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Trixie did not start out with a proverbial silver spoon in her mouth.
Trixie had been abandoned by her first owners and left to die under a falling down boat dock. Neighbors around had told
us she had been left under there for 3 days without food or water when we found her. We were disgusted that people knew about
her and did absolutely nothing. We took her in and fed her her first meal, which consisted of eggs and bread! I gave her a
bath and spent 3 weeks trying to get the knots out of her fur. We found out from the first vet we went to that she was about
1 year old when we found her.
We noticed she would always cower at any sudden movements, or loud noises, bark profusely at someone wearing sunglasses
or a baseball hat or get extremely upset at the rattling of keys. Month's later we found out from someone who knew the former
owner that he had abused her by hitting her and throwing things at her. Not a very nice person!
The first couple of months were not very pleasant, for starters, Trixie lost the ability to use her back legs. The vet
told us she would be using a wheelchair for the rest of her life, that she had neurological problems. With a lot of research
on our own, my mother came across an article with Trixie's same symptoms and discovered she could possibly have Tick Paralysis.
Which is an infection caused by ticks embedding themselves in the skin. The vet denied any of this and sent us home with no
hope at all. Meanwhile, my mom was grooming Trixie and discovered 2 ticks engorged in one of her paws. Once we removed them,
Trixie was up and running around within 3 days! Needless to say, we changed vets. (On an ironic note, that same vet lost her
own dog to Tick Paralysis!)
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A few months later, Trixie was playing on the dock and misjudged jumping on the boat and she went in the water after hitting
her chest and knocking the wind out of her. We couldn't find her, and when dad jumped in he saw her floating at the front
of the boat, picked her up and put her lifeless body on the dock. (A week Prior to this my mom checked out a library book
on CPR for dogs.) My mom gave her mouth to nose and we rushed her to the vet and after 1 day of staying overnight at the vet's,
we got a phone call asking us to "Please take your dog home! She is barking up a storm and won't keep quiet!" That's
our girl!!
Over the years, we had encountered the typical ailments of stomach aches, allergies, muscle ailments, ear infections,
etc. Honestly Trixie could check off most of the things listed in a vet book that she had come down with over the years we
had had her. To have her keep going for all those years, she definitely was a miracle.
Until 4 years ago we were pretty lucky, until the fateful night I took her out for her evening walk and she walked right
into a sign post...She was suddenly blind overnight. We rushed her to the vet and with blood tests, it was determined that
she had diabetes and would need insulin injections. We missed the signs of excessive thirst and frequent urination thinking
that it was just Summertime and she was just very hot and thirsty.
Trixie was a thinker and needed to visualize things. Once she was suddenly blind she was very depressed and would hardly
eat or want to even go out for a walk.
We made the appointment for cataract surgery to remove the cataracts that develop instantly when diabetes strikes (which
cost a total of $3500). We were able to save only the left eye with surgery, while losing the right one to Glaucoma. That
was a very expensive visit, but I just wanted to give her something back for all the years of love she had given myself and
my family. She was taking Voltaren for the past several years after her surgery, which is an anti-inflammatory eye drop to
control her glaucoma. It is kind of like an aspirin for the eye. Very expensive! $75.00 per 5ml a bottle with no generic brand
yet!
We also started to cook for her with a recipe that lowered her sugar levels instantly and kept her pretty steady. We kept
her going for as long as we could. Some people would argue that she was just a dog, but to us she was our life, our family,
our joy.
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Several months ago she developed a growth on her only good eye. We were trying to save what little sight we could and tried
to keep her diabetes in check, while hoping things were going to be okay. To help Trixie get around without bumping into too
many walls, we were training her with voice commands for "left, right, straight and stop". Of course when she was
excited, all of that went right out the window, but when she was cautious and used her senses to maneuver her way around,
those commands helped. With her it was easier to tap her left side while saying "left" and tap her right side saying
"right" etc. Then praising her for obeying.
Early in the month of May, 2008, Trixie was diagnosed with Idiopathic Vestibular Disease. It started with her constantly
walking in circles, and being off balance, and her eyes were very erratic, then she vomited all day, a frothy yellow acidic
stuff. That was a scary day for us, but with research and a talk with the vet (luckily he knew about this syndrome, since
a lot of vets out there are not familiar with it) we were able to control it. To help keep her balance, we put her harness
and leash on her when walking around and we had used an old neck brace to help keep her head straight instead of twisting
her neck around when she got really off balance.
She was prescribed Baytril, an antibiotic to control the yeast infection in her ear and Rimadyl to help with any inflammation.
