We’ve made it one month seizure free!  I really hope I’m not jinxing things though…

Shadow’s had a pretty awesome week since going to school with me last Friday.  She got to go on her first hike this past weekend at Patapsco State Park, and she had a blast.  When she walks by herself, she sort of lollygags along and we have to sort of pull her along half the time, but when she’s out with other dogs, she pulls like the crazed Husky she is.  Here she is walking with her good friend Khuno:

She also had her follow up with the surgeon on Tuesday and was cleared to return to full activity, so she’s gotten to play a bit at daycare.  Apparently she’s making lots of friends and doing very well in light one on one play.  If that continues to go well, she’ll get to ease into more vigorous play groups.  She already plays like a maniac at home with Ghost, and I’ve started letting her run around again in the backyard.

The only thing we really need to work on now is telling us that she needs to poop when we’re not by the back door.  If she’s right there, she’ll ring the potty bells.  If not, she just pops a squat and goes wherever.  The best is in the middle of the night when she poops in her crate and then sleeps in it.  Because I love bathing her at 0600 before work…  So far the last couple nights have been poop free, let’s hope that continues.  The last time she did it, she managed to leave a turd dangling from the top of the crate.  We have no idea how she managed that…

A lot has happened since my last post, and Shadow has been doing fantastic.  After getting things under control and adding the phenobarb, we haven’t had any seizures for 23 days.  This is an all time record for her since they began.

We went back to see Dr. Clarke a week after the cluster incident, and she was doing well enough at that point that he gave his blessing for the spay the following week.  We scheduled it for that following Wednesday, and it went off without a hitch.  She spent the night there, and was apparently rather vehemently protesting her confinement in a cage.  When I called to check up, I could hear her in the background telling everyone she was not happy.  When I picked her up on Thursday she was her normal little self and wanting to be the maniacal little Husky puppy that she is.  Needless to say, she was on crate rest for a few days so she couldn’t get too rambunctious with Ghost.

On the subject of crates, we’ve had a fun little regression and she’s crapped in her crate and then slept in it pretty much every night for the last couple weeks.  There’s nothing quite like waking up to the smell of shit permeating the bedroom.  This morning she decided when my alarm went off that it was poop time, luckily I saw it develop and she didn’t get any on her.  But now I need to clean up 2 crate pans.  And scoop kitty litter.  I guess I’m going to have a crappy evening 😛

Today was our first midterm in the class I teach, and I brought Shadow in for my mids.  They talk all the time about missing their pets back home, and I figured that petting a dog during a test would take the edge off their test anxiety.  She was a huge hit, and the mids absolutely adored her.  It’s hard not to love her, she’s so sweet.  People tell me all the time how much they love her and how sweet she is.  I love my dog.  Here’s a picture of her during my 2nd class period of the day:

Here’s hoping for a seizure free weekend and no baths in the immediate future for Shadow…

So I guess it’s been a week or so since I posted last, I’ve been crazy busy with work and we were in the Colorado Backcountry last weekend.

That trip was AMAZING, we climbed Mt. Elbert (14,433′ the tallest in Colorado and 2nd tallest in the lower 48) with some good friends who live in Denver.  It was a long day, we got rained and hailed on, the altitude really took its toll, but it was absolutely one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.  Here’s a pic of Aaron and I at the summit

Now onto Shadow.  She was great while we were gone, and the boarding/vet facility took wonderful care of her.  I will definitely use them for her again, even though it was pretty expensive.  Worth it for the peace of mind though.  So we are now 9 days seizure free, which is the longest we’ve gone since the diagnosis.  The phenobarb seems to be doing its job, and we’ve even tested the bounds a little as far as activity goes.  She got to go with Ghost down to the Naval Academy last night to meet with some midshipmen and run around some on one of the athletic fields.  She adored the attention, and didn’t have any issues.  The biggest thing is that Dr. Clarke is really encouraged by her response to the phenobarb.  He said that a lot of times Keppra doesn’t work as well on it’s own, but when combined with something else works great.  Hopefully that’s the case with us.  He gave us the all clear for the spay, so that will be done this coming Wednesday.  I’ll be a nervous wreck all day, but I’ll be glad to have it done and over with.  She was pretty wobbly and drunk acting last week from the meds, but that seems to have mostly worn off now.  She’s still a little ataxic, especially in her back legs, so hopefully that continues to diminish.  At least she’s now essentially back to her normal mentally.

That’s all for now, hopefully my next post will continue the good news