Garden Walk/ Father's Day

Spring and summer have come late this year....yay :(   We've had a lot of rain and cool temps...which I guess has been good for the plants. Mom, Carol (mom's friend), and I went on the Cedar Rapids Master Gardener Walk a couple of weeks ago to marvel at the hard work of others. We saw four outstanding gardens which left me inspired to start a fantastic garden.... next year! 

These flowers reminded me of the illustrations from a Dr. Seuss book....

A koi pond...

Yummy strawberries....

One theme throughout the four gardens we toured was hostas!!! They were everywhere and each gardener had multiple varieties...they were beautiful!

On our way to celebrate Father's Day last weekend with Nathan's family I spotted this guy on the side of the road...he was HUGE! I literally made Nathan turn around so we could get a closer look...(he told me...'this is why you are late everywhere you go'...and he is probably right ) I was afraid he was going to wander out into the road...so I tried to shoo him back into the grass...I didn't have much luck. 

Nathan's aunt Teresa has a couple pairs of hummingbirds at her house....they weren't afraid to come up and feed while we were all sitting out on the deck. 

We celebrated Father's Day with my family yesterday at Adam and Teresa's new house.

All the guys modeling their new grilling aprons...

Like father, like son....

I gave Dad this snazzy new sweater from Orvis...guess I know where I get my 'clothes horseness' from...

We played a round of Catch Phrase after lunch...

Adam, Teresa, Nathan, and I played a round of golf after the family broke up...it was the first official round of golf I've played as an adult...and I've only been out to hit golf balls about 3 times in the last year...so you can just imagine how ugly it was for me...and how sore I am today...but I figure I've got another 40 years to perfect my game...practice, practice, practice!!! 

We got home late and I was not looking forward to syringe feeding Ruby...instead I cooked her a fabulous meal of boiled ground beef and rice....and LOOK...she ATE it!! all on her own!!! Yippeee!! Keep it up Ruby Dooby!

Tomorrow...I'm thinking of hiding a little bit of canned food in it.....

Diagnosis

We have a diagnosis....Leptospirosis. Ruby's titers came back high for two different serovars for lepto....high being over 1:3200....

She's been vaccinated for lepto every year since 2006...it's what she was vaccinated for roughly three weeks ago before all this happened. 

This is a spirochete...or a pic of the bacteria that causes leptospirosis. 

It can be spread by these little critters....

as well as raccoons and other wildlife. It's mainly spread through contact with their urine or feces. 

Pets mainly are exposed through drinking contaminated water....

and it is a zoonotic disease, meaning people can get it too.  It can cause multiple organ failure if not caught early. 

I have no idea where she's picked it up....maybe from our own backyard? Who knows what had been running around back there before we put up the fence. We've had a ton of rain since we moved in. We've been on the phone with Idexx, Pfizer, and our internist confirming her diagnosis. One silver lining is that Pfizer will cover the cost to treat her since she's been given multiple Pfizer lepto vaccines. 

I would say clinically she's about the same....she still doesn't have a lot of energy and isn't quite herself. She's been to the clinic everyday with Nathan and she knows her kennel...she crawls right in on her own every morning. She grumbles at the dogs and cats that come back to the treatment area. 

She still won't touch her dry dog food, but allows the girls to syringe feed her and will lick food off a  tongue depressor. 

However, she will readily eat wheat thins and tortilla chips from me....makes me wonder if she's now holding out for better food!!! She is drinking well on her own. Her ALT has come down significantly but her ALKP still remains very high. Her total bilirubin was normal this morning and she still has a slightly elevated white blood cell count. We've added in yet another antibiotic to her medication arsenal...my kitchen cabinet is beginning to look like a pharmacy!!

I'm continuing to pray for her and keep my fingers crossed that she will continue to improve. I'm NOT ready to be without my Boob!

My Boob is Sick

My boob is sick.....

Roughly two weeks ago the dogs were due for their annual heartworm test and vaccines. Luckily, we ran a mini panel with Ruby's heartworm test which showed just mildly elevated liver values...which can run in scottish terriers. She was due for just one vaccine and had a great check up! 

About 10 days later she stopped eating...and this girl LOVES to eat...she takes after her mama!! :)

She was acting ok and pretty much her normal self..she just stopped eating. So Nathan took her into the clinic for a full workup and her liver values had sky rocketed! We really aren't sure what triggered this acute hepatopathy...whether it's the vaccine or a toxin she was exposed to...or something worse. 

I ultrasounded her, Nathan ultrasounded her and we finally took her to the specialty clinic and had the internist scan her....thankfully everything has come up clean...but it's equally as frustrating as we don't know what caused her problems. 

She's on a barage of meds and we've had her on fluids all weekend....

We set up a makeshift ICU  in our laundry room....she's behind the baby gate with Wrigley looking in on her...I've nicknamed Wrigley 'Gaylord Focker' as he's become her male nurse. :)

Today she seems a little brighter and is finally eating some canned food with reluctance...we will be checking her liver values again tomorrow...so think positive thoughts for her and her liver!! 

Phun Photos Phrom My Phone

I take a lot of pictures...of random things that happen in my life. I take a fair share with my phone...so here is a random smattering of pics that I've shot with my fancy 'smart' iphone....

I shot this last year of the 'real' David in Italy...I soon got yelled at by the Italian security guard...'no photo! no photo!'....I pretended to not understand what she was saying. 

Here is the pic of my itty bitty, teeny weeny wound I inflicted upon myself with a BRAND NEW scalpel blade while removing a bandage from a dog that caused me to lose the feeling in the top of my thumb...figures I'd hit a nerve just perfectly!

Cool pic of the clouds while I was flying somewhere....

Nathan attempting to flip me off for either making fun of him or for simply taking his picture. 

Getting my charm bracelet fixed in Tiffany's in NYC last summer....

Catching Wrigley mid-nap....he used to love to lay on his back at the end of the sofa in Texas. 

Great book I read about the rehabilitation of Michael Vick's dogs...great if you can get past the first 1-2 chapters where Jim Gorant describes the abuse these guys endured....I read a lot of dog books...go figure. 

Another flying picture....Flying into Iowa...it's pretty...in the summer. 

Packing...Wrigley walks up to me completely unaware he's got a piece of plastic bag stuck to his nose. 

More clouds...flying somewhere....

Rainbow in Texas....

Wrigley hanging his head out the window on a ride into work this winter....

A cool sculpture and sunset in the park located just West of our new house....

The sunset at the Linn Mar track...while jogging...well I didn't take the pic while actually jogging...that was the purpose of being at the track...training for our 5k we are trying to run this summer....

There are many more where these came from....and I'm sure many more to come!