TGIF

Percie got a very good report at the vet today! Mama took her to the vet's office for us today. Thanks mama!

She has only been on the medicine for 7 days, and when they checked her blood count, everything came back IN THE NORMAL RANGE! Her red blood cell count, white blood cell count, and her platelets are normal.

She has 7 more days of the medicine just in case. We take her back next Saturday to have her thyroid level checked because the vet thinks her thyroid level might be off. I think I am going to request that they check her blood count again, just to make sure. We thought she was better before, and she proved us wrong. I just want to make double sure this time!

She is acting great! She is playing all the time, running like crazy, and eating us out of house and home. We have had to limit how much dog food she gets. I hope it is the medicine making her so hungry!

Yeah for Percie doing better!

Rae

Sunday and Monday in Hot Springs

I just want to start off by saying I love Hot Springs! (Even if I am here for work!) I had a conference today and tomorrow, so mama and I are staying t the Arlington. I love the Arlington! We left Sunday afternoon and drove through a crazy storm. You know, the kind that you drive 20 on the highway and can't see 1 foot in front of you. We were planning on swimming at the hotel pool Sunday afternoon, but the rain and 70 degree weather changed our minds. We ate at Outback and sat on the veranda at the Arlington. We walked over to the hot spring that is across the street from the Arlington.

This is the pool that the hot water empties into. (I was trying to get a picture without getting the weird guy in the corner. I wasn't really successful.)

The pool at the Arlington is great! It is a 2 level pool built into the mountain with a waterfall. The hot tub is the water from the hot spring. I love it!

We have huge windows in our room with a great view.

We ate supper at Fisherman's Wharf tonight. I love it! It was so cool outside. The weather was great for eating on the deck!

We got to feed the ducks, and the...

turtles and fish! I saw like 12 turtles at one time! we have just been relaxing at the hotel tonight.

Did I mention I love Hot Springs?!

Rae

Guess Where We Spent Saturday Morning....

If you guessed the vet's office you are correct. Friday afternoon at about 5:15 p.m. Joe noticed what looked like some sort of bruise or blood blister next to Percie's incision on her belly. We were supposed to watch for further bruising, but I wasn't sure if I had just not noticed it or if it was a new place. So I tried calling the vet's office, but of course they close at 5. I waited until 6 when the emergency vet's office in N. Little Rock opened and called them. I was constantly looking at Percie's belly in that 45 minutes to see if the spot changed at all. It didn't. The tech said that we could bring her in and the vet could look at it, or we could watch it and take her to our vet in the morning. She said that the same vet wasn't there so the vet that was there wouldn't give a recommendation without seeing Percie. They don't close until midnight, so we decided to watch it and if it changed we would take her in.

It did not get bigger or anything, so I called our new vet's office the next morning and they said to bring her in. (We were planning on leaving for Greers Ferry Lake at 9:00 a.m., but that did not happen.) The vet said it was a blood blister, and it did have to do with the bruising on her gums. (I thought I might be over reacting taking her to the vet again, but now I'm glad we took her.) She said that she thought the doxicyclen was the best thing for it. She said unless it gets bigger or she gets more spots not to worry about it. She told us that Percie could go out on the boat with us! Yeah!

Percie loves the boat! The vet just said make sure she doesn't get too hot. So when we stopped to swim, I put her life jacket on and put her in the water. She cannot swim, so she has to have her life jacket! She doesn't even paddle when she is in the water. Most of the time dogs paddle even if you are holding on to them. Not Percie! She just floats. (I wish I had taken a picture, but I forgot!)

Luckily for Percie it was very overcast. No sun at all. I would have enjoyed a little sun, but it was great because I didn't have to worry about Percie getting too hot.

We put the boat in at Dam Site for the first time. It was much busier than Devil's Fork, but we enjoyed it. I love how pretty that side of the lake is. The jumping cliffs (as many call them) are so pretty. We drove the boat over to Sandy Beach to watch the card board boat races.

It was supper busy. When we pulled up and Joe jumped in to tie off the anchor, we heard them announce, "This is the last race of the day." We decided to go ahead and leave so we didn't get caught up in the boat traffic.

We anchored in a cove and ate lunch and swam for a while. We also had a few visitors.

