Bug's DNA Test!

The mystery mutt is no more - we sent in a Wisdom Panel kit to find out what made a Bug. Although expensive, it was lots of fun to find out her mix! I was very surprised to see Weimaraner, until I found out long haired Weims are a thing and looked them up -- Bug looks just like them! Wisdom panel has a cool "community" of the dogs they've tested with pictures and the DNA results. Bug's can be found here. 

Finally I have an answer for "what kind of dog is that?!"

"She's an Australian Weimar-Springer-Doodle!!"

Anxious dog; different meds

It's been awhile since I posted! We've had a rocky year since Bug's near-death-experience. Current theory is that her barbiturate OD caused some permanent damage. Bug has been anxious and withdrawn. Previously chalked up to pain from her hip surgery, she was on NSAIDs and gabapentin, but lots of pain meds vs. no pain meds, we were seeing the same behaviors - sleeping alone in the basement most of the day, lunging at cats for no reason, etc. Not the friendly, happy-go-lucky Bug we love.

Sleeping peacefully next to Sulley

So we went through SEVERAL appointments checking out her eyes, for signs of PRA or SARDS. Neither were seen, and Bug's eyes passed with flying colors. After serious discussions of euthanasia, DVM-to-the-rescue Abigail suggested cutting down on her dose of fluoxetine and and trying a TCA, amitriptyline. Because it's given more often, I have been giving her half doses of fluoxetine BID with the TCA. After the very first day of treatment, Bug has not lunged at a cat!!

We visited friends in Columbus overnight this past weekend and Bug was super excited to see her dog and human friends, joyfully greeting everyone and relaxing (sleeping and chewing) when appropriate. I realized when I heard her chewing a cow hoof while I was falling asleep that I hadn't seen her chew in MONTHS! Yay for the return of normal relaxed-dog behaviors!

I am SO HAPPY to have my Bug back. She's FUN again! A goofy, happy mutt that can relax and cuddle in bed, recover from another dog's snark, and just generally live a happy doggy life. I don't know if this med protocol will work for the rest of her life or if we'll have to adjust it until we run out of options. I'm just happy to see her personality again. It's so true that you really don't realize how bad something has gotten until it's better!

She is still a Bug - stuck on the stairs,
because baby gates kill Bugs. 

Bug FHO Update #5: Rehab

Bug has now completed 5 weeks of underwater treadmill therapy, and we're seeing a HUGE improvement!

We had to wait to start the treadmill until she was weight bearing on her leg, and to get there we did "assisted weight shifts" for a few seconds at a time by supporting her butt and gently lifting the good leg. We also walked around in her pool (see Bugzercisor video).

The biggest change I've been noticing is a huge improvement in her attitude. She's much more relaxed, even in new situations. It's a similar change to when I started her on fluoxetine. I had known she was in pain from her hip, but what a difference less pain makes! She's much less reactive to other dogs and less anxious. I'm so excited to see what this does for her learning ability (dog parkour, agility, and disc dogs, here we come!!)

Below is a short (ok, long-ish but adorable) video of her first vs. fifth sessions on the treadmill. Shout-out to Animal Clinic Northview for the AWESOME rehab program and Susan RVT for all the help with the Bug-let!

Relay Toxicosis: Bug's Brush with Death

Last Friday, Bug tried to kill herself after a run in our backyard woods. 

I woke up at 8:00 am to a comatose dog - no pupil reaction, no gag reflex, nothing. She was absolutely limp but breathing and her heart was beating. She felt cold; Bug has a history of seizures, but even status epilepticus would leave her warm from muscle activity. 

Obviously, I immediately threw her in the car and rushed to the vet. The vet took her history, dumped her with IV fluids, and pulled bloodwork and a tox screen on her urine. I went to work a late, hot mess. Finally, at 2:30 pm we had some answers: the urine screen came positive for barbiturates*. The vet gave me a dismal outlook, as did Googling for canine barbiturate OD. I called my mom to check on the only barbiturate I could think of in the house - an old prescription for a cat: phenobarbital. However, it was safely still in a box, sitting on a tall dresser that was behind an x-pen. Hmm! 

