios%20-%20neal%20peckens.html

His assistant Heather met with AP to take my history and she was nice enough to keep me from hitting my head on the exam table. Dr. Peckens came in and listened to my heart, and listened to my heart, and listened to my heart and when he was done he asked AP if I had ever been diagnosed with a heart murmur. AP told him that the very first Doctor I ever had diagnosed that but everyone since had said no so it was thought that I had outgrown it (we dogs do that). He said he definitely heard one and told her he thought I had a PDA but we would know for sure with an echo cardiogram. He asked if I would be OK up on a table and AP told him that I am not a fan of heights and about the time I got up on the couch by accident and was scared to come down. They all agreed to try me up on the table but if I got stressed we could do the test with me standing.

We went into the other room and Heather and Dr. Peckens lifted me up and put me on a table that had a panel in the middle. The panel comes out leaving a hole for the Doctor to put a device called a transducer through to move around on my chest. They put electrodes on me and then used ultrasound and the transducer to put images of the inside of my heart on the screen of the echo cardiogram machine. I was a really good boy and stayed real still - except for the few times I tried to push some buttons on the machine.

Dr. Peckens and Heather

What does this button do?

Let me roll the ball.

He showed AP and Dad the images in color to display the problem with my heart. It is called a PDA or Patent Ductus Arterious and is congenital which means I was born with it. Most PDA's are caught early in puppies and taken care of. If it not caught 50% of puppies with it never make it past 1year -so I have beaten the odds so far. Basically I have a hole that was supposed to close when I was born and it didn't so now I have an over circulation that has made my heart get large. The other day my heart went wonky and into Atrial Fibrillation and my heart was beating really, really fast which is dangerous. Thanks to the medicine I am taking my heart rate is back to normal and has gone back into a normal rhythm so I am at low risk of heart failure until they can fix me. The Doctors at CVCA all meet at a big thing called rounds and discuss all the cases they have seen and put their heads together for the best fix. Tomorrow at the round thing they will talk about me and the best option to help me. I am hoping that option is the amplatz ductal occluder because that surgery will allow me to be up and around quickly and they won’t have to open up my chest. It's a plug that they can use to stop up the hole and my heart can get back t normal size. There is a handout on CVCA's website that explains the problem and the solution if you want to read it http://cvcavets.com/docs/Handouts/Patent%20Ductus%20Arteriosus.pdf

Right now I am a very happy boy because I can now go for a walk as long as I don't get carried away. AP is happy because my heart is not all wonky right now and we know what the problem is.

From Bad to Worse and Totally Unfair

2011-03-26T08:10:00.002-04:00

AP here:
On Thursday Tonka went to see a very nice Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Cannap at Veterinary Orthopedic Sports Medicine Group about his intermittent lameness in his right front leg. The result of which was 2 problems that needed to be addressed one being his shoulder and what would be analogous to our rotator cuff and the other being his elbow. http://www.vetsportsmedicine.com/surgery/documents/RotatorCuffInjurya.pdf
http://vetsportsmedicine.com/surgery/documents/JumpDownSyndrome.pdf
I was very impressed with everyone and the facility and the technician Amy that took care of Tonka and measured him for the brace he would have to wear for 2-4 months after the surgery. I had them draw blood so we could make sure he was sound for surgery and scheduled it for April 6th. Tonka was fine for the visit and did not seem to be in any distress. We went home and the rest of the day was a normal day with all his normal routines. We walked with Nala that night and again everything was 100% routine for him. I on the other hand could not sleep and was stressing over the upcoming surgery
Friday morning everything was still normal and he was at the top of the stairs ready to go for our walk by the time I got dressed. We walked to the park and back and it was totally uneventful.Once home he laid down at the top of the stairs like usual and took little nap while I got ready to go to work - all still normal. I put on 2 eggs to boil and went downstairs and fixed his bowl with his breakfast. This is his routine every morning.