We fed this duck, and I think he told his friends because not much time passed and 4 hungry ducks swam to the boat. Of course I fed them some bread. (I sat on the bread so it was squished anyway!)

It started to rain so we had to head in. Percie did not like the rain. Here she is with her head on Jame's leg.

Joe,

Derek,

Magan, Natalie, James, and I (I was taking the pictures, so there are not any of me. I forget to give the camera to Joe and let him take my picture.) had a great time on the boat. Thank you to the Horton's and Guthrie's for joining us on the boat!

Rae

I Think We have an Answer...

After almost no sleep last night, Joe and I left the house at 6:00 a.m. and headed to N. Little Rock. We picked Percie up at the emergency vet clinic. The vet tech explained that they checked her clotting ability and it was better, so they did not re-check her blood count. That was pretty good news! She explained that Percie still had her IV catheter in her leg. They left it in in case our vet wanted to use it today. We were instructed to take her to our vet as soon as they could see her and get her checked out again. They gave her doxicyclen (another antibiotic) and said it was good for tick born diseases. (I had accidentally left my cell phone at home, and the vet had called and left a message with all of this information that I got when we got home.) Well, let me give you a little background on the tick born disease question. When Percie had to have her c section in Hot Springs, the vet checked her out for tick born diseases. She had a feeling that is what was wrong and the reason her platelet count was so low. BUT all of the tests came back negative, so she did not treat her for it. She wanted our vet to check it out. But since Percie's platelet count was coming up (until last night) our vet didn't treat her for tick born diseases either.


I am not one to doctor hop, but for many reasons, Joe and I decided to get a second opinion and try a new vet. Poor Percie has just been through too much. So I called the new vet and explained the situation, and they said just go ahead and bring her by and let the vet check her out. I had the paperwork from the emergency clinic, and they looked that over. He said that her platelet count was not dangerously low, BUT it was low. He said to watch the bruising in her mouth and call or bring her by if we had any concerns. He said that he thought the doxicyclen was the best treatment and gave her enough to last 7 days. He thinks it's guess what...a tick born disease. He wants to check her blood count in seven days and see where it is. If it is going up, he wants to continue the medicine and re-check her blood count every seven days. He said she may have to be on the medicine for at least 6 weeks. (Percie won't mind. She loves getting her medicine in a piece of cheese twice a day.)
So, I think we finally have the answer......tick born disease. So, I have only known Percie to have a tick once in her life. It was last summer about this time. She was in heat, and we wanted puppies. We found a breeder just south of Bald Knob who was willing for us to breed Percie with their male. He was an outside dog only (and peed on everything) so it was not an option for us to bring him to our house. So even though I was very nervous about it, we took Percie to stay with them for a week. We went everyday to see her. She did not like Stevie, and she did not get pregnant. The day I picked her up and brought her home she had 24 ticks. I couldn't believe it! I had put frontline on her before we took her, but I guess their yard was just over run with ticks. I felt sooooooo bad. BUT she acted fine. She acted fine until 2 weeks before she had her c section (almost a year later).


I asked the vet we saw today if that was normal and he said until their platelet count gets very low, sometimes they do act fine. He said their was no reason for us to know she had anything. He said that the test they give to check for tick born diseases is an antibody test. So if her body wasn't (for whatever reason) producing the antibodies to fight off the disease, the test would come back negative even if she has it.

So, our new dilemma is that tonight (at 5:15 p.m. to be exact) Joe noticed a red spot on Percie's belly that looks like it could be more of the bruising. Of course the vet's office closes at 5:00 p.m. We have been watching it very close tonight, and it hasn't changed. So I am going to call the vet in the morning when they open and see if they want to take a look at her. We are taking the boat to Greers Ferry Lake tomorrow for the day, so Percie's grandmama offered to watch her if the vet says she doesn't need to go. When we talked to him today, he said it would be fine, but now that we've found the new spot on the belly, I don't know what he will want us to do.

So, Percie may be going back to the vet's office in the morning. (I think we may need to invest in some doggie insurance! ) I will let you know how everything goes in the morning, and then hopefully I won't have anything to report for 7 days until she has blood work again!

