Always - Bubs.

 The post previous to this one was written in 2018...

We were living our busy lives before the pandemic. The husband and I were 2 years into our marriage and were just beginning fertility treatments to have our first child. We had great news that we were pregnant, but it ended up being an ectopic pregnancy, something I've never heard of. The tubal pregnancy ruptured and I passed out on the floor of our living room with only Bubs home with me. I regained consciousness and was able to call for help, but he remained with me, laying by my head until I got help.

As I was upset with the world and saddened by the loss of a pregnancy and a tube (which meant that it would be even harder for me to conceive), I took some time off and had Bubs consoling me.

I remember having some pretty bad spells of depression, sinking into squats in the corner of my kitchen crying, and he would run up to me and hug me. - he really was my emotional support animal.

The following year, 2019, we got pregnant again and we were so excited for him to become a big brother!

He was our first born, but we had to prepare to be parents to an actual human, so why not practice on him?

When the baby finally arrived in Dec 2019, he was very skeptical of the baby, and also a bit depressed with the change. He wasn't as spunky as he used to be. At that point, he was 12 years old. After a few months, he got out of his depression, and embraced being a brother! He now had a new playmate to crawl around the house with!

I spent a lot of time at home with Bubs and the baby. My maternity leave ended just as the world shut down on 3/17/20. The husband was an essential worker and would come home to us as soon as he could. We spent a lot of time together and the baby and Bubs were besties. The baby learned how to be gentile, how to throw a ball, and what unconditional love was. Our annual family portraits featured both, Bubs and the baby growing together.

In 2021, Teenah Eco painted a portrait (left) of Cooper that we hung on our mantle.

In 2022, Wolverine, his cousin and best friend, left us. This is their last photo together.

We are all living in the post-pandemic, hybrid working world, but I was lucky enough to retain a full time remote role. I spent just about every day at home with Bubs and the baby. Maybe it's because I am with them almost every day, but his health steadily declined. He got slower, he became bonier, and lost his balance. Bubs could no longer hold himself up to poop, and would fall in it and track it around the house. I was always upset because I had to wake up to poop in our room at 3 or 4 in the morning. I'd have to steam clean the carpets at all hours of the morning. We did this for MONTHS!

We went to Asia in August of 2023, and Bubs stayed with the husband's sister, Wolverine's mom (like usual). As much as she wanted us to enjoy ourselves, she told us that this time was really difficult because he would poop and track it at her house. She went through the lengths of lining her kitchen with garbage bags and sleeping on an air mattress in the living room to help us watch him. -- side-note, she really is an amazing supporter of our family.

We took a short weekend trip, but ended up boarding him because we would never want Wolverine's mom to relive what happened that past August. We decided to not book any more trips because we knew our days were numbered. For months I would ask my husband to put him down out of frustration of the numerous accidents, but also because I didn't think that Bubs had a good quality of life anymore. He was walking into walls like a pinball, couldn't see out of his right eye, and could barely hear anything.

Yesterday, the baby- who is actually a toddler now, had a playdate with our neighbor who came over to our house. The night before was really rough, Bubs barely slept and kept rolling off his bed. He was sleeping most of the morning due to being up all night, but I heard the jingle of the dog tags signaling that Bubs was up! "I have to run and bring out the dog!" I told my neighbor who was aware of his age and health issues. I was too late and had to steam clean the bedroom. After finishing cleanup, I went to change Bub's diaper, and noticed blood in his diaper. I called the husband at work right away and told him what I found. We agreed to finally lay him to rest as we knew his kidneys were failing and he must be in pain. 

Last night, we explained to the toddler that his dog was going to heaven today. He cried and told me that it hurts he feelings that his dog was going to leave. At bedtime, the toddler asked if we could pray for Bubs. We took one final family photo before taking him to the vet where the husband held Bubs in his arms as the medicine that stopped his heart took into effect. He will be cremated and returned to us later this week.

Today is February 20, 2024. RIP Cooper, my Bubs. You will always be loved, our first born, our son.

 

Life with degenerative disc disease

Since February, we've made some changes to Bubs life. He's encouraged to not jump on and off furniture, isn't allowed to walk up and down the stairs, nor is he allowed to jump into and out of the car. It's been going well and he's improved a lot!

We've been taking it easy by just hanging out at home or visiting close family and friends.

Bubs kissing the bug

Shortly after his MRI, we started doing exercises at home as well as taking him to physical therapy once a week.

Exercises included bending each of his joints 10 times, stretching out his limbs fully 10 times, and squats (sit, stand repeat) His hind legs have gotten stronger and his space awareness has improved. He still gets wobbly when he pees (balancing on 3 legs) but a lot of times he corrects himself. 

When he was going to therapy, they were having him run on the water treadmill and gave him acupuncture. YES dogs can get acupuncture and IT WORKED!!

For Memorial Day, we tried our first long walk in Belmont, CA at Water Dog Lake park and walked the Lake Road Trail to the Berry Trail to the lake (~3 miles roundtrip) on a hot day. We noticed that his leg got lazy when he gets fatigued and carried him down after a while. After some playing in the water, he was able to walk back up but was pooped for the rest of the day.

swimming in the lake

sitting on the doc

Bubs walking dad

Good thing is that he's doing well and hasn't seized up in a few months.

Another injury, thank goodness for insurance!

Last year, Bubs started limping on his rear back leg. We took him to the vet and were told to stop letting him jump on and off of the couch and let him rest. After a couple of months he went back to normal.