He goes downstairs eats his breakfast - goes out the doggie door - goes to the bathroom - might dig a little/might not - comes up the ramp on the side of the house to the kitchen - might lay out on the deck for about 5 minutes/might not - stands at the door and barks once to come in - comes in and has either a tiny bit of egg or some sweet potato.

This is the routine and when enough time had passed and he did not come to the door and was not on the deck I went to find him. The first thing I notice was an untouched bowl of kibble which is not normal but not alarming. I went out the door and around the corner to where he has been trying to create a new monster digging pit behind the grill. I was really expecting to find him there with dirt up to his elbows caught in the act and I really wish that is where I had found him. I took four more steps past he grill and he was laying at a very strange angle with massive amounts of drool from his chin to the ground. I spoke his name and he snapped his head up in my direction but he was jerky and seemed panicky. I opened his mouth to see if he had anything half ingested but all i saw was more of the same thick drool. I ran into the house and grabbed a towel and the phone and yelled for CM. She came out while I was dialing the vet. She went back in and went thought the house and unlocked he gate while I got the ramp down in the truck. I got him up and to the ramp and again he was very jerky but I got him in the truck and took off for the vet. On the road he put his head down and went to sleep and I got my wits about me enough to start thinking seizure vs. anything poison related. There is nothing buried behind the grill and I know that because we dug all that up and put down a drainage pipe there so it is nothing but dirt. it seemed to fit a seizure as well - that thick nasty drool - the post ictal phase where they are really out of it. So by the time we got to the vet that was my diagnosis and I calmed down a bit (remember I only had 3 hours of sleep worrying about his upcoming surgery and rehab so I was allowed to be a little off my norm). We walked in and right away they were looking at his gums and checking him out before we even got in a room. They are the best there and Tonka loves them all and so do I. We were seen right away by Dr. Gerity and during the exam we were pretty much going with the seizure thing until she got to his heart rate. She came up from listening to his heart and looking at her watch to tell me his heart rate was 200 and for a big dog 100 is the magic number and that it was not beating normal. Even with 3 hours of sleep my mind started trying to make sense of this - he was just at a vet yesterday and they had listened to his heart and it was fine - that doesn't compute. She then told me he needed an EKG and chest x-ray and took him out of the room to the back while I struggled to make it all fit into something logical.
The news was no better when she came back in- his heart is in atrial fibrillation and the x-rays show an enlarged heart (not horribly enlarged but too big just the same). The biggest thing was to get his heart rate down so they put him on medication to do that. He spent the day with them so they could monitor his heart.
I called a few times to check on him and his heart rate was down to 120 and then to 96 so I picked him up and took him home. He is still in arrythmia so his heart is beating abnormally but as long as the heart rate is down and he remains quiet we should be OK till he sees the cardiologist.
I called a cardiologist and we have an appointment on Thursday for an echo cardiagram and his ortho. surgery has been postponed. One of my friends Buttercups mom is an amazing woman and adopted Buttercup who has a heart condition. http://www.traveldogbooks.com/?p=367 She and I spoke at length and she reassured me that the cardiologist we are going to will get him back on track.
So here we are- my big loving boy who wants nothing more out of life than to run and play and meet and greet everyone and everything has to be kept very quiet. No walks, no running, no playing, no excitement of any kind. If you follow the blog you will remember that anytime he has been in this situation it only takes one day to plunge him into a depression. At least with the other times I could take him in the truck and his friends would come out and meet him- with this he can do nothing.
This has totally blindsided me- of all things that could go wrong I would have never thought heart but better to find out now rather than on the operating table in two weeks.
Perhaps this is why Tonka loves everyone so much - he has an oversized heart!

Hail Storm

2011-03-23T21:19:00.000-04:00

So tonight I found something worse than rain. AP and I were finishing our walk with Nala and Henry and it started raining and thundering which was bad enough but then frozen water rocks started falling from the sky. AP called it hail and it really hurt and we had to stop at Mr. Bob's and stand under the awning until it stopped. Water - not a fan in any form (except at the beach).
AP took a picture of it but she said it came out a little fuzzy.