Rae

Percie's No Good Very Bad Day

I left work a little early today to meet Joe and Percie at the vet's office for Percie's annual exam and vaccinations. Percie usually gets her annual in May, but she could not this year because she was pregnant.

Here is Percie and Joe in the vets office before Percie got her shots. The vet gave her her shots and checked her over. Percie has been sticking her paw in her ear and scratching, so the vet checked it out and said she had some irritation in her ear. She said it wasn't an ear infection yet, but she gave us some drops.

Percie is not so sure about being at the vets office. She has spent entirely too much time there lately!

When we got home from the vet, Joe, Percie, and I went to mama's house to grill. We had pork chops, steaks, and veggies. It was a great meal! While we were eating I noticed Percie rooting around in the chair. That is not like her at all. She kept drinking water and rolling around on the floor. (I should trust my gut more. I knew she wasn't acting right.) When we got finished eating, Joe noticed that Percie's eye was swollen. Then we noticed her mouth was swollen and she had hives all over. (Have you ever seen a dog break out in hives? Its a very interesting and scary sight!) She was having a reaction to her shots!!

Joe grabbed Percie and I got the phone and called our vets office to get the vet on call's number. I called and no one answered, so I left a message. Percie was getting worse quickly and I was worried about her breathing so I tried calling mama's vet in Beebe. They had the phone number for the emergency vet clinic in N. Little Rock. I called the emergency clinic and they said to bring her in. We gave her a benedryl before we left, and I am so glad we did. It helped!

This is a picture of poor Percie 25 minutes after she had the benedryl. She was actually looking better. You can see the hives on her back and her swollen eye. (Scroll up and check out the before picture when she was at the vet and compare it to the after picture. Big difference, huh?) When the vet tech checked her over, she noticed bruising on her gums. When we were at the vets office at 3:00 p.m., there was no bruising. I watched the vet check her gums, and I didn't see anything bruising then. But I definitely saw it at the emergency clinic.

The emergency vet told us that the bruising didn't have anything to do with the reaction she had to her shots. He told us he wanted to check her blood counts and clotting ability. (These are the same tests we had done at the vets office following Percie's c section. After her c section, the vet told us to look for the bruising on her gums, and to get her to a vets office immediately if we saw it. So I knew it wasn't good.) We waited a while (there were other doggies there that were sicker than Percie) and the vet told us that her platelets were low. He told us he wasn't sure what was causing the low platelets. He did say that the steroids and epinephrine that he gave her were working and the swelling and hives were going down.

He told us we had 2 options: 1) We could take her home with more medicine and watch her all night and see if the bruising got worse, or 2) we could leave her there over night. After asking more questions, and calling Joe (He had to work tonight. Mama went with me.) we decided to leave her there. They have a tech that stays with them all night, and the vet is asleep upstairs. He is right there if they have an emergency. They will check her vital signs every 2 hours, re-check her blood count, re-check her clotting ability, give her fluids, and many other things that I cannot remember right now. The main reason we decided for her to stay was because they told us that how fast we got Percie back there if the bruising got worse would matter. N. Little Rock is not far, but it took me 20 minutes to get there (driving quickly with my flashers on) tonight.

They will call us if anything gets worse, and we can call and check on her anytime. (I've already called once. No change.) We are supposed to be there before 7:00 a.m. to pick her up. Six a.m. is going to come early since it is midnight and I'm still up.

Say a little prayer for Percie, and hopefully we can find out what is causing the low blood count and how we can fix it!

Rae

Joe is the Best!

Work has been pretty stressful lately. We had a survey today that we have been preparing for, so things should calm down now. I hope! So, when I got home from work today Joe was cooking this... I love bacon sandwiches. It is one of my favorite quick and easy meals. Here is Joe slicing one of those home grown tomatos. I love a home grown tomato on a bacon sandwich!

Here is Joe enjoying the great supper he made.

Here is Percie in my seat. I mean I can't post on here without a picture of Percie!

Thanks for the great supper, Joe!

