Sophie, the Chinese Pug has crossed The Bridge

[Squirt's Mom]

I can't believe Soph doesn't have a thread here! So I'll do a brief into -

Sophie has lived with us since Sept of 2012, when she was attacked by something - dog or coyote - and sustained some damage. Sophie had started acting bizarrely at times, running off and acting absolutely terrified of everything. She acted as if she didn't recognize her family or familiar places. She might be gone a few hours or gone for weeks. It was during one of these feral episodes that she was attacked.

During the exam Doc told me something was wrong with her brain and that she was blind in one eye, which may have resulted from a previous injury a year or so before. During this attack, Sophie had sustained damage to the vertebrae in her neck and the connecting nerve that runs down the front leg, and numerous puncture wounds. Doc said it looked like she had been picked up, shaken and thrown. When I first saw her, she was one solid sausage, no body definition at all due to swelling, her ear sticking straight out from her head and she wasn't able to move on her own. She recovered and has done well until recently, tho she still has the feral episode - but she is safe her in our fence and I am almost always home.

The last couple of weeks I noticed she will get up and move oddly. At first I thought it was the lingering effects of a more severe seizure but finally realized she is moving like she did after this attach and it happens after she has been asleep. She gets up stiff with her head pulled down and to the left while the right leg, that had the nerve damage, circles wide to the side. She has a very sad look on her face while this is going on. She will usually come wherever I am then sit until it passes. It seems to loosen a bit as she moves and calms.

So she goes to see Doc Mon. morning when Trinket goes in. I'll report on Soph when I know more, too.

Sophie is the nurse and comic relief in our house and it is hard to see her hurt.

[molly muffin]

Oh poor Sophie. What a set back for her when she has done so well and recovering from the previous attack and episodes. Poor dear.

Let us know how she is doing.

[Harley PoMMom]

Oh, poor sweet Sophie Do let us know how the vet visit goes.

Hugs, Lori

[Budsters Mom]

Yeah, what happened? Why doesn't Sophie have a thread of her own? I won't tell her if you don't.

Please keep us posted.

[scoora]

Poor Sophie. I hope she will be fine!

[mcdavis]

Thank you for sharing Sophie's story. How did she get on at the vets this morning?

[Squirt's Mom]

Doc thinks there may be something neurological going on, perhaps related to the focal seizures she has that is causing some of the things she is doing, like air licking and air chewing - but she does not do the air snapping/fly biting so often seen with brain tumors. It is still a wait and see approach with this. If things worsen, we will probably go see Dr. Nafe in LR.

The nerve that was damaged is more than likely experiencing inflammation more as Sophie ages - the initial injury was in Sept 2012.

AND she tested positive with a mild case of Ehrlichia - hopefully the tail end of the infection, not the beginning. I keep Preventix collars on them and they don't get ticks so we are thinking she had to have gotten this a while ago before she came here.

Soph came home with Doxycycline for the Ehrilichia and prednisone for the inflammation.

She is also heart worm negative and all her labs were great, thankfully.

[Wrighton]

We have our yard treated for ticks, our dogs wear collars and still our Icy got Anaplasmosis two years ago. Fortunately she showed signs of it immediately and we got her in the same day she contracted it the vet thought. We saw a dog who had not been treated as quickly and that dog ws stumbling and his head was circling. It had only been a few days, the owner said.

Ticks are terrible and our county is said to be the Tick Capital. Lucky us!

Hope all goes well with your little one. She has had enough trauma, and so have you. The meds worked very quickly and well for us. I know it was a different tick borne disease, but I hope for the same great results.

Gail

[mcdavis]

Pleased to hear that the labs were good, and I hope the meds work quickly.

It doesn't seem to matter how much preventative you use, the ticks still attack! I sprayed Henry before a 20 minute walk through the woods a few weeks ago, then pulled 10 ticks off him when we got back to the car I hate them - he reacted to a bite last year and got a lump the size of a tennis ball so he was on antibiotics for a month. Fortunately he tested negative for Lyme as it's rampant here.

[Budsters Mom]

Poor Sophie, I hope the meds get her fixed right up and she's feeling much better quickly.

I hate ticks! They are not much of a problem here because everything is dead due to the drought. We do have a year round flea problem though. It never gets cold enough to kill anything off.