The new normal

Sophie went back to the vet this week. She had starting sneezing those abnormal sneezes again. They’re like potato chips– you can’t have just one; Sophie can easily sneeze 12 times in a row. I get tired just watching.

We had started to worry that the cancer had returned. There was the sneezing, an almost constant dripping from her nose and then an afternoon when she seemed off-balance and maybe dizzy.

The scan came back with good news; there’s lots of scar tissue in her nasal cavity but no signs of the cancer. The radiation has damaged the cartilage in her nose, making her less resistant to colds and other irritations. As the oncologist pointed out, this is the new normal. She can prescribe antibiotics if Sophie is truly sick but her energy level and appetite indicate that she feels fine.

There was just one worry: Sophie had a seizure before the scan. It’s possible that it was a reaction to the anesthesia but we can’t be sure.

I don’t know if you can see from the photograph, but the hair that she lost after radiation has grown back– and it’s white!

 

Dogs don’t get bloody noses

Thinking it was foxtail, we made a beeline to the vet. Since the only symptom was full-body sneezing, we were sent back home. Sophie didn’t have any nasal discharge and had not been scratching or pawing her nose, so the vet thought that foxtail was unlikely.

The next day, however, Sophie had an impressively bloody nose. It’s possible that she simply sneezed so hard that she knocked her nose against the floor and made it bleed. However, most of the blood was on the bed….looks like she was sleeping when a full-body sneeze triggered a serious rush of nose blood.

So back to the vet. This time we got a referral to a veterinary surgeon.

 

First symptoms

A dog’s sneeze is almost always funny. When a dog is going to sneeze, he gets a look in his eye and a tilt to the head meaning “stand back…..” I invariably congratulate Sophie on an excellent sneeze because it seems like such an accomplishment.

If a classic dog sneeze is funny, Sophie’s sneezes last week were hilarious. They would start at the tip of her nose and run through her body and escape out her tail. The sneeze would shake her whole body and she’d look a little tired afterwards. It was quite a spectacle.

I was describing these new sneezes to a co-worker who did not laugh along with me. Instead, she suggested that Sophie might have a foxtail in her nose. Foxtail is a nasty grass top that can get into a dog’s nose and work its way into its lungs.

Now, I’m wishing it was something simple like foxtail.