I'm Back!

I'm back eberyone! Now that my big brother herbie is a little better, I've moved back for a few days now. I went with him to the vet yesterday, and the vet says he doesn't have to go back everyday to be poked now since his condition is stable. The vet says his condition is not getting any better or worse, so until the results of his lung poke comes back, he can stay at home.

But the vet gave him a LOT of anti-bio-ticks. I don't know why herbie needs so much anti-ticks when we don't have any ticks. Now he's gotta eat a big pink tablet, 2.5 small tablets, and 2 capsules. If these don't kill the ticks, I don't know what will. And we weighed ourselves at the vet, now I'm the same weight as Herbie! I've caught up with Herbie at last! (M: No you've not, it's because herbie has lost weight)

Anyway, although my big brother herbie is sick, he's still not sick enough to not scold me. Last evening when my M took us down for toilet break, I was so happy I started zooming around and wanted to get herbie to play by running and bumping into him. I think herbie got angwee coz he barked at me.

So since Herbie doesn't wanna play, I tried playing with Joey these few days. The humans say I have a habit of attacking with my butt when I play. I will swing my bum bum around to whack the other dog or try to sit on their faces. Aunty G says it's rude coz I kept whacking her instead when I was trying to get Joey.

Butt attack!


Also, my M says I'm a scaredy cat. I don't know why everyone calls me a cat when I'm a dog. Herbie called me a copycat the last time. I am a dog, right?

It's not entirely my fault, my M took me to the market a week ago, but Herbie didn't come coz he was sick, then it started raining with thunder and people walking with huge sticks with cloths (M:Umbrellas!!!) and aunties with their shopping trolleys. So I got spooked by all these.

(M: Helios would jump at every loud noise and look around with his head lowered. When Herbie was with him, he seldom does that. He might get startled, and when he sees no reaction from Herbie, he'll settle back down. Without herbie by his side, he get's a little more jumpy.

I think I need my big brother Herbie to pawtect me from all those scawie noises. I hope he gets well soon to go marketing with me.

A little joke

Just something funny that happened a few nights ago, which also shows how blur my M can be.

A few nights ago, I was breathing quite heavily, and my M was a little concerned. So before she went to bed, she SMS my MM (he's out late for the night), to say that I seem to be breathing badly, and to check in on me when he comes home.

So that night, my MM came back at 2am, and after checking on me, he went to nudge my sleepy M and said, "Herbie 没事" (pronounced Herbie mei shi), which means Herbie is ok. But my M heard "Herbie 没死" (prounced Herbie mei si), which means Herbie is not dead. Granted, the two words 事 (shi) and 死 (si) sounded similar, but it means a world of difference!

Oh well, in any way, she's just glad I'm still alive (没死).

Adverts!

Hey, noticed a slightly changed look to my blog? Well, my M felt that there's too much to scroll for a 2 column template so she changed it to a 3 column template, and we've added advertisements to the left!

Basically my M saw that there's a chance to earn some money generating adverts on blogs, so she'd thought to try it out. So ta dah... we've added Adverlets

Well, now they're giving away some money for people who review about them, so with my mounting medical costs, my M thought that I'd better start earning some of my own money.



I thought it's actually quite cool to be able to earn some extra income doing what I like. If only people would pay me to sleep, I'd be a millionaire by now! Oh well, at least I don't have to get my butt off the chair while earning money.

One thing good about adverlets is that it's based in Asia, and the ads are local. So my M now do not have the excuse to say that 'but that shop in the ad is in timbarktoo... it's too far to buy your treats/ bones/ food etc"

The only thing about this is, if only they have more advertisements on pet related stuff. Maybe the guys on adverlets can sit up and take a look, we have LOADS of doggy bloggers out here and we have the power to make our humans buy things for us.

Oh, and take some time to take part in the poll when you can. They need to find out the demographics of people who visit my blog. Just click on the little button witht he 2 round arrows (cycle through ads) until you reach the polls.

Dinner in bed

I've returned from the vet! The results will take a week to be out, and in the meantime, more injections for me. I think the number of times I've visited the vet these last 2 months is more than the total in my whole life before this health scare.

My appetite is still not that good. I have to split my meals into small portions now, and even then, I don't really want to finish them. Unless I get served.

