A Status Report

Yesterday was Tony's first day on the stepped-down dose of Prednisone, and I was so glad, I would have danced if not for the pain.  During the week he was on two doses a day, he ate (and begged) constantly, drank vast quantities of water, and had numerous accidents in the house.  By now, we've cleaned the carpets in almost every room (he wasn't the only dog with a problem), so we've got a jump on the holiday cleaning.  I'm trying to keep a positive attitude, as you can see.  And in that vein, Tony's kidneys have been fully flushed during this time, which is also good.  He hasn't shown any real difficulties with the drug, but having to let him out at all hours is a problem for me.  I don't sleep well at the best of times, and the even-worse sleep I've been getting isn't close to enough.  However, he didn't have any accidents last night, and I have hopes for tonight.

Keeping track of all his meds and doses has taught me something that I'm going to pass on:  as soon as you get a dog, start a log of his/her vet visits, medications, etc.  You could, of course, just look back at the vet bills and prescriptions, but I've found that I want a bit more information, especially information that I don't have to decode.  This blog has actually been very helpful in that regard, since I've tended to post when things change.  I now have a record of what was going on when.

In fact, I think we probably ought to do this for other things, too.  For example, you buy a house, and from that point on, repairs are ongoing.  It's handy to have a way to know when you bought the new water heater, or the last time you had the chimney cleaned (was it last winter, or the year before?).  My memory is pretty crummy about things like that, all the more so lately.