HAIL

Time to Get in Your House

2011-03-22T22:22:00.002-04:00

AP here:
99.99% of the time Tonka is the best boy you could ever want to live with. He listens very well as demonstrated by this video.

There are times though when he is an onery little brat. I called him to get in his house this past weekend and he absoultely refused. He was stretched out on the landing and just did not want to move. I tried talking to him, I tried bribing him and finally had to resort to picking him up by the scruff of his neck to get him to his feet. He tried to twist and turn to go up the steps and dug in his paws. Now you can't drag a blind dog down the steps, it's just not a nice thing to do so the only option was to go out the front door around the house and through the back door. We marched out the front door and around the house (had to stop to unlock he gate first) and when we made the turn by the ramp to the porch off of the kitchen he tried to bolt up the ramp. I got a better grip on him - thinking I should have slipped on his collar at the start of this little journey -and away we went down the hill and into the back door where I dumped him into his house. Now before I get negative comments about dogs and crates let me tell you that Tonka feels very secure in his house (crate). If he thinks he is home alone and has been left out of his house he gets very agitated and upset. He is smart enough to know that he is safe there and he loves his house and he is never in it with the door closed for more than 4 hours. He was just testing his boundries and being a brat - ah the teenage years....

Prison Break

2011-03-20T14:08:00.000-04:00

When Tonka wants out - Tonka wants out

Trish Gives Us The 411 on Sylvia and Post Op. Therapy

2011-03-18T19:17:00.004-04:00

An update from Sylvia's foster mom Trish Rimo.
I'm really impressed with the canine physical therapists (and yes, my friends, there is such a specialty – and a good one, too!) at VCA Veterinary Referral Associates. They're so kind, compassionate and good at what they do for Sylvia following her hip surgery. They're trying to make sure she doesn't overly tax some other muscle/ligament while this leg is so very weak; she's lost 5 cm. of muscle mass in it already. When they try to rotate her leg, her muscle goes into spasms, so they give her soothing laser therapy. It’s been three weeks and she really doesn’t want to move that leg much at all. No at-home exercises until she gets stronger, and we’re just fine with that!

This is going to be a long, slow rehabilitation process for Sylvia, and I'm really glad we have professionals to help. The surgery (FHO) is particularly difficult for big dogs to recover from, as there’s so much weight borne by that new false “joint.” Without PT, I fear Sylvia would end up with a limp, not to mention joint problems elsewhere, which is the real issue. I’m so glad we advocated for the best level of care for her within reason – and that the generous people who donated to Sylvia’s fund enabled her to get this care!

In This Corner - AP's MVP

2011-03-17T20:36:00.000-04:00

I am so excited AP said I got honorable mention in week 9 of the Bissell MVP contest.
Check out number 5 at this link - Handsome devil isn't he :)
http://tinyurl.com/4qeb92a

Now at the end of the contest in April I will be among the winners in the Judging Phase.

Judging Phase: During the Judging Phase, a panel of qualified judges determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion will select the five (5) entrants with the highest-scoring Submissions from among the sixty (60) Finalists based on the following criteria (“Judging Criteria”):

Condition of Pet's Coat (33%); Expression of Pet (33%); and Overall Appearance (34%)
The top 5 all win money for the pet charity of their choice. So I am trying to win for my rescue Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue http://www.agprescue.com/
Cross your fingers for us.

After the Rainy Walk

2011-03-10T07:15:00.002-05:00

AP here:
People think I am a bit nuts since Tonka and I walk no matter what the weather and this morning in the rain was no exception. Tonka is confined to short walks right now but even with a short walk it did not take long to get soaked.
So what do you do with a Tonka Dog that is soaking wet?
First you towel him off real well making sure to get his paws and belly and then you let him in the house. Next you break out the hair dryer and try to keep him still while you dry him a little more thoroughly.
Here is a video of Tonka and the drying process - notice how hard it is to keep him still.

He is such a lazy lump-

Now if I could just get him to flip over!