Barbiturates are most commonly used by veterinarians (rather than MDs). And their most common use is in a euthanasia solution. So who tried to put down my dog? Who could have, when I was with her the whole day? Apparently, the barbiturate used in euthanasia solutions (sodium pentobarbital/phenytoin) is insanely stable, persisting in the carcass of a euthanized animal for years. Years. A case study found two pet dogs poisoned from eating a horse carcass euthanized 2 years prior**! In this case, the dogs had found an improperly buried horse 300 meters away in a neighbor's ravine. In another case, an australian shepherd ate something on a beach then appeared sleepy and went comatose two hours later. There had been a beached whale euthanized and removed from the beach a few days before the poisoning, but the dog must have found some of the carcass to eat***. This type of poisoning is known as relay toxicosis. 

The most likely cause of my dog's unresponsiveness was eating something in the woods that had been euthanized. My parents' property is adjacent to a housing development, and the woods we hike in runs behind several of our neighbors houses, so the homes along the woods probably numbers in the vicinity of 50. Because Bug was not out of my sight long enough to exhume anybody's dead old cat, I have to assume that either (1) it wasn't buried in the first place or (2) it was improperly buried and subsequently dug up by wildlife (raccoons, foxes, coyotes all live in the area and wouldn't hesitate to eat carrion.) 

So this is the soapbox: 

If you euthanize an animal, you obviously have compassion. Please, please, bury your pet appropriately! Have compassion on neighbor's dogs, wild animals, and anything else that may try to feed on said pet. If you don't have the ability to bury your pet properly, have them cremated. There are many services to do this for you and some even offer urns or boxes engraved with your pet's name. 

Check your local laws on pet/livestock burial. Bury your pet at least 3 feet (36 inches). AT THE VERY LEAST! Bury deeper in wetter or loose soils. 

*In most cases, veterinarians use an at-home drug test kit found at drug stores. More dogs than should get into marijuana (and present with symptoms similar to Bug's) but owners are afraid of legal repercussions and don't admit to having the substance around their house. (Or don't realize the risk it poses for their dog!) A urine screen is a fast and cheap way to determine what may be causing the problem.

**Kaiser, Amanda M., Warner MacFarland, Roger S. Siemion, and Merl D. Raisbeck. "Secondary Pentobarbital Poisoning in Two Dogs: A Cautionary Tale." Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation 22.4 (2010): 632-34.

***Bischoff, Karyn, Robin Jaeger, and Joseph G. Ebel. "An Unusual Case of Relay Pentobarbital Toxicosis in a Dog." Journal of Medical Toxicology 7.3 (2011): 236-39.

Bug FHO Update #4: pre-weight-bearing rehab

Bug working on rehab exercises and swimming now that her stitches are out. Most of this was filmed week 3 after surgery. Both Bug and the pool tried to die this weekend, luckily only one of them succeeded!

We have an appointment with a rehab veterinarian tomorrow!

Bug's Hip Dysplasia - Update #3: Post FHO

Bug is now 48 hours post-op! 

I've written some thoughts on the past day and a half since I picked her up from the vet.

1. I think Bug is sleeping better than I am! She has a memory-foam doggie bed set up in her "house," while I fitfully slept on a backpacking mat next to her. She's napping a lot, which is good for her recovery. I am just tired without end!

Napping with a snack #winning

2. Last night bruising started appearing. There's a purple mark along her femur. It's to be expected, along with this morning's swelling. I've been icing 20 minutes every few hours to keep down the swelling and pain. She doesn't seem to mind the ice sitting on it.

Bruising at 2 and a half days post-op

3. Her good leg is SORE. She's 90% 3-legged, so that poor hind doing double duty is quite tired, although she's getting better at lying down somewhat slowly, rather than attempting and falling onto the sore hip (she doesn't like me to help, she'll just stand tense and stare at me).

4. Range-of-motion exercises are really difficult - for me! Due to the nature of removing a joint completely and depending on scar tissue to compensate, making sure scar tissue doesn't form limiting the range of motion of the "new" joint is very important. I was instructed to do "75% of normal hip movement 7-10 times, 3 times per day." I'm not entirely sure what 100% range of motion is, so I've been going to the just before the point of pain as gently as I can. I can usually only do about 3 or 4 reps before she decides she's very done. Flexing she's ok with, extending is OUCH. She whines and considers nipping me, so I feel horrible doing this to her!

