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Ari had her internal medicine consult today.

Her abdominal ultrasound was normal, and we're waiting on her GI panel to come back to see if it's pancreatitis. It could be immune mediated, but she has to be off the prednisone before we can do more testing.

Funds are tight, and of course my check engine light came on while I was on the way to pick her up from the specialist. Thank goodness she's been insured since she was a puppy. We should get most of what we spent back. Most importantly, though, she's feeling better and I'm not considering rushing her to the ER every night.

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Ari has been sick for 14 days.

It started with inappetance and progressed to a fever and lethargy. She's been treated with antibiotics, IV fluids, and steroids. We've been to the ER twice in a week. She finally seems to be feeling better but I'm afraid she'll backslide again.

She has an appointment with internal medicine on Tuesday. I'm worried she has an autoimmune disease. I'm worried I hit her too hard with antibiotics and steroids and made her sick. I'm worried she'll never recover and I'll lose her.

I'll try and give updates but it's hard for me to talk about until I know what is going to happen.

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I haven't posted about it because I'm absolutely crushed, but Akari was euthanized at 4 years old on March 10th.

Akari was my first FIP survivor, and my sister's beloved cat. She opened the door to save so many other cats.

She stopped eating, and on examination her doctor found a large mass in her abdomen. We considered what to do, how far to go, and opted for palliative care.

She was okay, and then very quickly she wasn't. She passed with her family, euthanized at home without the trauma of one last vet trip thanks to the generosity of the doctors I work with.

Rest easy, Akari. You were so brave, for so long.

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This is S'mores.

S'mores has seizures. We don't know why and we probably never will. She's a 6 month old barn kitten from work. The owners were unable to medicate her twice daily for the rest of her life. Faced with euthanasia for uncontrolled seizures, I offered to take her home and try. Her owners were so grateful for a chance for her to live.

I just brought her home yesterday and she's surprisingly resilient to the chaos of 3 other cats and 3 dogs. Of course, we're keeping everyone separate with slow introductions and sniff greets through gates with plenty of opportunity to disengage.

She started seizure meds yesterday. She takes them in a pill pocket from me as of this afternoon so I don't have to pill her. No seizures yet, but her pattern is to be stable for a week and then have 2 to 3 in one day. Seizures are usually very bad news in cats. Epilepsy is rare. But I'm hoping she's one in a thousand and responds. She deserves a chance.

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Toy Group winner!

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other fun dogblr drama I occasionally remember from years gone past:

is it misogynistic to refer to a female dog as a bitch

crating your dogs is slavery (not metaphorically, literally)

Oops My Beloved Dog Is Pregnant And You Must Donate To My GoFundMe To Get Her Spayed Because You’re All Yelling At Me About It.

the Sequel: Oops My Beloved Dog Is Pregnant And She Almost Died During The Spay I Must Leave Tumblr Immediately Oh No.

the thrilling trilogy: Oops My Dog Never Got Surgery Instead I Just Dumped Her And Her Puppies At A Rescue And Then Fucking Bailed.

in a similar vein, the dogblr whose dogs had an accidental litter (which they insisted the vet said they shouldn’t abort because a spay would be more dangerous than a an immature female dog birthing a litter, uh, Doubt), and then after the puppies were rehomed they jokingly posted about “oh haha she’s pregnant again whoops” before finally spaying her

if you never do competition/advanced obedience with your dog then you will have an Incomplete Bond forever

furries shouldn’t own dogs because all furries want to fuck animals

telling someone that getting a puppy of a high-energy high-drive challenging breed while they’re in college in a dorm is a bad idea? unacceptable bullying and you should kill yourself about it

person who nastily vagued about another dogblr that rehomed a dog bc “I would NEVER rehome a dog” and then got so mad when ppl told them they were being rude that they deactivated immediately

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I'm going to shake the Westminster announcer what do you mean "A lot of them [toy dogs] didn't have a purpose." THEYRE FRIENDS. THEYRE LITTLE FRIENDS WHO LOVE YOU WHAT MORE COULD YOU POSSIBLY ASK FOR??????

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feral

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Sometimes I put my face up against my dog while he's sleeping to feel his little lungs expand and his little heart beat and I am struck by the beauty of of life and the miracle of nature to evolve for thousands of years just to create one little guy and put him in my house

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Speaking of breed standards, would you be able to give me some context on what the heck is up with the German Shepherd "stack"? I see a lot of GSD owners saying it's breed standard and therefore fine, but the slant looks so extreme in some dogs that I have some skepticism about it (and also because, of course, breed standards have nothing to do with animal health).

This is a pretty hot button issue and you’re right that there is a ton of bickering back and forth about it online. I’m happy to share my thoughts, but keep in mind that as a veterinarian I am biased towards function over form. I care way more about if a dog can do the things it wants/needs to do than how it looks. I won’t get into it here but I actually have real qualms with the distinction between “working line” and “show line” in some breeds.

My quick takeaway opinion- There are several orthopedic issues in the German Shepherd dog (specifically show lines) that have likely been exacerbated if not entirely caused by breeders striving for the classic “sloped back” look that is considered breed standard.

Now that being said, it is a fact that the three point stack (how a dog is positioned when standing) greatly exaggerates the angulation of the back and hind legs. You will often see comparison images like this one that show a dog in stack versus standing square and you can clearly see the top line looks more sloped when the dog is stacked. This image is from a GSD subreddit, a pretty dog here nicely demonstrating how the stance can change the appearance of the top line.