Here we limp again!

2011-03-08T07:06:00.000-05:00

AP here:

A week ago Tonka got up from a nap and he was limping on his right front paw. It went away by the time we got to the vet (of course) and they had a hard time making him react to range of motion -or anything for that matter -with his foot, elbow or shoulder. He pretty much started to fall asleep while Dr. Anderson was examining him (such a laid back boy).

So with no official diagnosis we started him on an anti-inflammatory and a prescription of no-playing or running. Since this is his fourth bout with this lameness issue in the past year Dr. Woodburn suggested we go see an Orthopedic Dr. that specializes in sports injuries in animals. So we are going to see Dr. Canapp http://www.vetsportsmedicine.com/about/staff_scanapp.html at VOSM http://www.vetsportsmedicine.com/ . Those of you that follow the blog regularly know that Tonka lives for his walks and so if he has something wrong in his shoulder we need to get it fixed ASAP.

A Tonka dog without his walks and his blippity blopping with his friends is a very depressed boy! If you are not familiar with the Blippity Blop be sure to watch any of his videos where he is running. Tonka steps really high when he is running - he sort of blippity blops along. He is allowed to go for short walks but no blippity blopping or wrestling and so far he is not depressed just mad... This boy has the entire neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods in a 4 mile radius completely mapped out in his head. He knows when you shorten his walk or deviate from his normal route. He is such a good boy that when he wants to keep going or turn the other way he does not pull to get his way. He simply stops, and sits. He has done this little routine since he was a puppy and back then I would just pick him up and carry him a few feet and put him down and continue you on. He has long since outgrown the ability for me to pull that off, at 125lbs I can only lift him down and out of a truck I cannot lift him up. The trick to get him to move is not pulling him or jerking the leash but to have a talk with him. I am sure the neighbors think I am very odd. I walk a blind dog 2x a day rain or shine he wears sunglasses on windy days and I have on occasion held an umbrella over him. Then then the crazy lady is squatted in front of him whispering in his ear.

It works though, I get down on his level and whisper that we can't go that way today and I tell him why he needs to come with me and he will just get up and willingly come along as if he understands. I am sure a behaviorist will tell you it is just the break in the situation that changes the pattern he was in or something like that but I like to think it is because he is just a good boy that needs to know why.

Sylvia One Week Update

2011-03-07T13:01:00.000-05:00

AP here: I saw Sylvia this weekend, she looks great and Trish was kind enough to give us a one week update.

It’s been a little more than a week since Sylvia’s surgery and she’s recovering well. Her fur is already growing back, the incision is healing, and she’s gradually putting more weight on the surgical leg. Still, she has to stay confined (a little boring for her) until at least Friday. That’s when we go back to the surgeon to get her opinion of the progress and to see when Sylvia can start physical therapy, which is even more important for a large dog such as a Pyr. She’s still on pain meds — as much to keep her calm as to help with the pain!

FHO leg 1 week Post Op.

Kaiser has been gallant enough to give up his bed to Sylvia!

Tonka is very happy that Sylvia is on the mend and will get to see her for PyrFest in May.

Saturday Sylvia Update

2011-02-26T20:29:00.000-05:00

Trish let us know early this morning about Sylvia-
Sylvia's doing really well this morning, surgeon says. She's up and around and eating -- her favorite activity. We'll pick her up early afternoon.

This afternoon she was home and eating well and even telling off her foster brother for coming up behind her.

Heal quickly Sylvia...

Sylvia Update

2011-02-25T21:31:00.000-05:00

My friend Sylvia had her surgery today and is doing fine. She had a lot of arthritis that they had to clean up and she is now resting and should be able to go home tomorrow. I am very glad it went well.
Tonka

Sylvia and Her FHO Surgery (Trish's Blog)

2011-02-24T21:23:00.002-05:00

AGPR (where I came from) is a great rescue and the volunteers that help all of my Pyr friends are awesome people. Trish Rimo and Mike Diegel are two of those wonderful volunteers and they are fostering my friend Sylvia. Tomorrow Sylvia is having surgery and Trish has been nice enough to fill us in about the FHO surgery with this blog and will keep us updated on Sylvia's progress. Sylvia deserves a great furever home, she is such a sweety.

