Sorry for the delay (again). Miss Gidget has been really pretty sick. Not much vomiting, but stopped eating about a week ago. Since last Wednesday, she's only eaten a couple times and picked once or twice. Thank God for Joanne. I mentioned it to her at work on Thursday (that Gidge was acting strange). She seemed afraid to go outside on Wednesday and actually peed in the house so she wouldn't have to go out. That's the day she stopped eating too. Joanne told me if she didn't start eating to let her know.

Well, Saturday, I left a message for her to call. Gidget still wasn't eating, and even though she still barked quite a bit, she was very clingy and acting strange. She called at 6:00 when she got home and told me to bring her over. I knew she had a very long, hot day (her first appt was at 9:30, and they were scattered all over, so I knew she was driving miles and miles). I told her to call me after she at least settles in before I brought her over... I knew she needed "some" time to take a breather. Well, she called at 7:00, and we went there.

Gidget's fever was 105... way too high... Joanne said it's almost like a person with a fever like that, even though her temp "should" be around 102 normally. She gave her a third of a bag of liquids SQ, an oral dose of Metacam for the fever, shots of Baytril (antibiotic), Vitamin B, and Tagemet. Gidge was kind of hard to handle for a little while, but I was surprised how well she did after a few minutes. She gave me some Baytril to give her twice a day. She was going to do some blood work but the lab was closed for the weekend.

Sunday, after church, Joanne called to check on her. I told her the night before (after all the treatments) she did manage to pick on some chicken I had boiled for her the night before (which she didn't touch), but today... nothing. She acted like she wanted to eat (sniffing the food and sometimes picking a piece up only to drop it someplace else), but ate nothing. She told me to take her back again so she can take her temp again. It was still up there... still 104.5... more liquids.

Yesterday (Monday), I tried everything I could think of to get her to eat... canned dog food... chicken... soup. The cupboard here is pretty bare so I went to the store and got some ground beef and cottage cheese.... nothing. So back to the vet again. Three days in a row. Her temp did go down to 103, so that was good, but Joanne gave her the last 1/3rd of the bag of liquids and added some more Baytril to it to add a little more antibiotics to her system more quickly. Then she got a jar of baby food... Gidget licked at it but wouldn't eat it, so she took a syringe and made her eat it. THANK GOD SHE DID... at least I knew she had "something" in her stomach. She gave me her blender to use to blend up some meat and rice or any other people food so I could syringe it in to her if she didn't eat today. I'm praying she's better and eats on her own. At least she had a bowel movement yesterday after we got home (first one in 4 days... we were beginning to think obstruction... thank God that wasn't an issue. If she refuses to eat again today, Joanne is going to take blood tonight and send it off to the lab... please pray the infection (whatever it is) is gone today and that won't be necessary.

The only negative thing after all this is over and she's feeling better is that she will no longer eat any dog food.... but Joanne said people food is much better for her anyway. So, if this happens, it looks like even if I don't grocery shop for me, I'll be doing it for Gidget like I use to for Mike (of course Mike would eat a mixture of people food and kibble... don't know what Miss Gidget will do).

If she's not better by Friday, I'm not going camping. I couldn't leave her like this, even though I know Joanne and Sandra would take wonderful care of her... just couldn't do it.

I went to the ear doctor yesterday. After taking a hearing test, he came in and asked me what I had done to my right ear. I laughed and told him, "you're the doctor, you tell me". He said my left ear has very minimal loss, but it probably feels as though I'm losing more in that ear because of the different levels between the left and right ear. The problem in my right ear is in the inner ear. He can't say what the hearing loss is caused from. I asked him if it could have been due to high blood pressure. He said it's possible but couldn't tell me for sure. He gave me steroids to take for the next six days and then go back on Monday. If it's not any better or gets worse, he wants to do (yet another) MRI on it to see if there's a growth (but he said he doubts it). I've had so many MRI's and CT's that I'm probably glowing already... I could probably just do one myself with the amount of radiation in me... all they'd really have to do is put me in the machine and let me glow on my own. LOL

So... that's what's been going on around here. Thank you to everyone who still stops by to check on us. We really love and appreciate every one of you.

Much Love & Blessings To You All

Joanna, Angel Mike & Miss Gidget