The Noah's Ark of Suburbia

The animals went two by two to the vet yesterday.  I must say it's a little much for this already-encumbered girl to deal with, but we survived.  Monster screamed the entire way, as always, and Harper was ENTIRELY too excited to go visit her "friends", but so be it.  I just made multiple trips to and from the car, and left each one in the car by themselves during the others' appointment.  Harper sat behind her gate and Monster was in his carrier. 

What was unexpected was the results of the trip.  Harper is doing well.  She is at 71 pounds, and while she continues to eat excessive amounts of food, she at least seems to be fully stabalized, vaccinated, and her energy level is great.  Her current regiment is 6 cups a day of Purina Pro-Plan Sensitive Stomach Salmon (2 feedings of 3 cups each) and a teaspoon of Panicare enzyme on each feeding.  We have discovered that due to the tendency of EPI dogs to have MANY food allergies, that a fish-based diet with virtually no grains works best.  The purina has sweet potato and oats, which are less inflamatory.  She also, on occasion, will get a treat that is made of dehydrated salmon and sweet potato.  I'd have to look up the name if there are any EPI owners that care, but they seem to agree in small doses, too.  We are debating re-starting training, and may try buying cans of salmon to see if that works well as a reward (both as motivation, and not upsetting her stomach).  This is pretty amazing.  Below are pictures from December 2nd and today.  You can see how far she has progressed.

Surprisingly, Monster's appointment did not go so well.  He's been having some trouble jumping recently, and I mentioned it off-handedly to the vet.  Chris's theory was just that Harper made him nervous, and so he was having a mental block.  The doctor proceeded to check his back hips, and said that he has arthritis and mild hip dysplasia.  Of course, we would need x-rays to confirm that, but we don't have the money to spend on those.  For now, we're just starting him on joint supplements and seeing how that goes.  It's not particularly surprising, he is getting older.  He's at least 8, though we can't be sure of his exact age, as I rescued him when he was "at least" 2.  So, now we probably could fill an entire medicine cabinet with drugs just for the animals.  Monster doesn't seem too phased at this point, though.  As Chris said, we're really hoping for a healthy human kid, as we have had WAY too many issues with our furry ones!