This phenomenon is what certain hardline GSD breed standard loyalists will point to when discussing this issue. They posit that the sloped back is essentially an optical illusion caused by aesthetic posing, and therefore a German Shepherd is no more prone to orthopedic problems than any other large breed dog. This is where I disagree.

You can easily find stark examples of a poorly put together dog in any breed or mixed breed out there, so when discussing my concerns with the GSD I will only use photos of titled dogs that are accomplished within the show ring. These are not random backyard bred shepherds, but champion dogs from acclaimed lines that will almost certainly be bred to pass on their genes. When breed clubs like the AKC award these dogs as exemplars of the breed, they tacitly endorse the conformation issues I’m about to discuss. So my beef is not with German shepherds or dog breeds in general, but specifically with breed clubs that refuse to examine whether their standard harms animals. An important disclaimer, not every breed club is like this and many take health concerns extremely seriously.

Dogs have a very different limb anatomy and gait to humans and a healthy dog is meant to walk on their paw pads. The “ankle” or hock should be upright and angled as you can see here in this nice-looking champion shepherd from 1902.

German shepherds can sometimes have a problem that is colloquially called “dropped hocks” where that joint is abnormally loose and in more serious cases can even be touching the ground, which is completely abnormal and something I would consider a serious physical flaw. A dog having dropped hocks/tarsal hyperflexion like this is proven to cause medical issues for these dog, but unfortunately the sinking joints also help to give the dog that “classic” sloping look that breed clubs love.

This dog “Ch Kysarah's Pot of Gold” won best of breed at the National dog show in 2015. You can see his hock is literally flat on the ground even when not stacked

And it’s not just one dog. Here is another champion dog (Cruaghaire Catoria), who got some controversy for winning best of breed at Crufts in 2016 despite an extremely abnormal gait.

Perhaps we could excuse the low hocks when the dog is standing as being the result of the stack, but it is glaringly obvious when she moves that this is no trick of her positioning. Her entire tarsus rests on the floor as she runs and in close ups you can even see bald patches there to suggest this is a “normal” gait for her. In this video, the announcers agree that this is the ideal gait for a shepherd. If I saw this gait in a friend’s dog I’d politely express my concerns for long term mobility issues and recommend an orthopedic consultation. To see it win best of breed is galling to say the least.

And lest you think the problem has been solved, here’s another from the National Dog Show in 2023

None of these dogs could charge athletically into a field and effectively herd sheep. If we are prioritizing aesthetic over function to the degree that a dog cannot do what it was bred to do, or more importantly that it cannot do the simple things that dogs love to do, then we have veered unforgivably off course. Not to put too fine a point on it but what the fuck is the point of a breed standard if it impedes the dog’s function in any way? We have no right. German shepherds are an incredible breed of dog that have stood by us humans in some of our darkest moments; I think the breeders and kennel clubs who claim to love them the most should work harder to ensure the “champion” dogs they are producing can live long pain-free lives. If we have to adjust our notion of what the breed is “supposed” to look like then so fucking be it.

This is too long already so I’m not getting into hip dysplasia, DM, carpal laxity, elbow dysplasia or other conditions that exist in the breed. If German shepherd clubs want to distance themselves from the notion that their breed standard is causing problems with canine health then they will need to stop publicly lavishing awards on dogs with medically concerning gait issues and start focusing on breeding dogs that can run around a ring without causing even the most casual of onlookers to realize “something’s not right there”

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Do you ever hear someone talk about your breed in a way that makes you grind your teeth? Because I do

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Birders have "spark birds" = the first bird species that sparks a deep interest or passion for birdwatching.

What's your spark dog (breed)?

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Merry Christmas from our lesbian non binary polycule to yours

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Chihuahua vortex

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This week has been hard.

The dogs all go to work with me every day. It's hard going to work without Ember. It's hard tucking everyone in for the day, and she's not there.

My lunch used to be devoted to her. I would walk everyone and brush all their teeth, but the last 30 minutes were devoted to Ember. She would get her denamarin at the beginning of the lunch hour, and then I would brush her hair and coax her to eat once enought time had passed for the medicine to work.

I must have a dozen different kinds of dog food for her. In the end I would rotate brands, trying to get her daily calories in her in one meal, because I knew if she didn't eat lunch she wouldn't eat at all that day.

I should have known it was cancer. She was losing weight and muscle mass. She didn't eat well. She was refusing anything I put her liver meds in. Pill pockets, all sorts of off brand pill assist treats, cheese, hot dogs. In the end I just pilled her 3 times a day. It was always a good day when she would take her meds willingly.

I didn't tell a lot of people but I knew it wasn't going to be long. I knew she was getting sicker. Every time I checked her bloodwork it was worse. I talked to her doctor about repeating labs, about liver biopsies, but we decided we were in this for comfort and function.

I thought about repeating an abdominal ultrasound, but her initial ultrasound was so normal I told myself it wasn't a good use of $500 that I didn't have. So I nursed her along. She was always so happy. She never stopped being happy. She would jump and play and snuggle and bark. She just wouldn't eat.

I'm glad I didn't know about the cancer, in the end. I was driving myself crazy wondering how long we had left. When she would be gone. And if I knew she had a mass it would have made me mad with grief. The nature of her exit was quick, but it wasn't shocking. Her weight loss, her appetite, her bloodwork all made so much sense. But I selfishly didn't have to suffer knowing what was coming.

I hope she knew I love her. I don't think I believe in an afterlife. I don't think all of my dogs will greet me at the Rainbow Bridge. But I hope one day my atoms will intertwine with hers again and we will be reunited.

I love you Ember.