Handfeeding


I might as well enjoy, I mean, how often do I get to be served my meals in bed? Granted, I wasn't really in bed, but at least the food comes to me and not vice versa.

More tests

Thanks guys, for helping me to look for my appetite. I think some of them came back. I managed to finish 3/4 of my dinner last night, but my M had to split it into 3 portions for me, coz I don't feel like eating after a few mouthfuls. So she kept them and gave it to me every hour or so, until I ate most of it.

Anyway, I took another chest x-ray at the vet. The vet said the improvement is only slight, and when he listened to my chest, it still sounded abnormal. Also, he's concerned that my improvement may only be temporary due to the steroids he gave me a week ago.

Here's my x-ray done a week ago.

Chest x-ray on 19 Sep


The circled red areas are the cloudy patches. The vet said that a normal lung should look dark, somewhat like the circled blue area.

This is my chest x-ray done yesterday. It looks a little darker partly because the film was not placed flat on the screen, but can still see some improvement.

Chest x-ray on 24 Sep


The vet says that he would prefer to take a lung sample so that we know what kind of bacteria I have and to see if the antibiotics given is the most appropriate one. So I'll going back to the vet later. It's a 15 min procedure, in which I will be knocked out. They will intubate me, and give me oxygen at the same time when they take the sample. The vet says they will inject a type of fluid into my lungs, then extract the fluid again and send it to the lab for tests.

However, my immunity will be lowered after the procedure, so I still have to return for antibiotic injections everyday. The vet says that the results will take a week to be out, and once we know what bacteria it is, he can give me the right antibiotic for that bacteria. However, it is also possible that the results will not show anything, but he thinks that will be a good sign, because it means that my current antibiotics is working and the bacteria is now so small that it's not showing up in the tests. So either way, we'll know more after the tests are done.

So paws crossed everyone!

Lost

I found my appetite 2 days ago, but I think I lost it again. I didn't feel like taking my dinner tonight and only took 2 mouthfuls. My M had to try and force the rest down my throat, and in the end I only finished half my dinner.

Has anyone seen my appetite? I need it back.

Updates

A few updates... firstly, about my condition. My M thinks that I'm improving, at least I'm not breathing so noisily, but the vet still thinks it's bad. So he says that after the weekend's injection, he'll see my condition. If I improve greatly, we'll continue with the current antibiotics, but if I don't show vast improvement, he wants to intubate me and get a sample from my lungs to see what kind of bacteria it is. At the same time, he'll pump in oxygen as well.

So hopefully that my condition improves a lot. After being poked all over, I don't think I want a tube down my mouth as well. Look how seasoned I am to being poked. I didn't even flinch when the needle went in.



My appetitie's returning as well. I've lost a little more weight, and now I'm 22.5kg. My M says I've never been 22kg since I was with her, so now she's adding more food into my dinner. Good thing about this is that I get fed a lot, provided I still have an appetite.

The humans had steamboat for dinner last night and my M kept feeding and feeding me meat!

Here's what they had for steamboat...



A close up of the food...

The steamboat and meat....


More meat, and chili and garlic


Vegetables, tofu, fish maw, mushroom, yam etc...


On another note, I went to an art gallery on Friday. Actually I was going for my vet appointment but my MM had to stop by the art gallery on the way to order something, so I went as well. It turned out that the art gallery is holding a charity art exhibition in conjuction with SPCA. I think next sunday the exhibition will be opened to dogs and their humans as well. If you're looking for a nice doggy art piece, head down for a look.

This is a very bored me waiting... and you can see the paintings in the background. They were still getting ready for the exhibition so the paintings have not been hung yet.






On a sad note, Chuckles lost the fight. RIP old boy, have fun at the rainbow bridge.

Please pray for Chuckles too

I just found out that chuckles is sick as well. He's suspected to have leukemia. I think his Mum is as worried and frustrated as my M. Please go and pray for him as well.

We'll fight this thing together!

Injections and Steak

I went for my second round of antibiotic injection again, got poked with needles twice and poked by the thermometer up where the sun doesn't shine. My fever is down, the breathing is a little better, but the vet said don't be too happy as it's still very bad.

Ideally, he would have preferred to draw out some samples from my lungs and test to see what kind of bacteria is attacking me so that he can prescribe the most effective antibiotics. But to do that I will have to be anaesthetized, and the vet says it's very risky for me if I do that right now, and I may not be able to survive that given my condition.