Sylvia and Friend

Sylvia’s Orthopedic Condition and Surgery to Correct It

Canine hip dysplasia is a genetic disease of dogs that causes looseness, abnormal development and arthritis of the hip joint. It is not particularly common in Great Pyrenees. However, Sylvia, our foster from Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue, has been diagnosed with dysplasia. Here’s a little more about the condition and the surgery to correct it that Sylvia is having on February 25th. Much of the technical information is from the Gold Ribbon Rescue website.

The hip joint is a ball-and-socket type joint. The ball is the uppermost part of the thighbone, or femur, and is called the head of the femur. The head is connected to the rest of the bone by the neck, and the socket is part of the pelvic bone. Normally, the ball, or head of the femur, fits very tightly within its socket. With hip dysplasia, this fit becomes loose and the joint partially dislocates, which can cause discomfort, abnormal development and/or arthritis. Sylvia has developed severe arthritis in her left hip, causing her discomfort and affecting her ability to negotiate stairs and do things such as leap and play.

There are three types of surgery to correct the problem, with the most extensive being total hip replacement. Sylvia is having a surgery called Femoral Head and Neck Ostectomy (FHO), which is designed to eliminate the source of discomfort by removing part of the hip joint. The femur is cut so that the head and neck of the femur are removed (“ostectomy” means the bone is cut and removed). Scar tissue forms between the femur and the socket, where the femoral head and neck used to be. This is called a false joint because motion between the bones is maintained without the true ball-and-socket joint. Eventually, this scar tissue provides enough support to permit use of the limb without causing significant discomfort.

Sylvia

While the surgery is very effective in dogs under 50 pounds, it can be effective in larger dogs as well – provided the dogs are kept slim and have sufficient physical therapy afterwards, which Sylvia will have. A few other Pyrs in AGPR have had FHO surgery with great success. One advantage of the FHO is that exercise restriction is needed only for a few days after the surgery. After 10 - 14 days, exercise is even encouraged to accelerate formation of scar tissue.

Many dogs that have FHO surgery return to almost normal function. The false joint that results from the surgery allows for walking, running and playing; however, the dog’s gait may be different. But with an experienced surgeon, which Sylvia will have in Dr. Aylin Atilla, and a lot of physical therapy afterwards, both at her foster home and the surgical center, Sylvia should be pain free and should enjoy a normal life.

My Friend Sylvia

2011-02-23T22:28:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone that helped raise money for my friend Sylvia to have her surgery. We raised enough and her foster parents (Mike and Trish) have scheduled it with a great surgeon for this Friday. I have invited Sylvia's foster mom to explain what the surgery is all about and to keep us updated. She will be guest blogging either tomorrow or Friday. I am so happy she is going to be feeling better once her hip is fixed and then she can find her furever home like me.
T

Adoption Day at Petco

2011-02-20T21:02:00.001-05:00

I had so much fun today at the AGPR adoption day at Petco. We had lots of people stop and ask questions and a few took adoption applications to fill out.

Frankie made lots of friends and was a ham for the camera.

I am soooo cute

CHEESE!

I wore my bandana that Momma Pat and Buttercup had made for me.

Stylin'

Casper was hanging out getting lots of love.

Love the Casper

Ahh thats the spot.

Who me?

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY

2011-02-17T17:23:00.000-05:00

Come see me and my friends Casper and Frankie this Sunday at the Warrenton, VA Petco from 12-4.

Casper is a great guy, full of puppy playfulness and looking for a good family to romp with.

