Keeping an eye on her

I was a bad dog Mama : I didn't take Dogger for her 5pm walk because I wanted to watch a movie instead! I know! I put her rehab back because I didn't want to get off the couch. Bad, bad Dog Mama and that's not all I should be ashamed. I read a forum about canine Addison's and I learned that if I was a alert Addison Dog Mama, I would be following Dogger around with a  notebook cataloging what, how much, color, consistency and number of times Dogger voids! I would also have a measuring cup with me as well. I would treat everything that comes out of her like "signs" and I would read her waste like ancient runes.

I don't do that.

The AD people would be horrified that my primary concern is not her all important 'lites, but her knee, a mere bone. The AD people are very focused. The fact I don't take her to her vet for every burp either is a sign of my unfitness as an AD dog person as well, the fact that it's more like every other burp doesn't make it better, I'm still a slacker in their view. If I posted to the forum more frequently, they would disapprove of the idea that I haven't changed her Florinef dosage since she was diagnosed. They don't like the pill in the first place because  every dog that is on pills is one less dog that is on the injection and they love the injections. They cost a lot more and require more frequent visits to the vet but you can be a lot more fluid in the dosage and they love the control that allows.

The shot  option is an old treatment for human Addison's Disease but then back in the sixties Florinef was developed and that allowed suffers to no long have to get a shot every  month and make multiple trips back and forth to their doctors offices for electrolyte checks to adjust their monthly dosages.

Humans jumped on the new easy, daily treatment. Dog owners did not jump with them. It didn't take many years of  human patients dumping the injection to cause the industry to want to stop producing it, and when they announced this, Dog owners, the only users left, complained to high heaven about this, ultimately, they won and the drug industry agreed to keep producing it but now it is only produced for veterinary use and then in small, difficult to prepare batches. Now , these control freaks cling to it, despite it's high price and high maintenance.  Those people hate people like me and Dogger because we don't add to their numbers. They snipe about how Florinef is designed for humans and not dogs and that their doggy bodies don't metabolize it as efficiently has humans and the dosages are not as easy to adjust to minute changes in their electrolyte numbers.

But she's knock wood, okay at least for the time being, I hope. She started having Addison crises symptoms and I took her in and it was Dog Flu - But it could have been her Addison's and still could and I have to pay attention to her behaver and whether  she seems "down" or depressed and whether she's drinking enough or too much and how all of it comes out. I always have to ask myself, is she limping because her knee or because of Addison's' back leg weakness? Is she drinking because she's thirsty or because her 'lites are out of whack? Is she slacking a thirst or messing up her salt count.

All her walks have really helped with her bounce count  and that's the most important count. I'm going to go take her for a walk now.