November 2, Monday

It's been a slow week. :)

Elvis' weight seems to have gone back up to the over 8 lb mark. The last several weighings that I've done have put him at 8.6 or 8.8, which is good. I really would rather have him over 8 lb. I suspect that when he drops down under 8, the heartworm eggs are hatching. I definitely want to keep an eye on this, and I do want to talk to his vet before Thanksgiving.

The only thing I'm seeing right now that has me a bit concerned is his coat. He's blowing an awful lot of it, and the texture seems a bit different. Not sure if this is heartworm related or just something he's cycling through. If it keeps up, this will get mentioned to Dr. Walthall. Right now, I'm simply brushing him every couple of days to pull out the dead coat.

I will say his 1/2 pill twice a day of the cough medicine coupled with the .75-1 CC of Lasix twice a day seems to be doing the job very well. I have only rarely had to give him another cough tablet to help ease his cough. And, since he's not panicking hardly at all now, that doesn't drive the coughing to a worse state.

He has also developed an EXTREME love of soft spots...in particular the ottoman that's in the living room that I use when I'm stitching. He's gotten where he "haunts" me here in the den if I've not spent an adequate (according to him!) amount of time in there so he can lay on it. He still goes in and stares lovingly at it during dinner, and last night, when Randall picked him up off it and brought him here in the den in preparation for going outside, he said Elvis rushed back around the corner to get back to it. LOL

Apparently, too, Elvis has some pretty sharp elbows that he uses to be first out the door when all three dogs go outside. He muscles his way past Haley (a feat when you consider he's all of 8 or so pounds and she's over 20), in order to get out the door first and then he races to beat Skeeter to the back of the yard. He's got quite the competitive streak when it comes to this, so he does everything he can to be first out the door. Yesterday afternoon, he was pushing out the door so hard that he ended up going out at an angle and tripping over his feet.

I'd love to get a video of this, but I'm not sure I can. It's funny though to watch him fight to be first out and then pin his ears back and take off. I just wish his heart condition didn't limit his physical activity, but it does. Otherwise I suspect he and Skeeter would do a lot of running in the yard.

I know I keep promising more pictures, but I'm having a hard time a) getting pictures taken because of the rains we've had and b) getting new ones off the camera because my online time is so limited right now. I hope to have some posted this week.