Odds and ends

Went to the local hospital this morning to have blood drawn for a fasting lipid panel.

Key word: fasting.

My cardiologist said a 8 hour fast would be fine. Then the lab orders he gave me said not to eat anything for 12-14 hours.

Yikes.

I take my food very seriously. I'm not sure I've ever gone 12 hours without eating in my life.

But I did it! Had supper last night at 7 p.m., blood drawn at 7:30 a.m. this morning.

Don't expect that to happen again any time soon.

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Jamie is doing great. Thanks to the prednisone, he's hungry enough to eat the table legs. He'd never make it 12 1/2 hours without a meal.

We go back to the vet on Thursday for a progress check and re-evaluation. She should reduce the pred levels then.

Hope so, poor boy is drinking and peeing like a horse. I get up in the night to let him out and the Farmer lets him out several times during the day. Phoenix thinks getting to go out at 2 a.m. with his brother is the most totally awesome thing ever. If it were June, yeah, maybe. January? Not so much.

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I'm learning more about inflammatory bowel disease. The biggest thing I've learned so far is that it is different in every dog. There is no such thing as a "standard" case of IBD.

I'm hoping once Jamie gets stabilized and down to very low doses of pred (or possibly even none?), I'll be able to relax his diet restrictions to a certain degree. At the moment, he can't even have his Cosequin DS because it contains "natural beef flavor." Ditto for his HeartGuard heartworm preventive.

The heartworm preventive isn't such a big deal in January. I've dropped him off everything and will do a heartworm test in the spring, then he'll go on Revolution.

I'm looking for a joint support formula that doesn't contain any "flavorings." GlycoFlex III is currently the top contender.

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My club's awards banquet was held over the weekend. It was a great time, as usual. Lots of food and drink and fellowship.

Nix got awards for his GO, CDX and MX in 2010. It was a learning year for us and I'm thankful for every minute of it, even though a lot of things didn't go quite as I'd planned.

A friend of mine asked a question that I want to write about in more depth: When do I know if my dog is ready to show (in obedience)?

This kicked off a whole new train of thought about defining "ready" and does "ready" have to equal "perfect"?

Stay tuned. More to come.