Thanks for stopping in! If I could let Trixie know you were interested in her story, I would. We lost our beloved Trixie to kidney failure on December 25, 2008. It was the most difficult decision I ever had to make. I still feel like I let her down, by not catching on sooner that something was wrong. I hope she forgives me for my ignorance, I really tried to be her protector to the end. After all, that was my duty to her as her "mom".


A lot of people don't understand the connection with the pets we have in our lives. But some of you do. Animals give us unconditional love, with no strings attached, and in return ask nothing from us but maybe a pat on the head or even a treat now and then. They have complete forgiveness when we show a darker side to them when we don't really mean it...can we honestly say humans would show the same care and compassion and forgiveness?

Trixiestreasures is named after my miniature schnauzer Trixie. Here is her  photo with her prized treasure, her teddy bear, which she had for 12 years. She had multiple health problems including being diabetic with 2 shots of insulin daily. But she is and was my most valuable treasure! Hence the name trixiestreasures. Her story is below, and on our "links and tips" page you will find health tips we had used over the years to help her.


We are now located in the Big Sky country of Montana, USA.
Please check us out at: www.trixiestreasures.ecrater.com

 

Trixie did not start out with a proverbial silver spoon in her mouth.

Trixie had been abandoned by her first owners and left to die under a falling down boat dock. Neighbors around had told us she had been left under there for 3 days without food or water when we found her. We were disgusted that people knew about her and did absolutely nothing. We took her in and fed her her first meal, which consisted of eggs and bread! I gave her a bath and spent 3 weeks trying to get the knots out of her fur. We found out from the first vet we went to that she was about 1 year old when we found her.
We noticed she would always cower at any sudden movements, or loud noises, bark profusely at someone wearing sunglasses or a baseball hat or get extremely upset at the rattling of keys. Month's later we found out from someone who knew the former owner that he had abused her by hitting her and throwing things at her. Not a very nice person!
 
The first couple of months were not very pleasant, for starters, Trixie lost the ability to use her back legs. The vet told us she would be using a wheelchair for the rest of her life, that she had neurological problems. With a lot of research on our own, my mother came across an article with Trixie's same symptoms and discovered she could possibly have Tick Paralysis. Which is an infection caused by ticks embedding themselves in the skin. The vet denied any of this and sent us home with no hope at all. Meanwhile, my mom was grooming Trixie and discovered 2 ticks engorged in one of her paws. Once we removed them, Trixie was up and running around within 3 days! Needless to say, we changed vets. (On an ironic note, that same vet lost her own dog to Tick Paralysis!)           

A few months later, Trixie was playing on the dock and misjudged jumping on the boat and she went in the water after hitting her chest and knocking the wind out of her. We couldn't find her, and when dad jumped in he saw her floating at the front of the  boat, picked her up and put her lifeless body on the dock. (A week Prior to this my mom checked out a library book on CPR for dogs.)  My mom gave her mouth to nose and we rushed her to the vet and after 1 day of staying overnight at the vet's, we got a phone call asking us to "Please take your dog home! She is barking up a storm and won't keep quiet!" That's our girl!!
Over the years, we have encountered the typical ailments of stomach aches, allergies, muscle ailments, ear infections, etc. Honestly Trixie could check off most of the things listed in a vet book that she has come down with over the years we have had her. To have her keep going for all those years, she definitely was a miracle.

Until 4 years ago we were pretty lucky, until the fateful night I took her out for her evening walk and she walked right into a sign post... She was suddenly blind overnight. We rushed her to the vet and with blood tests, it was determined that she had diabetes and would need insulin injections. We missed the signs of excessive thirst and frequent urination thinking that it was Summertime and she was just very hot and thirsty.

Trixie was a thinker and needed to visualize things. Once she was suddenly blind she was very depressed and would hardly eat or want to even go out for a walk.

We made the appointment for cataract surgery to remove the cataracts that develop instantly when diabetes strikes (which cost a total of $3500). We were able to save only the left eye with surgery, while losing the right one to Glaucoma. That was a very expensive visit, but I just wanted to give her something back for all the years of love she has given myself and my family. She was taking Voltaren for the past several years after her surgery, which is an anti-inflammatory eye drop to control her glaucoma. It is kind of like an aspirin for the eye. Very expensive! $75.00 per 5ml a bottle with no generic brand yet!

We also started to cook for her with a recipe that lowered her sugar levels instantly and kept her pretty steady. We kept her going for as long as we could. Some people would argue that she was just a dog, but to us she was our life, our family, our joy.