Casper

Frankie

Frankie is a wonderful 4 year old male and very smart.
They are both looking for a forever home so stop by and say hi and even if you are not looking to adopt right now you might know someone who is. Plus if you come by I can get treats while AP is not looking :)

Good Book

2011-02-16T05:42:00.003-05:00

AP here: Tonka and I just finished a really good book about dogs. The author is Alexandra Horowitz and she is has PhD in Cognitive Science and the book is called
Inside of a Dog. http://insideofadog.com/index.php
She gives you a perspective on what it must be like to live so close to the ground, which is what I have had to do with Tonka since he was a puppy (but only from a safety standpoint). I must admit I got a little down when I realized from reading the book how a dog really does pay close attention to people visually. I hadn't thought about that much with Tonka because he gets along so well and we have such a routine. I hardly ever think about him in terms of "blind dog" and what he misses out on, or what "we" miss out on as far as a visual bond with one another. I learned quite a bit from the book and it would be great if she had some research on blind dogs and the differences in behavior between blind and sighted.

So Helpful

2011-02-15T23:02:00.003-05:00

AP here:
My last Pyr and other dogs that have lived with me were always very eager to "help" in the yard whenever there was work to be done. Tonka has never really cared much what you are doing in the yard unless it involves digging or sticks then he wants to "help".
http://blinddogsrule.blogspot.com/2009/07/july-26-2009.html.
This past weekend it was nice enough to finally pick up the zillions of sticks and branches that the ice and snow storms had brought down. I had been picking up the big branches and storing them in the top corner of the yard in a pile (you can't leave big branches for a blind dog to get hurt with). I got out the rake, some big trash bags and a ball of string to tie up the big stuff in a bundle.
Tonka came outside but stayed at the bottom of the yard while I raked up two bags worth of little sticks. I measured out enough string for the first go round for the pile of sticks and laid it out on the ground. I piled the branches onto the string and pulled the ends up, tied a big know and started measuring out string for the second go round a little further up the pile. All of a sudden Tonka was beside me pulling at a branch and trying to drag it out of the bundle. I tried to get him to back away from it but it turned into a wrestling match and it takes way too much energy to win a wrestling match with a blind 125lb bear so I broke off part of the branch and gave it to him. That seemed to make him happy and I turned back and bent over the bundle to tie the string around the top part. When I stood back up (we are talking seconds later) Tonka was no longer interested in his piece of stick and had successfully untied the first string.

There are moments when I seriously consider that he is just faking the blind thing.

Round 2 of wrestling commenced and I managed to keep him back long enough to tie the first string back and lift the bundle. I started walking to the gate to take it around front when I noticed it was getting hard to move froward. Tonka- being oh so helpful had a branch in his mouth trying to pull it out and was successfully pulling me and the bundle backwards. I dug in and continued forwards. This would have been a very funny video - the two of us playing tug of war with a bundle of sticks.
I finally won and hurried to the gate and out to the curb leaving Tonka in the back yard with a few sticks that had fallen out during the battle.

Bundle of Sticks

Ready on the set - TAKE ONE

2011-02-12T22:24:00.000-05:00

CM here, I know it's been a while since I posted on the "adventure's" of Tonka but believe me there has been some!!

But this morning Tonka thought he was auditioning for a bit in the remake of the movie "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" remember the movie where the patients hide their meds. I was only going to be the director of this remake.....I ended up losing my position. YES, I was fired by that famous producer known by all as AP.

It all started the night before, Tonka was given a very special rawhide and he spent the evening "auditioning" on how to eat a bone for another movie that AP was thinking of making. He still had a piece of it left when the mornings auditioning began. Of course, as the director I was to have kept my camera (eye) on him at ALL times. Remember, he STILL has the 5 minute rule at any given time!

There was a problem with a wardrobe malfunction for myself and I put my "camera" down for a moment. Now, we will NEVER know what REALLY happened this fateful morning; but we can ONLY imagine. When I had returned, it appeared that Tonka was waiting "for my close-up Mr.Demille". But just like a blue/green screen it was ALL make believe!!

I had noticed that Tonka's face needed a touch up. AP came in and while she was wiping his eyes happened to also notice that he had "dirt" around his mouth. Of course I was asked if I had kept an "camera" on him while she was away; I said "but of course, why do you ask?"

