Lucy Goes to the Vet

Our dog Lucy had an appointment at the vet's office today.  She's been having trouble seeing lately and losing weight over the past few months, so I decided we needed to get things checked out.

It's a good thing we did, too--turns out Lucy is diabetic!  The vet said that's what caused the weight loss, the sores on her ears that just wouldn't heal, and the rapid onset of cataracts in both of her eyes.  Poor girl!

But I'm glad to have a diagnosis.  At least we know what the problem is and how to fix it.  Lucy's spending a couple of nights at the animal hospital for glucose checks and an insulin workup.  It looks like I'm going to be giving her insulin shots from now on in addition to giving her some special food designed specifically for diabetic dogs like Lucy.  It's been a long time since I gave shots to a dog, but I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty good at it before too long!

Lucy's an awesome little girl though.  We got her about 2 months after we got married, so she'll be turning 8 years old next month.  (I guess that would make her roughly 56 years old in people years, right?)  We got her from my sister-in-law out in east Tennessee.  She was hiding under the front steps with her brother and a couple of other puppies.

She was so tiny, we bought her the smallest cat collar we could find and still had to make a couple of holes of our own because it was still too big!  Here's a picture of her at our old apartment shortly after we got her.  We're not really sure what kind of a mix she has in her, but we're pretty sure she has some chow in her blood.  She's got that classic purple tongue.

Lucy was followed a few months later by Ricky (yes, once upon a time, I used to be a big "I Love Lucy" fan).  Ricky, also from east Tennessee but from a different family member, is a boxer-beagle mix of some kind.  Even though they've lived together ever since, they seldom get along. 

Ricky and Lucy shortly after Ricky joined the family

Ricky came in thinking he was the alpha dog, but Lucy promptly knocked that out of his little head.  LOL!  Needless to say, he didn't like that one bit!  But they seem to tolerate each other now, kind of like an old married couple who just can't be bothered to get divorced.

With Lucy having trouble with her sight lately though, Ricky's been taking advantage of her handicap, and he thinks he's the top dog now.

Peek-a-boo!

Even though Lucy's going to be on these meds for the rest of her life though, I'm glad it wasn't to the point where we couldn't do much more than have her put down.  Hubby and I talked about that, and we were in agreement that it wasn't fair to make her suffer, if there wasn't going to be any way to improve her quality of life.  I'm just thankful it didn't come to that, and she's going to be ok.  It's also a good thing that I didn't have to have that difficult conversation with the kids to explain why we had to have one of their dogs put to sleep.

With any lucky, our little Lucy is going to be around for a number of years to come.  :)