Here's a clip just to show how badly I usually pant now. I'm panting like that even though I'm not even exercising, and you can hear my heavy breathing.



So, the only thing they can do now for me is antibiotics and hope for the best. I have to come back to the vet everyday for injections for a week.

My M asked if the condition is really, really bad, how long more will I have and the vet says that dogs who are badly will usually go in a week. So if I survive this week of injections, there's hope for me. He also said to make sure that I eat.

So in a bid to make me eat, my M went to the supermarket just now and got me more steak! So for dinner tonight, I had pan fried steak and chicken with vegetables, mixed with yoghurt and fried egg. And in order not to disappoint her, I finished up all the steak. But I did leave behind some chicken and vegetables. My appetite is really not that good nowadays.

Leftovers??!!

Oh, and my M's mum and colleague saw me today and they said I've lost weight. I think never has my M been so distressed that I lost weight, after all the effort she put in trying to put me on a diet. I'm now 23kg, down from 25kg. Even my skull has sunken.

Sunken


See where the 2 arrows is? It never used to be so sunken. My M nows want me to put on weight again. Talk about contradiction! You can never seem to satisfy her!

Oh, and the vet said that I should be kept warm, better not sleep in air-conditioned room, so I guess tonight I'll have to sleep outside my M and MM's room. And to make sure that I can rest fully, they have sent Helios away to stay with Scuba for the time being so that he won't disturb me resting. So I'm kinda back into a one dog household.... for now.

So pray that this household will be back to a 2 dog household for a few more years to come.

Bad News, again....

I just came back from the vet today and it seems bad. I had more blood tests done today and a chest x-ray. The vet suspect pneumonia arising from infection. And the pneumonia is quite advanced. A normal chest x-ray should show the chest to be dark but my chest had a lot of cloudy areas.

The vet gave me antibiotic injection and prescribed more antibiotic pills. And I'm supposed to go back tomorrow for another antibiotic injection. I've been having so many needles poked into me recently that I think I will surely leak!

(M: Sigh, the news and my emotions seems to be yo-yoing between bad, good, bad, good, bad... I asked the vet if he will recover with medication, and the vet says he can't give me a guarantee. The pneumonia seems pretty advanced and he can only give antibiotics and hope for the best. Herbie seems to be panting all the time and having difficulty breathing.

I guess we were all looking in the direction of cancer, so the infection was left to spread. I asked why the chest x-ray done at the 1st vet a month ago didn't show anything, and the vet said it might not have manifested then.

I don't know if I have inadvertantly delayed his treatment. I'm worried, frustrated and scared. The vet said that as long as he's still eating, there's hope. But when I gave him dinner tonight, he didn't want to eat it and I almost wanted to cry. In the end I took him to Scuba's house hoping that some competition would help and he managed to at least eat half his dinner. I always say, the day Herbie rejects food, is the day that I know he is really sick.

I don't know how much more he has to suffer before he recovers, and how much more the medical bills are going to mount. He's still panting now after the injection, but at least his breathing is not so noisy.

Everyone keep your fingers and paws crossed.)

Tired

I don't know what's wrong with me these 2 days, but I just feel very tired. I don't feel like getting up in the morning, I don't really feel like getting up to beg. I just wanna lie there and rest. I'm so tired that my legs seems weak as well.

Yesterday while walking over a drain cover, one of my back legs slipped into the hole of the cover. It was a pretty large hole, it was dark, I didn't notice and my leg just went through, although I have walked past the same place countless times. And I don't feel like struggling to get up. I just stayed there and waited for my M to prop me up.

My M's starting to get a little worried so she's bringing forward my vet appointment. I was supposed to remove my stitches on Thursday, but we're going this evening instead.

I hope they find out what's wrong with me and give me the correct treatment.

Herbiestein & Steak

I went for my 2nd acupucture treatment on Saturday, and Scuba came along for his treatment as well. This time, I had a LOT more needles poked into me, and my M said I look like frankenstein.

5 on the head...


Countless on the body...


some on my leg...


And guess where they put the last needle??!!?

Above my butt!!!


Of all places!! Apparently the vet said that that is the acupoint for bowel movements, and since I've been having loose/ soft stools recently, this is supposed to help. I tell you, a dog has NO privacy at all!