5. Bug does not like the cone of shame! She's been AMAZING about not licking at her sutures at all, but I've been putting it on while I'm not directly supervising her. Having awesome friends (canine and human!) Bug was able to borrow an inflatable donut "cone" that she likes a lot better - that also functions as a great (wear-able) pillow!

For the near future:

• carefully continue manual ROM
• more ice, crate rest
• soon, short walks on leash (slow!)
• make a consultation appointment with agility/rehab veterinarian Dr. Kathy Topham
• recheck/sutures out (14 days post op)
• one day after sutures are out, start swimming! See: The Bugzercisor! 

Bug's Hip Dysplasia - Update #2: The Bugzercisor

D-day is scheduled!! I'm dog/condo sitting for a friend a week in July, so scheduled the surgery at the very beginning of that week. The details seem to be fitting together perfectly - the condo we're at has a same-level patio for dog potty trips (no stairs!) and little, polite dogs (no behemoths *cough* ROMAN*cough* to knock a sore Bug down).

I had planned on getting a referral when back in Cleveland for PT/rehab because, with an FHO, early and intense rehab is critical to a getting functional false joint. This is because scar tissue is forming the joint - if range of motion exercises aren't done during recovery, it will be limited. Doing a lot of reading on FHOs, the consensus seemed to be that "hydrotherapy treadmill" is what's usually done by veterinarians to rehab dogs (a treadmill filled with water to add resistance and encourage more range of motion), but swimming is almost ideal. So I did some researching and found that a pool deep enough for Bug to swim in was surprisingly cheap at walmart!

Bug's Hip Dysplasia - Update #1: X-rays

I took Bug to the vet today (after much confusion with the receptionist over FHO vs. OFA and ortho vs. repro specialties).** We had good x-rays done under sedation and compared it to ones from last July to see the progression. The BEST news is her right hip looks great still! Her left is showing some pretty serious arthritic changes, but she's a perfect candidate for a Femoral Head Osteotomy (FHO).

Go home, Bug, you're drunk! The sedatives
lasted a bit longer than it took to take x-rays ;)

An FHO is where they remove the top of the femur that's supposed to rotate within the pelvis, because none of it is shaped right and it's currently just grinding bone-on-bone (OUCH!). This creates a "false joint" of muscle after healing, removing the source of pain and inflammation from the dog. Some range of motion is lost, but no more pain! Some reasons she made a perfect candidate:

• she's a small or medium sized dog (less than 45 lbs)
• she's an active dog that stays leaner, unlikely to get overweight and overstress her "good" hip
• she doesn't need it done bilaterally - one hip is good as is, so only rehabbing one side is necessary

There's a few other surgeries that treat hip dysplasia, but Bug isn't really a good candidate for them - triple pelvic osteotomy (TPO) is done for puppies that have signs of hip dysplasia but do not yet have arthritic changes to the joint. This surgery re-orients the pelvis, so the angle of the hip socket is better. A total hip replacement (THR) is exactly what it sounds like - bionic puppy hip! However, it's extremely expensive. They recommend THR for larger dogs that would be too big/heavy for an FHO to be as successful.

Now for what you've been waiting for -- the x-rays!

This is from a year ago (Bug was almost 2). There are some arthritic changes and you
can see the left hip (right side of the image) doesn't sit in the socket entirely.

Image from today, two weeks shy of exactly one year later. Bug's right hip
(left on the image) looks good still, but there's a decent progression of arthritis in the
 left hip - the femoral head is no longer smooth and correctly shaped, but
bumpy and rough from grinding in the joint. 

Although it's sad to see how much the arthritis has progressed in a year, I'm glad to have one more expert agree that an FHO is a good plan for Bug. She's still a young dog so I can pretty easily make her life less painful. We've scheduled the "big day" for a month from now while Bug and I are in Columbus watching a friend's dogs. Follow along for pictures/video and updates of Bug's process and recovery!

There's exactly one day left for the Bug shirts fund raiser! https://www.bonfirefunds.com/see-bug-run We sold TWENTY SHIRTS!! A HUGE thank you to everyone for helping my little dog! The fund was successful, so start looking for yours to come in the mail mid-July (right when Bug is going in for surgery!)

