Poor Pookie

Oscar will be seeing a lot of his bed in the next few weeks. He gave his mother quite the scare over the weekend. He became very lethargic (even more so than he normally is! ha ha), didn't want you to touch him, yelped whenever he would try to move from a laying down position. He just looked like he was in a lot of pain. It totally scared me to death. At one point, he crawled under the bed. When I went to check on him, he would not lift his head, make any kind of movement or anything. I even rattled a bag of Chex Mix Muddy Buddies to entice him to look at me for a treat. Nothing. I reached under and grabbed his leg. Still nothing. My heart just sank. I just knew that he had crawled under there to die, because he had me that worried. So picture me, half way under the bed, frantically trying to reach him to pull him out. When I got him out, he was of course still alive. He just didn't want to move. So I put him up in the bed and wrapped him in his blanket where he stayed until the next morning. He woke me up several times during the night whimpering and yelping whenever he would try and change positions. It was so pathetic and pitiful. My poor heart was broken. Oscar is my baby. I have had him for over a decade and I couldn't bear the thought of him not being around for several more years. I took him to the vet yesterday morning. As it turns out, he has Degenerative Disc Disease, which is very common with dachshunds. What he was experiencing was the onset of this disease. But with steroid and joint treatments, he should do just fine. He is already feeling so much better on his medication, so it will be hard to keep him quiet and still for several weeks so he can heal. I took him to work with me yesterday. He was pitiful when he first got to work. He just laid in his bed. An hour or so after taking his medicine (and yes, I stopped at McDonalds to get him a sausage and egg biscuit to hide the medicine in) he was a new dog. He wanted to get up. It was like he realized he could move without being in pain. So, when I had a lovely family come in for a tour, Oscar went with us outside to tour the five historic buildings out back. I think the museum needs a mascot because Oscar was the center of attention and everyone just loved him.

I just have to thank God for helping him and that it wasn't a serious enough problem to warrant back surgery or even worse, to put him down. I was so worried about either of those options. God has been so merciful to me and to Oscar with this. I felt dumb praying to God about my dog, but at the same time, I knew God knows how much Oscar means to me and Oscar is His creation as well. Plus, God's eye is on the sparrow, right? Right now, Oscar is happy to not be in pain. I was thinking that he must be on some good medication and that maybe I could use some. Ha Ha! So that has been the dachshund drama around my house lately. At least this time, the drama didn't include a x-ray looking for my diamond earrings like it did with the younger two dogs!