Hi all,
Mikey is doing much better- thank goodness. Last Wednesday, we took him to the vet for conjunctivitis and also had to give him a tranquilizer so the vet could clip his nails. (He freaks out about anyone touching his paws.) That night, he got huge hives all over his belly, which happens 2 or 3 times per year. The vet prescribed prednisone ahead of time, so I called him, and he okayed giving Mikey 1 or 2 pills. At 3am, Mikey was still scratching and panting furiously, so we gave him another pill. At 8am, he was still at it and not any better, so we brought him to the emergency vet. We told the vet about all of the meds he had recently, and she gave him a strong shot that always works right away. Later that morning, he was getting better, but not 100%. The next day, he started acting strange- staring at the floor and grasping at things that weren't there, running out the front door when the doorbell rang, crying when my mom or dad left, sleeping on the kitchen floor- none of which are at all typical. In fact, he hates to walk on the kitchen floor because he's afraid of slipping on the tiles- we have small mats all the way through the kitchen for him lol. I called the vet, and he said that Mikey just had way too much medication in him and that it would take 3 to 5 days for it to wear off.
My parents were gone all day Saturday at a wedding, and Mikey cried and scratched the door for an hour when they left. He was still doing the staring at the floor thing, too. That afternoon, I saw a horrible centipede/spider thing run across the living room, and I did the same stare thing! I was pretty convinced that Mikey was paranoid about seeing bugs on the floor.
He started getting better, but Monday night my mom thought he had a fever, and we gave him 2 baby aspirin. About 2 hours later, he got hives all over his head. We went back to the emergency vet, and there was a different doctor there. We filled him in, and he said he thought Mikey had pug encephalitis. He gave him another allergy shot and suggested we schedule an MRI. On the car ride home, my mom and I both cried, but I told her that I know he doesn't have it. I know him, and I know when something serious is wrong, and I know he didn't have this horrible thing. I really thought the weirdness was because of the over-medication, the fact that he had gooey medicine in his eyes for the conjunctivitis, and had a benign tumor removed from his eyelid just a month before.
As soon as I got in, I researched online and found that pug dog encephalitis is extremely rare, happens to females more than males, and most often occurs by age 2. Mikey is almost 6, and he displayed none of the major symptoms- seizures, circling the head one way, vomitting... We still cried about the possibility, but I really thought he was going to be okay. I called the regular vet the next morning, and he too didn't think it was encephalitis, rather the over-medication side effects. I was so angry about the other vet, because he also said that it is treatable, and from what I read, it's really not at all and will always cause death in a relatively short amount of time.
Mikey still isn't totally himself, but he is acting much more normally. He still stares at the floor sometimes, but only on the bed or carpet. As silly as it may be, I really think it has to do with bugs. You know when you stare at something so tiny that eventually it looks as if it's moving? He definitely has a phobia about his bed and won't sleep there. He slept with me a few nights and also on the living room floor. I think he's going to be alright with time...
Well, thanks for letting me ramble. I suppose you didn't need to know all the details, but it made me feel better to write the story.
As for eating, no good! I had bulimia many years ago, and even after I stopped purging, I binged. I still binge from time to time, and this is one of those times. I keep munching on junk all day. I'm totally not focusing on what I need to do to feel better. Sometimes, I feel like a jerk for checking in, because I'm not even trying to eat well! Reading your posts does make me feel a little better, though.
Talk to you all later,
Gina
...Carole