the tripawd journey begins
on july 31, 2012 “the boys” (murphy, sullivan and brown) were having a playdate with their good friend buddy brooks in norfolk, ma. towards the end of the playtime, sullivan began limping quite noticeably on his left, front leg. sure he hadn’t sprained it from running too hard, we checked the paw for an insect bite/sting, burr in the pad or other such external malady. fortuitously, we had a prescheduled vet appointment that afternoon and were most relieved that dr. karen holmes would be able to evaluate sullivan’s condition.
after review, dr. holmes was unable to make a diagnosis. she drew blood and ran a test for lyme disease as a symptom of tick-borne illness in dogs often presents in lameness. the lyme test came back negative. she prescribed tramadol and gabapentin for sully’s pain and encouraged us to see cathy at sterling impressions for massage. the pain meds kept the discomfort down, but sullivan was not himself and ever-more labored by the day in his walking. we saw cathy once for massage and sadly it was a futile visit.
dr. homles asked to reevaluate sullivan after a few days and on august 7th we went to windhover for a recheck. at that time she noticed sully’s worsened walking capability and overall lethargy. prior to examining sully fully, she took a larger sample of blood and sent it to a comprehensive lab to be tested for all types of insect/tick borne illness. the results of this blood panel came back days later and there was no insect-related disease in the blood. she then performed a series of manipulations of sullivan’s neck and said, “humm… i bet this dog has something neurological going on…but don’t worry. i’m not talking cancer or anything”.
we made an appointment for monday, august 13th for an x-ray of sully’s neck to assess for neurological weakness. cathy and dr. holmes sedated sullivan and took one simple neck x-ray, which was inconclusive. “slight abnormality of the disc space” was the claim.
i was sent home with a sedated dog drooling, unable to walk on his own given the loopy medication and asked to square up on a bill from 3 office visits, an x-ray, medication and massage therapy all of which were completely useless and yielded no medical treatment plan or diagnosis.
while paying the bill, the doctor came out and gave me, as paul harvey would say: the rest of the story: a death sentence, not a treatment plan.