Being idiopathic, meaning nobody knows the cause, it was suspected that the yeast infection along with a polyp in her ear
contributed to the condition.
For more information on this health issue, please visit this link:
Idiopathic Vestibular Disease
By August 2008, she was doing better, but she had a permanent head tilt to the left. It was more noticeable when she got tired.
With all of those things piling up on top of her, it was harder to control her glucose levels, but I rotated her insulin injection
site to a whole different area (mid section, verses in between shoulder blades). With this new area for her injections and
controlling other ailments that cropped up, we were lucky and got lower glucose readings!
Last days with my girl
This part is very hard for me. Most of this site had been written in better times when our munchkin was bumping into our legs
begging for a treat.
About a week and a half before Christmas 2008, I woke up at 2:34 am to find that Trixie had fallen over. Her eyes were
erratic and she couldn't keep her balance. The strange part that stood out was that she was tilting severely to her right
this time instead of her left like she did when she had Idiopathic Vestibular Disease.
She still had her appetite, and we were with her constantly around the clock.
A day or so later, I was cuddling with her, and when I put her down, she gave a horrible painful cry. I will never forget
that sound. We didn't know what was wrong and nobody was at the vets office to help because they closed early on that day.
We slept with her on the floor and the only thing that kept her out of pain was me massaging her all night long.
We rushed her to the vet's office the next day and with blood tests found out her kidneys and liver were reading high.
Up until the night of her dizzy spell, nothing indicated her health was failing. She did have a few "accidents"
the night before, but other than that I don't recall anything standing out. We were always so careful with her, I just feel
like I failed her.
She was put on IV's and stayed for a few days at the vets office. We went to see her every day. She didn't want to eat
the food there, so we brought some of her own, which she finally ate.
On December 23, we were told they were going to take her off of the IV's and we could take her home, since nobody was
going to be in the office over the holiday.
She was happy to be home, and I cleaned her with baby wipes and let her rest. We were told to keep fluids in her, and
watch her body temperature, due to the fact she could not regulate this on her own. She did fine until Christmas Eve in the
afternoon. Eventually we had to give her water with with a syringe, she just didn't want to drink anymore.
By nighttime, she ate pretty good, so we kept broth mixed in with her food to give her any liquids we could manage. At
about 8:30pm she was having a horrible seizure. We got her calm finally and tried calling the vets in the neighboring counties
trying to get a hold of someone to help. Finally one of the vet techs told us to bring her in and we rushed her there. She
was so swollen from the IV's from earlier that they had to use a huge syringe to put liquids in her. She stayed the night
and on Christmas Day we went to see her.
We stayed with her for several hours until she had another seizure because of her kidney failure, and I had to make the
horrible decision to say goodbye. I think spiritually she left us with that last seizure. I don't want to think that she was
still conscious when they put her down. We were not allowed to remain during the procedure and I still resent the fact that
I was not able to be there with her during that time.
Christmas was on Thursday, and we were told that she couldn't be shipped out to the cremation place (over 100 miles away)
until Monday. We decided to go to Billings to get away for a few days, everywhere we turned, was an imprint of Trix. By Monday,
I called the Cremation place to find out she never made it. I then called the vets in our town, and they claimed she was shipped
out, to just wait a few days, and since we had horrible ice storms it might take longer.
By the 10th day, I was frantic and demanded to have the UPS tracking number, which was reluctantly given to me. I couldn't
believe I was losing her all over again.
I went online and found out that it had nothing to do with the weather for her delay, but had everything to do with the
UPS truck going in the opposite direction.
Trixie went from Glasgow, to Wolfpoint, to Glendive, to Miles City, spent the weekend in Billings and finally got to Havre
where she could finally be cremated! Technically, she should only have had to go straight to Wolfpoint and turn around to
Havre. What a circus!
The funny thing was, when we were in Billings we would hear bumping at the bedroom door like she used to do when she was
alive and wanted to come in. But when we checked, nothing was there! This happened during the same weekend she was at the
UPS point in Billings. Guess she found us one way or the other.
She now lies in her bed wrapped in velvet until a nice box can be made for her.
For tips that we found worked on her, check out our Trixie's Tips page.
Click Here for Trixie's Tips page
I do not profess to be an expert in any way shape or form. These tips are what we found to be the right choices for Trixie
through all the years we have had her and are just guidelines. Speak with your veterinarian first before you try anything
and go with your instincts.
Please feel free to check out my other site at:
Trixiestreasures-from-area-52.com
or
Trixies-rock-shop
or
Trixiestreasures
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