Church and Sunday Lunch

Sunday morning we went to church at Joe's mom and dad's church. Most of the family joined us and filled up the one side of the church. It was great to have everyone there! I should have taken a picture, but I didn't think about it until church had started. I didn't think that it would be very appropriate for me to stand up and take a picture during church. I can see me saying, "Excuse me. Can everyone stop what you are doing and smile for a picture. I need it for my blog." We ate Sunday lunch at Aunt Jo's house. We had bar-b-que and chilly dogs. It was great!

Jordan had a great time...

and so did Rylee!

Tara and I at Aunt Jo's. It is always great to get to see family. We always have a good time!Cousins: Malinda, Megan, and Tara. These girls are so much fun!

Aunt Faye, Aunt Peggy, and Aunt Jo working hard in the kitchen!

After spending the afternoon at Aunt Jo's, Dannie and Charlotte sent us off with many fresh veggies from the garden. Nothing's better than a home grown tomato!

We had a great weekend with the Hookers!

A Saturday with all the Hookers

Saturday morning we left for Trumann. Percie came with us, of course. She loves going to her nanny and poppy's house. Here is Percie with her doggie mama, Angel. She was laying right next to her until she saw me coming to take their picture and she moved. Percie loves her doggie mama! Here is Percie's doggie grandpa, Max. Percie and Max are big buddies. They love to get in the kiddie swimming pool in nanny and poppy's backyard and come inside soaking wet!

Joe's dad has 6 brothers and sisters. Three of them live in Trumann, and 3 of them live out of state. The 3 from out of state and some of their children and grandchildren came to visit, so everyone got together at the church's fellowship hall.Here is Joe's dad and his brothers and sisters. They are a great looking bunch!

Percie came with us, and she had a great time! She loved playing with all of the kids!

Here is our table at dinner. We sat with Uncle Donald, Aunt Carnell, Tara, and Tony while we ate our yummy Mexican food. It was great!

Rylee, Owen, and Jordan playing outside.Rylee and Jordan were so glad to have some other little kids to play with. When the Trumann crew gets together, they are the only little ones!Rebecca, Katelyn, and Percie.

Brandi, Megan, and Blaine. It is so hard to get 3 year-olds to smile for the camera!

Blaine was saying he was "scared", and shaking all over while he said it. This is one of many of Blaine's cute sayings! He is so cute!

Owen, Megan, and Rylee. These kids like to wrestle!

Percie was so tired that she fell asleep in my lap in the middle of everything. She was even snoring!!

Brandi, Megan, Joe, Tony, Tara, Malinda, Roy and I ended the night playing Phase 10 at nanny and poppy's house. It was lots of fun. Joe won, of course. Percie was so tired that she went to bed without us!

We had a great Saturday!

Rae

No More Stitches

Joe took Percie to the vet to have her stitches removed on Friday. Her belly looks great! I think she feels better without the stitches. First thing on the agenda when I got home from work on Friday was giving Percie a bath. She ran and played after she was dry! She loves how she feels after a bath! (I meant to get Joe to take pictures, but I forgot.) After Percie's bath, Joe, Mama, and I went to Chili's to eat. It was sooooo good!!

Then we picked Percie up and headed to N. Little Rock to Petco and Petsmart. Percie loves going shopping! (She's her mama's girl!) She picked out a new squeaky turtle. Her old squeaky turtle needs to be retired! She likes riding in the buggy.

Percie and her daddy at Petco. Joe got a summer haircut and shaved his face! I love it!!

Percie loves the treats from Petco, but she is picky about which ones she wants. We let her sniff and try a few, and these are her current favorite.

Aren't these puppies cute?! Someone found them at a gas station in a box and brought them to Petco. I can't believe someone would leave these puppies at a gas station! They are going to find them happy homes.

Speaking of puppies, there was a 7 month-old Boston Terrier puppy at Petco with her mommy. Her name is Libby, and she is so cute! She loved Percie, but Percie did not return the love. I'm beginning to think my dog is a snob!

We made a quick trip to Petsmart because they were about to close. They have a cat room with cats that are up for adoption. They had the sweatest orange and white kitten that I wanted!

Percie loves her new turtle! Doesn't she look cute in her dress?! (She closed her eyes in anticipation of the flash. You would think I take her picture a lot. Ha!)

Joe, Mama, and I had a great dinner at Chili's and a fun time at Petco and Petsmart!

Rae