AP then asked me where the rest of the "prop" we all know as the BONE was. I could have put on my best "Gone With The Wind" and stated "I know nothing about bone props". Except that TONKA gave me up!
He thought he still was AUDITIONING for the part. He proudly let it be known by the evidence of dirt that was being wiped away; that he should get the part since he just proved that he could HIDE the bone under his tongue and slip out and bury it........while no one even noticed!!

So as Tonka is signing his contract for his next "movie" and AP has decided to direct him......I am without a JOB!! So if anyone is looking for a GREAT DIRECTOR with a keen "camera" to make sure NOTHING gets missed. Call 1-822-552-6669...CALL CM NOW!

What - no bagel?

2011-02-12T14:23:00.034-05:00

I got to go to the park this morning and played with Shania and Sweetpea and their new brother Jake. He is a Jack Russell/Beagle mix and is only 9 months old and lots of fun. Spencer and Charlie were there but Charlie was scared of Jake at first and ran away. Spencer and I wrestled a little but I was getting too carried away and stepping on the little dogs so we had to quit. Bailey was also there but he wasn't in a playing mood so he was hanging out with his mom. Then AP and I went out to her work and I hung out with Michelle and found my way to Uncle Charlie's office but he was all out of bagels. He said he tried to get some but they were all sold out. Then Mike showed up to meet with AP so I took a nap while they were talking. Work stuff is boring when there are no students and no bagels.

Quit pulling my Ear

2011-02-07T22:25:00.002-05:00

I am a clean boy- although if I had my way I wouldn't be but I am a good boy and I allow myself to be groomed. My ears are cleaned, my eyes wiped, my nails trimmed and my coat brushed all without too much fuss. Lately my left ear has been bothering me so I had to go to the vet today because I won't let anyone lift up my ear. I have been shaking my head a lot and scratching at it so AP made me get in the truck and go to Greater Annapolis Vet Hospital to see Dr. Woodburn. He looked way down in my ear with a scopey thing and then swiped my ear with a long Q-tip and looked at it under a microscope. He came bck and declared that it is a very good looking ear and there is nothing in it but a little wax. He sprayed my ear flap with some some stuff that should make it feel better and said I probably have an allergy. I don't like being sprayed but I guess it will be one more thing to add to the list of daily grooming. I sure hope it works.

My Valentines Day Bandanna

2011-02-06T19:51:00.001-05:00

My very sweet little Buttercup and Momma Pat had a very special bandanna made just for me.

Buttercup

They were helping to raise money for a good puppy cause and had this cool blue bandanna made to fit over my collar. I can wear it to all the special events that I attend and people will know that Blind Dogs Rule!

Blue is so my color!

Thank you so much Momma Pat and Buttercup and Happy Early Valentines Day!

Help my Friend Sylvia

2011-02-06T10:04:00.002-05:00

My friend Sylvia needs some help. She is such a sweet girl and deserves a forever home like me.

Sylvia has lost two chances for a forever home when she struggled on steps within the houses. Upon examination and x-ray, AGPR learned that she has a severe case of arthritis in her left hip due to hip dysplasia and is in pain, which she’s been bravely masking at her foster home. In order to correct the problem, give her a pain-free existence and a chance to find a loving and permanent home, Sylvia will need surgery. AGPR needs to quickly raise $3,000 to pay for the surgery and rehabilitation. They are already about two-thirds of the way there. Please look into your heart and consider a donation to Sylvia’s Fund for Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue.
You can send a check or money order to:
Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue
8976 Battlefield Park Rd.
Richmond, VA 23231
Please write “Sylvia’s Fund” in the memo line.

You also can donate quickly and securely via our PayPal account. Just go to http://www.agprescue.com/fundraise.html and click on the “Make a Donation” button.

Thank you for helping my friend Sylvia live a full and happy life.

