My Chuy

Chuy is my dog.  I got him my Junior year in college and though we've added other dogs, got married, had kids...moved a lot - Chuy and I have always been together.  He'll be 14 in February.  I noticed on Monday that Chuy was not nearly as active as he usually was and he's tail did curl like normal.  Since I was going to Alto on Tuesday, I went ahead and took him to the vet to have him checked out.

Chuy has had a Grade 3 heart murmur for two years.  He's been on 3 to 4 different meds daily for about that long as well.  Tuesday the vet determined that his heart murmur is now a Grade 4, Grade 5 is the worst and basically prepare for the end.  But he said just to be aware that he may not have the energy we are use to him having and so I brought him home.  But all night long his hind quarters shook as if he was freezing and he wouldn't get up and move without prompting.  By Thursday, I called the vet to get the recommended information about possibly taking him to the heart vet at A&M and ordered the special dog food for dogs with heart disease.  Turns out it would be over $1500 just to have Chuy seen.  :/  That option was out, but then our vet called and after talking to him, he determined that perhaps Chuy was depleted on Potassium b/c he was on a very high dose of Lasix for the fluid around his heart.  Friday, Dad brought Chuy's new dog food and Potassium for us to start.  By Friday night, his shaking had stopped.  By Saturday his tail was curling again.  By Monday when we went back for a follow up at the vet, he was almost normal again. 

So after a week of preparing to have to let my Chuy go, I was greatly relieved to have Chuy back to almost normal.  He is now on 5 different meds plus special dog food that he has to take twice a day.  But he's still here and he's still happy and I am much relieved for a little more time with my Chuy.