Our Peruvian Viringos - neurodegenerative disease

Zara is still doing great! We went on a 6 mile hike and she enjoyed it very much!! Haha it was very tough for me though.  Unfortunately we haven't been hiking as much due to me being busy on weekends and getting covid. So when we can we are trying to build back up to a 6 mile hike. Did a 2 mile hike last weekend which did not tire out Zara at all, afterwards we played. Next time a 4 mile! Then hopefully regular 6 mile hikes. She is probably still slowly getting more wobbly and less stable, but she adapts very well to her condition and hardly ever moves in a way that disorients her anymore.  One thing we've recently noticed is that she doesn't really wag her tail anymore, I think it's hard for her to wag it now. She will kind of wag her tail when she barks at dogs or gets very excited. I guess that just goes with the losing ability to control her limbs/not knowing where she is at spatially.  Health wise she has been pretty good, the royal cainin urinary SO dog food has b...

Zara is 10 now! Due to the fireworks she is staying with my sister for a week, people where I live enjoy setting off small fireworks leading up to and after independence day.  In the meantime some small health updates.  Zara has a clogged oil gland on the top of her head, so that's new but not a big deal. She has a little less energy, but that just means we play in short bursts instead of all at once. Less energy does not equal less stamina though, we are still able to go for 4 mile hikes on local trails no problem. Still working on getting up to 6 mile hikes, which Zara will probably be fine with but I will not haha. She's still also a champ with stairs, though a little less ok with jumping on the couch. Anyways that is it for zara updates for now! I will leave you with a picture of the silly pup with her birthday burger.

Zara's ultrasound is done! Radiologist said that her kidneys and bladder look great, healthy. Her bladder has less junk in it (started her on the royal canin urinary SO diet 2 weeks ago). So we aren't gonna be doing any more antibiotics since she's been doing pretty good urine wise. We are going to be keeping her on the prescription diet long term, so it will be fun trying to keep her interested in the food haha. We will probably mix it with other brands of food. Chewy.com recently added Just Food For Dogs to their site so I will probably order some of that to mix in. Anyways, yay for good news! As for getting Zara more used to being outside, we are working on it. She still barks at almost every dog, but shes barking a bit less at people.

Good news the clavamox seems to be working! Zara's urine is no longer red/brown colored and is back to yellow. She is also trying to pee on her own sometimes, so that's really good! She can't pee a lot out at once so I still express her bladder, but any progress is good. We will be having her on the clavamox longer and then also going back to the Royal Canin Urinary SO dogfood, probably long term, because it seems the bladder grit is back. Not 100% sure but starting her on it just in case. The radiologist appointment will probably be later this month, to check out her kidneys and bladder. Since they both look a bit unusual. I will update again later :) we are gonna try to get out for a hike tomorrow morning. I'll update with pictures after then.

Well Zara's UTI is back with a vengeance. Yesterday her urine was red, and she peed involuntarily several times.  We took her to the vet yesterday and got an x-ray (checking for bladder stones) and then the urine analysis and urine culture again.  Also started her on the clavamox antibiotics again, until we get results back from the urine culture. The vet mentioned that her kidneys looked "cystic" or fluid filled, but wasn't 100% sure.  Today I got the call back, x-ray results showed no bladder stones. Urine analysis showed quite a bit bacteria, so still waiting on the urine culture to make sure clavamox is still a good antibiotic to be using. We are also going to go ahead with an ultrasound for Zara's bladder and kidneys, they're concerned about the bladder lining possibly having something going on with it. So I'm waiting for the quote for that then going to set up the appointment.  Zara has been drinking lots of water, she's still eating ...

It's been a while since the last Zara update, I will try to post a bit more frequently if I can. Zara has been doing alright, she's been pretty itchy (fleas!!!) so she recently got a bath and flea meds and then also a cytopoint injection to help with the itchiness.  post bath time photo She also had a vet checkup, urinalysis and heartworm check. No heartworm so that's good! The urinalysis did show some blood cells and a moderate amount of bacteria. We did the follow up urine culture and it showed the same bacteria as last time (e coli), and she's been showing symptoms of being bothered by this recently. Wanting to go out more frequently but not having anything in her bladder to express, being more needy in general. So we are going for another round of clavamox and then a recheck at 2 weeks while she's still on it. Ready to go home from the vet Energy wise she's still doing pretty good, slowing down a bit but she's 9 so that's expe...

 It's been a long time since I last updated, I'll try to update more regularly in the future. We have been pretty busy since the last update. To start with Zara's health, she's doing pretty well! Only major health change is that we need to express her bladder so she can pee. But most of that is because she has a hard time getting into the squatting position. She knows when she needs to be taken out to go pee, so she hasn't completely lost feeling.  Let's talk personality now. In her old age Zara has become louder, she now barks at dogs first when before this year she was very quiet. So we have been further limiting her interactions with dogs, since she now not only barks back but also barks first when she sees them. I guess she is finally fed up with other dogs barking at her or off leash dogs running at her. She has never been dog friendly,  only dog tolerant and now she has less tolerance for dogs than ever. Energy wise Zara is great, we go for 4 mile hikes wi...