- I wanted to go ahead and make a post explaining Jax’s chronic illness and a little of his story. Jax came to me from the humane society nearly four years ago. They said he had parvo as a puppy. He was nearly two when I got him. After having him for some time I noticed he drank a ton of water. I mean gulped it down as fast as he could. Being a nurse I knew this could mean many things. We took him to the vet and had labs drawn and his kidney levels were off the charts bad. They said it could be an infection and tried a few things but the levels never came down. After that they said that he either had congenital (born with it) kidney disease or that something (maybe the parvo) had damaged his kidneys. So we started medications and prescription food ($$$$). We get labs checked about twice a year and his kidneys are always worse. I think at last check they were about 8 times the normal level. Now he is on two medications twice a day and a few months ago they added fluids to our routine. We do fluids twice a week. Since I am a nurse I feel comfortable doing them at home. This makes Jax much happier as well. The first time we did them at the vet so they could show me, and they had to muzzle Jax. He was just miserable. Now we do them on my bed with Jax laying down comfortably. He tolerates them pretty well. The way we do fluids is a bit different than I’m used to giving fluids because they are subcutaneous (under the skin) rather than IV (in a vein). So this consists of poking him with a needle (in two different spots per session) and giving him some fluid in each spot. Here’s a picture of 🐫 Jax:
The vet says as long as Jax feels healthy we are ok. They think he can still live a long (but shorter than normal), happy life. It’s when he starts feeling bad that we may need to have a hard talk. He is lazy but he runs around the yard and plays and has fun so we are alright for the time being. I think laziness is probably in his personality to begin with (we are two peas in a pod) and might be a little worse from being sick but that’s alright. He can be a bit of a grump with the other dogs sometimes as well. I don’t blame him with Leela, she basically sticks her tongue down his throat all the time. It’s pretty disgusting. I love my Jax! Also I don’t mind answering questions about Jax’s health so ask away!
Ps: here’s a cute picture of my man
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