**OFA is a registry for pure-bred dogs to prove a veterinarian has x-rayed and examined hips and elbows for genetic orthopaedic problems. I have no clue why they thought I'd want my spayed, mixed breed to get an OFA exam, but.... eh?

Bug also got to do some paddle boarding before the vet appointment today, so today wasn't all bad!

Photography of Adventure

I'd like to have a page dedicated to my photography (more so than just blog posts with nice pictures.) I'm going to tag all posts in this category "portfolio."

On the trail with Karin Coyne, Abigail Curtis and Caleb. Zaleski State Forest, Ohio. 

A winter sunset with Bug in Columbus, Ohio. 

Sulley, Gina, Caleb, and Bug await the start of an adventure. Zaleski Backpacking Trail,  Ohio. 

A cute pause in hiking with Abigail Curtis and Sulley, Bug photobombing. 

Henry McNabb and Bug share lunch on the trail. Chuck Keiper Trail, PA. 

Sulley hesitates to walk through an icy stream, Karin Coyne, Abigail Curtis and dogs Caleb, Gina and Bug look on. Shawnee State Forest, OH.

Abigail and her dog balance across a stream. Shawnee State Forest, OH. 

Sulley and Bug enjoying a gallop on an Ohio hiking trail. 

Bull moose resting in high grasses. Rocky Mountain National Park, CO.

Brad Duncan fishes for Rainbow Trout in a high mountain lake. Zirkel range, CO.

The site of a recent forest fire on a dreary, rainy day. Friendship Park near Douglas, WY.

Gina hunts for critters near Bur Oak Lake, OH.

A sunset in surprisingly beautiful Ohio. Bur Oak Lake.

Sunset over the mountains in the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps camp. Rocky Mountain National Park, CO.

A typical evening with the youth corps trail crew. Rocky Mountain National Park, CO. 

Corinne Abbiss carries in her SUP board off the Pacific in Busan, South Korea. 

I made a video starring a broken Bug!

All of these clips were taken after a mile-ish off leash run, so the limping is more pronounced. When she was first diagnosed, I couldn't find ANY good videos describing things like "bunny hop," so I finally got around to making one. 

Though I couldn't get a clip showing it well, you'll also see she "steps short" with her left hind -- it's on the ground for less time than her right hind and causes a tiny hitch step.

Taking on Wildcat - Solo!

This weekend I took my first solo backpacking trip! I was avoiding the "empty apartment" grief of losing a dog and venting from my first week at a very tedious office job.

Bug and I packed up and picked up another dog friend Gina, bright and early on Saturday. Pre-water filling, my pack was around 20 lbs at a guess. Dog food is heavy! My poor tent's footprint was left due to volume concerns - 45 L is pretty tiny when you've got to pack an entire tent for yourself. Even my adorable, tiny beloved tent is about 3 L in a compression sack. I was very tempted to ditch the tent and sleeping pad for a hammock, but with two dogs and predicted temperatures in the low-40s, I went with my usual setup (Sierra Designs Clip 3, Thermarest Z-Lite pad, Thermarest pillow, Kelty Cosmic Down 20, and Alps Mountaineering Razor -- quite a large/heavy lineup, really. I'm upgrading a bit at a time!)

Adorable Gina in her sweater

Clothing-wise, I went super light. The weather was supposed to be mild, so the only extra sets of anything I brought was a pair of socks for each day and a spare pair. Smartwool longsleeve undershirt, light tech tee, and light hiking pants made up the single outfit I brought. For breaks from hiking, nighttime, and "in-case", I brought a hoodie, down vest and light rain gear. The dogs each had a rainproof/fleece reflective coat, and Gina had a fleece sweater for sleeping in.

As usual, when packing/planning food unsupervised, I brought approximately twice as much food as I needed. I also accidentally shopped for this trip absolutely STARVING hungry after work on Friday, so wandered Giant Eagle for 40 minutes before deciding the giant pile of mismatched items in my basket would have to suffice. Food brought: Dinner: a mountain house meal, packet of instant pasta, lunch/snacks: pack of jerky, jar of PB, half-sandwich bag of dark chocolate chips, tortillas, sandwich bag of pretzels, and breakfast: hot chocolate, instant coffee, and instant oatmeal.