On top of it, the vet put on some mild electric current to stimulate the acupoints. I look even more like frankenstein now with all those wires. I'm just glad that he did not try to electrocute my butt.

Herbie-stein


Remember what Helios said about the needle being fine at the other end? Here's a close up pic of it.



The vet, who actually does acupuncture for humans, and studied acupuncture for animals as an interest, asked my M if she's ever done acupucture before, and offered to let her try to see if it's painful. So my M bravely agreed to try one needle. If one is brave, I'm a heroic dog with the amount of needles poked in me! She should try getting one at her butt too!

Only on the hand?!?


Scuba tried acupuncture too but that scardey dog screamed when the first needle went in, scaring the hell out of the vet.

Arrghhhgghhhhhh!!!!


He also managed to shake off a few needles, so that screaming baby got a lot less needles than me.

Only 4??!!?


Oh... remember that I overheard my M saying something about steak? She kept her promise! I had steak, and other stuff for dinner that night.

Sizzling steak with garlic


With pan-fried fish in herbs and lemon


and sauteed mushrooms in butter


The end product... with salad


And of course, we had to take picture with the food before we can eat it. You can see Helios was quite upset that he can't dig in immediately. As for me, I'm pretty happy that I'm gonna have a fantastic dinner soon!

Helios: Why can't I eat now???


Finally after a few shots, we were given the 'okay'.

Bon appetite


Yummy!


And silly Helios thought that I would leave crumbs for him. He just had to double check my bowl. I tell you, we licked it so clean that I could have told my M not to bother with washing the bowls.

Check out the clean bowls!



On a side note, I'm removing my stitches on Thursday, so my M will check with the vet if I need any medication for the infection, since right now I'm not on any 'western' medication. However, the TCM vet did give me some herbs which will boost my immunity and reduce the size of the swelling lymph nodes. I've just started on them yesterday and I think it'll take some time to take effect. And the herbs are not cheap either!

More updates later~

Good news, finally!

The vet just called my M, the first biopsy results are back, and it's good news! The report says that they can't find any malignent cells, and it's more likely an infection of the lymph node. The report didn't say what kind of infection tho. The vet also managed to borrow the slides, in case we want to see it.

My M will discuss with him possible treatment plans for infection when I go and remove my stitches next week. I'll still be going for my acupuncture to boost my immunity tho. I'm sooo glad that my M didn't start me on chemotherapy, and I'm sure she is as well.

This calls for a celebration! I think I heard my M said that she'll get me a steak this weekend. Yippee!!!

Thank you everyone for all your pawsitive vibes and prayers. It worked!

Biopsy

My biopsy's finally done! But they shaved off a huge portion of my fur. My M says now I look like an old man with dangling skin because there's no fur covering my chin now. Look how much they shaved off! (forgive the blur pics, it was taken with my M's handphone camera)

Naked me!


I don't understand why they need to shave fur off my chest when they're taking the lump from my neck.

Here's a close up of the scar.

New battle scar


The good thing is that, the vet said his gut feel is that it may not be cancer. Because the lumps have not grown in size although it's almost a month. If it's cancer, things will move pretty quickly, but I'm still generally ok, except for the tiredness. Also, the node he took out is smooth, not lumpy. However, we would still need to wait for the results of the tests. He said it may happen again that the tests is not conclusive that it's cancer.

This time, the tissue samples will be sent to 2 different labs for testing, and my M has requested that she be allowed to borrow the slides if she needs to. The vet said he will put forward the request to the labs.

On a side note, I think it's easier for me to swallow now with one lump gone. Previously, I would choke on my food sometimes. Now eating is much more pleasurable! I'll be staying the night with Scuba, as my M and MM have to work tomorrow, so they've asked Aunty S to look after me to make sure I don't scratch my wound. I'm gonna try my begging skills on Aunty S. She can never resist me!

That's all for now folks! Thanks for all your well wishes and prayers!

Garden Slug

The humans found a new eating place that allows dogs, and went for a meal last Friday. Funnily, the name of this eating place is called The Garden Slug, because I didn't see any slugs there.

Where's the slug?


The menu was badly designed, because there's nothing for dogs! (M: That's a human place, not dog place, count yourself lucky that they offered you water.)