Sylvia and a friend

I like Puppy Bagels

2011-02-05T22:36:00.000-05:00

I went to work today with AP and Uncle Charlie had been to the Bagel shop and he got me some doggie bagels. I had never had one before but boy are they good. They are soaked in beef broth and made with parsley and garlic.

I had one when we first got there and then found my way back to Uncle Charlie's office to get a second one a little later. Then I took a little nap in the hallway in front of AP's office. I also got to meet Rachelle and she said I was cute and will vote for me in the Bissell Contest - pretty cool huh?

Water - not a fan

2011-02-04T20:53:00.000-05:00

I am the Tonka Dog and I don't like water! The only kind of water I will tolerate has a beach attached to it or comes in the form of fluffy snow. I don't like sprinklers, baths, rain or ice. I really, really, really don't like ice and it is my number one enemy right now. I can't even go out to go potty without my paws slipping every which way. AP has tried to chop up and shovel the ice away but it is slow going. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain and I don't like rain, but if it gets rid of the hard snow and the ice then I will deal with it for a day. It's hard to have 4 paws and walk on ice and it's even harder when you can't see. Water - not a fan...

Tonka

2011-02-03T11:36:00.000-05:00

Tonka

Vote for me in the Bissell MVP contest to help win $ for Appalachian Great Pyrenees Rescue. Just click on my name to go there

Wrasslin In The Snow

2011-01-28T21:09:00.000-05:00

I was just sittin in the snow minding my own busness and that sneaky Nala jumped me from behind.

Hanging Out

Minding my own business

Sneaky Nala

Wrassle Mania!

I Want Out

2011-01-27T10:11:00.004-05:00

It snowed a lot more last night and AP had to shovel the driveway and clean off the cars before we went for our morning walk. I thought that was completely unfair. I wanted to get out front in all the action so I politely knocked on the door to let her know I was there..

Hey!

Hello!

When knocking "politely" didn't work I decided I was trapped and tried to dig my way out.

Help!

I'm trapped

Since no-one seemed to cared that I might die here- it was time to try and chew my way through.

Can't get a grip

Somehow I ended up in trouble for just trying to get free - humans are totally unfair!

Making a Snowman

2011-01-26T22:43:00.001-05:00

I have been out playing in the "whole lotta" snow in the backyard. AP was trying to save the trees that were bent all the way to the ground and confusing me. There is not supposed to be a tree on my potty spot. She decided I should learn how to make a snowman so we started at the top of the yard and pushed the snow down the hill. It got really big and I was trying to bite it so we ended up wrestling in the snow instead of making the snowman.

Making a Snowman

You have to push!

Take Cover

2011-01-26T21:44:00.001-05:00

AP here: Tonka and I woke up today to snow on the ground which was supposed to just be rain. We headed out on our morning walk and we were having so much fun at the park. Tonka was shoveling snow with his nose in between playing duck, duck, goose and it started to rain a little. The next thing I know its pelting down ice, and not little pieces of ice -big hunks of ice - that hurt. I looked over at Tonk and he was blinking his eyes really quick and shaking his head with a panicked look. I grabbed him up by the collar and we ran for the woods. We got under the trees and it was still coming down so we ducked under the jungle gym and hid out for awhile until it eased up.

Hiding Out

Under the Jungle Gym

Bissell MVP Contest

2011-01-20T05:56:00.003-05:00

Week 2 of the Most Valuable Pet contest and still trying hard to win money for my rescue, http://www.agprescue.com/ The voting for week 1 is over and we did not make the top 5 but we have 11 more weeks to try. I have a new picture this week as well as a new number so you can now find me at http://bissell.promo.eprize.com/mvpcontest/gallery?id=15458.

Thanks for voting.
Tonka

Walking Dog

2011-01-15T21:12:00.000-05:00

AP got a new watch for Christmas that talks to flying things in the sky and lets her know how far we walk. She says this will give us an accurate measure of how far we walk in a year. *She has already forgotten to press the button 3 times in 4 days :)
She started using it on the 1st and as of today she says we have walked 57 miles. I think I need my paws massaged...