In late November, we noticed he's been hesitant to jump off the bed and couch. We just thought that it was the cold weather making his leg hurt again. We began carrying him to get on and off the bed and couch. I took him on a visit to see Bay's new home, and Bubs had trouble going up and down the wooden staircase. 3 - 4 weeks later, he got progressively worse. We thought he may have hurt his back by jumping wrong.

Waiting to be examined

The pain was so bad that he would freeze up or whelp when we picked him up / put him down. We decided to take him to the emergency vet, they did some exams on him confirmed that he tore his ACL in his leg last year. They also centralized his injury to be in his neck. The vet recommended an MRI to really see what's going on. We did the MRI and it confirmed that there are some discs that are near bulging and are pressing up on his spinal cord.

Stoned after the MRI

In lieu of surgery, we have him doing rehabilitation. His rehabilitation doctor taught us some daily stretches, prescribed an inflammatory medicine and recommended that he not jump on and off the couch or walk on stairs for the rest of his life, and currently he is limited to 5-10 min short walks wearing a harness.

So far he is doing well, but we've had to change our lifestyle. We are happy that he's doing better and hope that he won't have to go through surgery.

Dog parents, listen to your pets! If they're acting different, that's their way of telling you something is wrong, and if you don't have insurance, GET IT! Dog MRI's, Emergency room visits, can add up very fast.

On top of the medical bills, we had to purchase more stuff for Bubs. We had a Petmate 24" Compass Kennel and realized it was too small for him. We upgraded him to a 28" so that he could fit more comfortably inside of the kennel.

We have several collars for Cooper, and only 1 Hamilton harness. We invested in 2 more so that we could wash them between wears. The vet recommended Blueberry Harnesses and we also bought another Hamilton.

Blueberry Green Harness

Hamilton Raspberry Harness
[going to be exchanged for a different color]

Since we're limiting him from walking on stairs, we also purchased a new gate. We did our research and decided to purchase the Stork Craft Easy Walk-Thru Tall Metal Safety Gate because it doesn't have a metal bar to walk over when it's not engaged.

Wow it's 2018

Wow, last post before this was 1/29/2017. I cannot believe it's almost been a year! It's been a whirlwind of a year since I got a new job, but I am committed to getting back into the swing of things.

I aim to take Bubs on a trip this year, even if it's a weekend somewhere, but let's reflect on 2017!

Working hard or hardly working?

We almost got Bubs a sister, Lady Olivia,
but he almost killed her a few times =(

On a lunch break with
Serious the Black Labradoodle!

Daddy started building a dog house

Bubs tired of helping him!

Almost done, but it looks like a duck blind

At attention at work! 

Doggy Cuddles 

Daddy's birthday at Tamales Bay

Posing at the local park

Dumb haircut of 2017 

10 Years Old this year!!

Baby it's cold outside!

Ready for the rain!

Santa's Favorite Helper!

 A few allergy updates: Cooper is still having bad allergies, he lost a lot of hair round his eyes bc of it so we took him back to the vet and the prescribed him Apoquel. He's been scratching a lot less and the hair near his eyes is growing back. He's stopped licking his paws and his skin is less red. I hope this is the answer to our problems! To 2018 and good health!

Pet Meds and allergies

I'm such a dim-whit! I proudly removed all the beef products from Bub's diet and gave him a bath. I gave him his Trifexis medicine and BAM, he was all itchy again. I looked up the medicine online and discovered that Trifexis was beef flavored. Why didn't I read the package?!

I did online research and found that the medicine is artificially flavored with beef. I even went further to find out that the beef flavor is derived from pork proteins yet Bubs is still allergic.

I researched the HeartGuard medicine that he used to take and found that it was also beef flavor. It turns out almost all oral medications are beef or artificially beef flavored.

We're going to start using Advantage +. I hope to see better results soon!

Hoping to get rid of the Itch.

2016 was an amazing year! Lots of blessings but same ol' itchings. We decided to get Bubs an allergy test because he won't stop itching! With his stomach problems in August, we fulfilled his yearly deductible so the test came out to about $105. 

Allergy results:

Foods

Milk

Beef

Liver

Lamb

Kangaroo

Grass

Perennial Ryegrass

Kentucky Bluegrass 

Mites

Dust Mites

Storage Mites

Turns out the grass at the local park AKA the place we walk Bubs the most has Kentucky Bluegrass and his treats including raw hides were all beef! 

We just cut out the beef and it's been raining so no walks at the park. I'm hoping that we will stop this serious itch problem ASAP.

We welcomed 2017 with a nice hike at Lands End in San Francisco with the husband. It was a crisp day, but we all warmed ourselves up during our 2 hour walk. Here are some photos of us a Point Lobos and along the trail.

Finding a cure for the itch!

I thought changing Bubs from Frontline would fix my itchy dog, but he's still itchy. I can say that I like NexGuard bc I don't have to worry about the medicine rubbing off on my carpet and bed when he lays down and I can also wash him when he gets into messy situations.

Maybe he has has allergies? I don't know what is is, but he's so itchy it's bothering us to see him so stressed out again. We've noticed tiny bites on him, but no fleas or ticks or anything on his actual body. I have a feeling that the meds are working, but we just have pests outside that aren't coming into the house.

I've also tried making some anti-ich concoctions:
Water
Vinegar
Green Tea
Lavender Essential Oil
Tea Tree Oil

(It didn't really work)

I'll just keep on trying until I can find the cure for the itch!