Stock in vets

The health history of my 12 lb chihuahua (I know, he’s chunky) is complicated. In 2015 we noticed that he was bumping into corners and the edge of furniture, so we took him to the vet, it just didn’t seem normal for him. Turns out he had cataracts in both eyes and a detached retina in one eye. Oy vey, we weren’t expecting that. We love this silly little dog so much that we spent $12,000 on procedures for him to remove the cataracts and reattach the retina. I’ll pause so you can throw up at the shock of that number…Well, we learned that if your retina is detached for too long <and you don’t know about it> that it deteriorates and you can’t successfully attach it and gain your vision back. For the better part of a year Taco had his own spreadsheet with a matrix of medicines and eye drops that we had to give him each day, it was complex.

As a Jack Russel, his brother Jeter just had some maniacally hyper behavior but was otherwise healthy. Except for the year he ate glass Christmas ornaments off the tree and pooped out blood and glitter. But honestly, that was normal for him.

When we moved to Dallas we had a back yard for the first time, which meant lots of freedom and grass rolls for the little guys. With one good eye and a blurry second eye, we carefully taught Taco the layout of his new house and how to find the door. We were so excited to see them enjoy their yard, the first day in the new house I think we recorded at least an hour of iPhone videos, just watching them “experience it” for the first time. The green pastures came at a cost though, within a few days of living there I found myself at a new family vet on no less than two occasions for swollen face and jowls due to bee stings. Children’s Benadryl quickly became a must have in our bathroom cabinet.

After our daughter was born Taco’s behavior, and his health, seemed to deteriorate. It was challenging because he has always been my little buddy and I was convinced it was psychosomatic, it’s a tough adjustment to always be on my lap to now have to fight for attention with a new born baby in the house. After visits to the vet, blood work and various tests that led no where we learned that Taco had liver disease … and we learned that he was now completely blind in both eyes. OMG. $150 a month in prescription food, $200 a month in medications, multiple vet visits, blood work, and not to mention my mental stress and financial exhaustion! We went through such a roller coaster of emotions – is he uncomfortable? In pain? What is the quality of his life now? Am I giving up too easily? How do we find a new normal for him? The list goes on. We were told he might feel bloated but other than that was well taken care of-- but it was a matter of time before he passed, maybe 6 months. Six months went by, and then another and we continued to monitor his blood work. Then over Christmas we got a call saying that his blood work came back completely clear – against all odds he had completely recovered from liver disease. WHAATT?! We didn’t know what to think, we still struggle with his behavior at times but now we know he’s working us, totally attention driven as he’s healthy as an ox besides being an overweight, blind, and elderly Chihuahua.

Did you think the story was over? Because there is more. A few months ago we started noticing a growth on Jeter’s ear, we didn’t think too much of it – the vet says it didn’t seem to bother him and as long as it didn’t worsen we could leave it alone. Well, it grew. And grew, and we decided that the poor thing need to have it removed, it’s heavy and swollen, certainly can’t feel good and heaven forbid there’s cancer in it. Today we took him for his pre-op appointment to measure and plan for the removal and they decided to check his blood today, rather than the morning of. Turns out he’s now diabetic and his surgery has to be cancelled until his blood sugar can be normalized. Starting tomorrow we have to give him an injection of insulin twice a day.

The day we brought these precious pups home it was unimaginable what life would bring as they aged and had health problems. I love them fiercely, and will do anything for them, but boy oh boy do I wish I was part owner in this vet.