A stick bug Bug found!

More than half of everything came home, and the dogs got most of the instant pasta. Cooking kit was just a Jetboil (best stove EVAR) and a plastic mug. Oh, and since my spoon-fork-knife died last trip, I grabbed a metal spoon from the kitchen for this time. My water supply was 3L in a camelbak and .5 L in a 1L nalgene -- which ended up perfect. I was left with 1L after dinner, had a "Sahara desert" night, made breakfast with 2 cups and finished the trail with a sip left. I had brought purification drops in case, but didn't really need to refill nor did I see a good candidate stream for filling up. I like to see good moving water, and the few I passed were pooled and filled with leaf litter.


Leaving the house Saturday morning, I lapped my neighborhood twice to run back in for important forgotten things. First round: pocket knife, the morning's coffee in a travel mug, diva cup. Second round: hiking boots. After that I ran around Columbus picking up necessary things: Dog #2 and the Jetboil, so with the hour and forty minute drive, I wasn't on the trail until 10am.


Regardless of the late start, I made awesome time and was around 11 miles in (and exhausted!) by 3.30. I started looking for a campsite. I usually like to camp "low," along a stream or otherwise lower-elevation area, because in my experience it tends to be sheltered from wind, though may be colder in temperature. Also, camping next to a water source has obvious advantages (see above: Sahara desert night!) However, the most perfect camping spot ever -- along a stream, with pretty rock formations marking out the streambed, with a fire ring already set up -- was taken and had a whole string of neighbors, probably about 6 or 7 tents total. Ugh! So we hiked another mile and it ended up uphill for most of that until I came to a nice flat ridge to set up on. I definitely missed having buddies at this point - delegating one person to do dinner and one to set up camp is super efficient. I sucked it up, tethered the dogs with their dinners (because I'd be unable to supervise my food while setting up the tent), and started the water boiling so it'd heat up while I worked on the tent. One of my favorite features of the Jetboil is the colorful window that turns bright yellow when it's boiling - you can see from across camp that it's done! No more popping the lid carefully, risking dumping your entire stove and letting all the heat out at the same time. I'd like to buy my own Jetboil, that thing is crazy awesome.

You might think that solo hiking would be lonely. I did! Actually it was really nice. The dogs were plenty company and while eating or just resting, I had brought my kindle with a good thriller on it. Most of the time, either on the trail or at camp, I was busy with tasks like either, hiking, making food, or setting things up, so there was really never a time I wished for more company. Also, I had a rough week - starting a new job after losing Dazz meant that every evening had at least a few tears involved. Planning and packing for the trip gave me something to work toward on Thursday and Friday. I also really enjoyed the thinking time. I didn't have any sad moments on the trail as I'd expected - the excitement of the dogs was contagious and I really just relaxed in nature and the physicality of taking a moderate trail rather fast.

Fun sunset view from my bed - also,
 tempted fate leaving off the rain fly!

Before bed (at, you know, a chilly and rapidly darkening 6.40 PM) I set up a raccoon-Bug bag. I wasn't terribly worried about bears in Wayne National Forest, but because I brought a Bug into my tent and didn't want to leave food sitting on the ground outside of the tent, I rigged a mini bear-bag with a dog leash and my sleeping bag sack.


The night went by quickly - waking up, reading a bit, taking a teensy sip of water, making sure the dogs were warm enough and going back to sleep. At one point a flashlight hit the side of my tent and scared the living hell out of me until I determined it was a distant camping-neighbor in search of firewood. Plus, I figured no one could murder me without first getting their face bit off by the vicious 19 lbs of terrier in my tent.

I think I accidentally stumbled upon the best camping weekend this season. Sunny, super clear, 60s in the day and low 40s at night, and with a new moon! I left the rain fly off of my tent and got to enjoy the stars all night!

The Red River Gorge (and Bug's dog-aggressive shenanigans)

Posting this super late because I wrote it up in August and left it a draft to add pictures, and completely forgot to post it. 

This weekend (August 1-3) we took a trip to The Red River Gorge in Slade, KY. It was super fun! We loaded up the Subie with all our climbing and camping gear on Friday for two full days of climbing, Saturday and Sunday.

