10/24/06
As I write this I’m sitting in our tent on our deck at Kemo lake. It’s 7pm and quite dark, there are lots of stars out. I’m eating some cold Pagliai’s sausage pizza and just got done reading some articles about the Iowa Michigan game the other day (downloaded before we came up here.) Lucy is here with me, curled up in a little ball with her tail over her nose trying to keep warm. It’s 28.4 degrees and there’s some snow on the ground and some ice on the lake, neither an appreciable amount.
Sandy left for town about two hours ago, she’s got a birdwatching thing tomorrow and Thursday so it’s just me and the dog until then.
We took vacation this week to come up here and try to convert our “sauna” that came with our property into a small, well insulated, wood stove heated cabin that we can ski to in the winter and spend a few days enjoying the alternating quiet and snowmobiles. We really only enjoy the quiet.
We came up Sunday morning hauling a bunch of building materials and tools in a rented Dodge pickup truck, it handles the “driveway” much better than our Jettas do.
The temperature got down into the upper teens Sunday night so it was chilly in the tent. Sandy slept with her new hat on which looked funny (too dark to get a picture) but we were warm enough in our sleeping bags and Lucy just curled up against my legs for a little extra warmth.
We got a fair amount of work done Sunday and Monday, I’ll do a separate post about the process of rehabbing this thing. I’m trying to do step by step photos as we go.
In the early afternoon on Monday Sandy noticed that Lucy was acting strangely. At first it seemed like she was frightened about something. She’d be walking along and suddenly stop like she saw something in her way and then take a few steps back. My first thought was there might be wolves in the area, out of sight but close enough for Lucy to smell. This had me a little alarmed for about 10 seconds until I remembered that wolves are a lot more scared of us than we are of them. It also quickly became clear that Lucy was not actually seeing or smelling anything but rather that she was disoriented and confused.
She kept doing this thing that Sandy called stopping short as she walked aimlessly around the driveway. She had trouble going up and down even one or two steps and would walk very close to some things like bushes and the house and shy away from other things.
We observed this for about ten minutes while we discussed what was wrong with her and what our options were. Our theories were vision problems, hallucinations, stroke, aneurism etc…
We finally decided we needed to get her some medical attention so we loaded up the truck and headed for Grand Marais. After 45 minutes on the road we were at Obie and Kathleen’s house in town. Kathleen let us use the phone to try to find a vet. There’s only one in Grand Marais and she doesn’t deal with emergencies, she suggested we go to Two Harbors or Duluth and wished us luck. We called Cindy Hansen to see if she had any suggestions, she said the Grand Marais vet was good but kind of difficult and if she was being uncooperative the alternatives in Two Harbors and Duluth were good too. We also called my Mom on her cell phone, she’s in Grand Marais with Dan on a weeks vacation, being a nurse and former resident of Grand marais we thought she might be helpful.
She suggested we meet her at their cabin which we did. The dog’s behavior wasn’t getting any better. My Mom made some calls to some local friends but came up with the same result we had already gotten. We decided to make the drive to the emergency pet clinic in Duluth.
Lucy was relatively calm in the car I think because she couldn’t move around much. It was a long drive and was after 6pm when we got there.
I just went out to take a look at the stars before getting in my sleeping bag, it’s 7:45 and totally dark. The sky is full of stars and it’s totally silent. Much different than a Spring or Summer night when there are lots of frogs and insects making noise. The only thing I can hear right now are noises I’m making and the dog breathing. If I stop typing I can hear a sound which I assume has something to do with blood circulating through my ears or something. It’s also feeling much colder although the thermometer says 27.5, I suppose it’s because I’ve been sitting still for so long.
Anyway, back to Lucy’s condition. We got checked in and the assistant did an interview with us and took Lucy’s temperature then the vet came in. He was quite nice and as helpful as he could be under the circumstances. He checked her vision, looked in her ears all the usual stuff and couldn’t fine a visible external cause. We had a lot of talk about things she could’ve ingested, rat poison and anti-freeze in particular. We brought up the rat poison because there is some in the cabin but we aren’t aware of any that she could get at, it’s all on the 2nd floor and she can’t get up there. He didn’t feel her symptoms were indicative of rat poison anyway. Anti-freeze seemed more likely from her behavior but we can’t figure out a way that she could’ve gotten into anything like that up here.
The vet felt that the two most likely causes were some toxin that we weren’t aware of and we all agreed that that wasn’t very likely or some sort of neurological problem, probably a tumor of some sort in her brain. He felt like it was probably a tumor and suggested several diagnostic things we could do but pointed out that unless we were willing to have brain surgery done on her there wasn’t a lot to be gained by things like x-rays and cat scans. He further pointed out that brain surgery on a 12 year old dog is pretty traumatic and might not be any more humane than letting things run their course.
We asked lots of questions and had lots of discussion about possible toxins, ran a blood screen to rule out liver problems/enzyme imbalances (negative) and after some more thought talked about what happens if it is a brain tumor. Sounds like we could expect her condition to deteriorate fairly quickly possibly over a few months and have some things like seizures to deal with as well. Basically all we can do is wait to see how things progress.
The last thing the vet said was that we should hope for it to be a toxin of some kind in which case she might recover relatively quickly but that we should be prepared for the more likely probability of it being a tumor, and that we should get her looked at again by our regular vet in a couple weeks.
With that we got back in the car, hit a Quiznos (which I can never go to without thinking of that weird commercial with the Furby looking things singing the weird songs) and headed back to Grand Marais.
Dan had arranged a cabin for us at Anderson’s cabins in Croftville so we didn’t have to drive all the way back up to the lake that night. We put Lucy on the bed with us so she’d be more comfortable, she was very alert and edgy constantly looking around at things in the dark, but after a couple of hours of that she fell asleep around midnight as did Sandy finally. She was kind of twitchy during the night but seemed to sleep soundly.
This morning I got up took a shower and took the Lucy outside while Sandy took a shower. She (Lucy) seemed much more together after a good night’s sleep the stopping short and drunken wandering had vanished. She was still pretty unsure of her ability to go up and down steps and it took a lot of coaxing to get her down the rocky hill to the beach along Lake Superior to go for a walk. But once we were down on the gravel she semed pretty sure of herself. Everyone was pleasantly surprised and hopeful after the dire feelings the night before, but still apprehensive of how things might go over time.
We had breakfast at the South of the Border café and then after a quick trip to Joyne’s drove back up here to try to get back on track with the sauna projct.
Lucy has been good the rest of the day today, eating and drinking normally and resting a lot. She even jumped into and out of the truck a couple of times which is a pretty hefty jump, it sits up really high.
So at this point I’m hopeful and worried at the same time about her. Trying to watch her behavior for signs of a problem and probably overanalyzing everything she does. We checked the house again for rat poison and Sandy checked Lucy’s poop (with a stick) for any evidence.
It was a pretty rough afternoon and evening for all three of us, and my Mom as well, hopefully everything will work out for the best.
OK, now it’s 8:34 and my fingers are totally numb, it’s really difficult to type and I’m starting to shiver. I’m going to get in my sleeping bag and try to warm up and get some sleep. 26.8 outside.