Water? Phish! I need proper sustenance, to ready myself for the operation on Monday! Which is tomorrow!!! Arghh... I hope everything turns out well. Some humans thought I have lost a little weight, and I've been having diarrhoea for the last week. I do hope they find out what's wrong with me soon.

Now back to the slug. I was so upset that there's no dog food, and the humans won't allow me to beg at other tables, that I did a silent protest. Of course, I chose the best place for it. With my back to them.... and right in front of the fan.

You must know that a silent protest always take a long time, so be sure to find a nice, comfortable spot.

Right in front of the fan


I think it worked a little, coz Aunty W took pity on me and gave me some vegetables from her salad.

Oh well, better than nothing I suppose.

Acupuncture and the Middle Name Game

I've been tagged by Eddie & Peaches & Ella for this middle name game since like forever, but I never gotten down to actually doing it, because I seem to be so tired all the time.

However, the acupucture treatment yesterday seems to work, I feel a little more energetic although I still did not eat my broccolis at dinner. I don't know why but fruits and vegetables don't smell as tempting now so I don't feel like eating them. Other than that, my M and the aunties all felt that I'm almost back to my old self. I'm starting to smile again, look a little more lively again, and re-taken my position in supervising kitchen work. The last few days, I was so tired I can't even be bothered to supervise clean up in the kitchen.

From this...


to this...


I even managed to bark at Baileys when he tried to hump me too much!

Anyway, for those interested in acupuncture, it's Dr Oh Soon Hock, he practises twice a week at Mount Pleasant. You'll need a referral from the Mount Pleasant vet to see him.

All righty, on to the middle name game! Here's the rules:

1. Post the rules before you give the facts. (Listen up Pups, these are the Rules!!)

2. List one fact that is somehow relevant to you and your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your post using your middle name and facts about it.

4. At the end of your post choose one dog to tag for each letter of your middle name. Be sure to let each puppy know she/he has been tagged. (It’s ok if you don’t do this, just tag who you want to tag!).

Ohh.... this doesn't sound easy at all. I don't have a middle name actually, but the humans said if I have one, it'll be FOOD. So here goes...

F - F... is for... Food? I can only think of that...

O - O is for... Oishi!!! Which means delicious in Japanese

O - Oh no, another O... for Oops, coz my M says I'm clumsy sometimes

D - D is for durians! One of my 101 favourite food.

Everything I like is food related!

A Cute Puncture!

I went with my big brother herbie for his 'a cute puncture' today. But strangely, although the needle puncture his head, I don't see anything cute about it. (Herbie: I thought we went over this already? It's Acupuncture!)

We have to wait for our turn at the vet place. We waited a long time coz we went there early. It was boring waiting.

Waiting...


Then I saw something on the counter!

A resident Meow!


I tried to say Hi to the meow but she showed me her teeth. Maybe she's trying to say she got cleaner teeth? She didn't wanna come down and play so I became bored again.

Bored... and still waiting...


Then I tell my big brother Herbie, don't be scared, let's hold paw paw for support.

paw paw


My big brother Herbie is very brave. He's not scared at all. He didn't even move a muscle when they did the a cute puncture on him. They poke him in the head...

Poke


and poke poke him somemore in the head... and other parts of the body

Poke, poke, poke


The needle looks big in the peek-ture, but it's actually very thin at the other end.

Thick needle with thin end


The vet says the needles will make Herbie more energetic. I hope so.... then he can play with me again. He also say he will give Herbie some herbs to eat to boost his immunity, appetite and control his bad tummyache. I try to ask him why give Herbie herbs when Herbie is already a big herb? The humans sometimes call him herb, herb.

As the herb (herbie?) need to be prepared specifically for each dog, we can only collect the herb during our next visit. And I think Scuba is coming as well, to treat his itchy paws. I wonder if Scuba's medicine will be called 'scub'?

Tired?

My big brother herbie seems easily tired and listless nowadays. He doesn't want to play or move much. Sometimes my M have to call him a few times before he moves. And he's more picky about food too. My M says my big brother almost never reject food, but recently he will turn his nose up at fruits. He still eats his dinner and biscuits,but he doesn't seem to like fruits now. I wonder why....

My M has made an appointment for him to see the TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) vet tomorrow. She says maybe he will have to be poked by needles (M: Acupuncutre!). I hope he will have more energy after being poked.

Or else maybe I can try poking him with my nose?

My tired big brother...