Getting to Miguel's around 10pm, we set up our tents and went for a quick night hike to see the stars. It was beautiful! I desperately need  a tripod because I couldn't capture the stars and milky way with the dSLR, but I wish I could have! The air was still, very quiet in the loud, summer way. What a nice, relaxing start to the weekend! (Though KY humidity is brutal, we climbed into bed sweaty and even my pillow felt damp, ick.)

Saturday morning we had some confusion getting to The Shire (actually finding the Sore Heel parking lot was the hard part, once there it was easy navigating from the wooden signs). Late start or not, we did find it and hiked up to the wall where it was a bit crowded, so I had to lead the 5.8, "Audie," before the 5.7, but I'm really glad I did because later I took my first lead fall on the crux 3rd bolt on the 5.7, "Pee-Wee!"

About 20 minutes after we arrived, a family arrived with a very pretty husky mix named Bandit. He and Bug seemed to get along fine until Bug froze over a pack. I caught it out of the corner of my eye as she started twitching her lips and dove towards her, catching right as she exploded at him. I half-carried, half-dragged her over the uphill area and logs by her harness. I kept myself between her and Bandit, swinging my legs at him a few times to discourage him from reaching her, until Bandit's people could leash him because he followed us. She was extremely worked up but luckily had the bite inhibition not to nip me (because I did everything wrong in desperation to stop the fight before the dogs could connect).

So annoying yet adorable.

I'm sure she started the fight because she decided the pack, most likely containing food, was hers, and she was just stressed enough to feel the need to defend it. I'm now trying to find out why her stress level was that high. The rest of the weekend she was straight up dog aggressive, exploding at the sight of any new dogs without any warning or threshold. I ran blood work and had her eyes examined, hopefully something will show up that's fixable. I'm also starting her on NSAIDs constantly, because hip pain could really ruin her day and be just enough to make her snarky. So, either there's something physical going on, or she's gotten straight up dog reactive, beyond her barrier frustration/leash reactivity that was before. I'm hoping it's something we can solve, because working through her reactivity is so hard! I'm so intimidated by it, and just attempting to get her to work at outdoor class is frustrating enough to nearly bring me to tears, Every. Single. Time. Which, obviously, makes me loathe to take her to class again, so then she doesn't improve. GAH. Basically, I need to find her threshold where we can work. Right now it's so far as to be nonexistent. Talking to my good friends at Behavior Unleashed, we've decided to work for 6 months with good training, and if she doesn't improve, we'll look at anxiety-reducing medications for her.

The Bug house.

"27 years"

But anyway, the rest of climbing was AWESOME (minus managing Bug trying to eat all other dogs)! I had her canvas crate and set it up wherever else we went, and that worked amazingly for her to have a safe spot -- and to keep her out of sight of other scary dogs! (Bad dogs have to be good in crates or they'd be impossible to live with!) We climbed Audie a few more times, and had a really nice group of climbers take up our rope as tagline and set up TR for us on Myranda Rayne, a 5.9 that was really fun, and a bit longer than anything else around. They also suggested going to The Gallery, another wall off of the Sore Heel parking lot, so Sunday afternoon we left Cody and Bug to nap at the car and headed over there to climb "27 years of climbing," a really nice, juggy/ledgy 5.8 with 7 bolts to the top, fairly long with a nice low first bolt and close 2nd and 3rd with easy stances for confidence building! I got pretty sure of myself on this one and really climbed, unlike the other leading I'd done where I was too scared to pull any risky-fun moves. So glad we got to do this one! I also can't wait to go back and lead that sucker again, what a fun route. Also I'd like to be a little less terrified and not make a mess of clipping the anchors. (The final burn to the anchors was a little overhung, not enough to be difficult, but enough to be scary, and the clipping stance requires a layback that's hella scary 70-some feet above the ground!)

The subie's AWD was tested on some of those "roads," which were super fun to drive on. It'll be interesting to take a fall trip and try them...

Cute mutt in the dirty subie.

This is Bug.

This is Bug. Bug is a 36 lb spazzy, trouble-making, slightly reactive, cuddly, nippy, fun little dog (with idiopathic epilepsy, allergies, and horrible, horrible knees). She's taught me a ton.

My name is Genevieve and this is a blog about our adventures, some adventure gear, dogs, adventures with dogs, and simply life plus a Bug.