Several months ago she developed a growth on her only good eye. We were trying to save what little sight we could and tried to keep her diabetes in check, while hoping things were going to be okay. To help Trixie get around without bumping into too many walls, we were training her with voice commands for "left, right, straight and stop". Of course when she was excited, all of that went right out the window, but when she was cautious and used her senses to maneuver her way around, those commands helped. With her it was easier to tap her left side while saying "left" and tap her right side saying "right" etc. Then praising her for obeying. 
Early in the month of May, 2008, Trixie was diagnosed with Idiopathic Vestibular Disease. It started with her constantly walking in circles, and being off balance, and her eyes were very erratic, then she vomited all day, a frothy yellow acidic stuff. That was a scary day for us, but with research and a talk with the vet (luckily he knew about this syndrome, since a lot of vets out there are not familiar with it) we were able to control it. To help keep her balance, we put her harness and leash on her when walking around and we had used an old neck brace to help keep her head straight instead of twisting her neck around when she got really off balance.

She was prescribed Baytril antibiotic to control the yeast infection in her ear and Rimadyl to help with any inflammation. Being idiopathic, meaning nobody knows the cause, it was suspected that the yeast infection in her ear contributed to the condition.

For more information on this health issue, please visit: 
Idiopathic Vestibular Disorder

By August 2008, she was doing better, but she had a permanent head tilt to the left. It was more noticeable when she got tired. With all of those things piling up on top of her, it was harder to control her glucose levels, but I rotated her insulin injection site to a whole different area (mid section, verses in between shoulder blades). With this new area for her injections and controlling other ailments that cropped up, we were lucky and got lower glucose readings!


***We lost Trixie to kidney failure on December 25, 2008. I miss you girl!

This part is very hard for me. Most of this site had been written in better times when our munchkin was bumping into our legs begging for a treat.

About a week and a half before Christmas 2008, I woke up at 2:34 am to find that Trixie had fallen over. Her eyes were erratic and she couldn't keep her balance. The strange part that stood out was that she was tilting severely to her right this time instead of her left like she did when she had Idiopathic Vestibular Disease.

She still had her appetite, and we were with her constantly around the clock.

A day or so later, I was cuddling with her, and when I put her down, she gave a horrible painful cry. I will never forget that sound. We didn't know what was wrong and nobody was at the vets office to help because they closed early on that day. We slept with her on the floor and the only thing that kept her out of pain was me massaging her all night long.

We rushed her to the vet's office the next day and with blood tests found out her kidneys and liver were reading high. Up until the night of her dizzy spell, nothing indicated her health was failing. She did have a few "accidents" the night before, but other than that I don't recall anything standing out. We were always so careful with her, I just feel like I failed her.

She was put on IV's and stayed for a few days at the vets office. We went to see her every day. She didn't want to eat the food there, so we brought some of her own, which she finally ate.

On December 23, we were told they were going to take her off of the IV's and we could take her home, since nobody was going to be in the office over the holiday.

She was happy to be home, and I cleaned her with baby wipes and let her rest. We were told to keep fluids in her and watch her body temperature, due to the fact she could not regulate this on her own. She did fine until Christmas Eve in the afternoon. Eventually we had to give her water with with a syringe, she just didn't want to drink anymore.

By nighttime, she ate pretty good, so we kept broth mixed in with her food to give her any liquids we could manage. At about 8:30pm she was having a horrible seizure. We got her calm finally and tried calling vets in the neighboring counties trying to get a hold of someone to help. Finally one of the vet techs told us to bring her in and we rushed her there. She was so swollen from the IV's from earlier that they had to use a huge syringe to put liquids in her. She stayed the night and on Christmas Day we went to see her.

We stayed with her for several hours until she had another seizure because of her kidney failure, and I had to make the horrible decision to say goodbye. I think spiritually she left us with that last seizure. I don't want to think that she was still conscious when they put her down. We were not allowed to remain during the procedure and I still resent the fact that I was not able to be there with her during that time.

Christmas was on Thursday, and we were told that she couldn't be shipped out to the cremation place (over 100 miles away) until Monday. We decided to go to Billings to get away for a few days, everywhere we turned, was an imprint of Trix. By Monday, I called the Cremation place to find out she never made it. I then called the vets in our town, and they claimed she was shipped out, to just wait a few days, and since we had horrible ice storms it might take longer.

By the 10th day, I was frantic and demanded to have the UPS tracking number, which was reluctantly given to me. I couldn't believe I was losing her all over again.
I went online and found out that it had nothing to do with the weather for her delay, but had everything to do with the UPS truck going in the opposite direction.

Trixie went from Glasgow, to Wolfpoint, to Glendive, to Miles City, spent the weekend in Billings and finally got to Havre where she could finally be cremated! Technically, she should only have had to go straight to Wolfpoint and turn around to Havre. What a circus!

The funny thing was, when we were in Billings we would hear bumping at the bedroom door like she used to do when she was alive and wanted to come in. But when we checked, nothing was there! This happened during the same weekend she was at the UPS point in Billings. Guess she found us one way or the other.

She now lies in her bed wrapped in velvet until a nice box can be made for her.

For tips that we found worked on her, check out our Links and Tips page.

I do not profess to be an expert in any way shape or form. These tips are what we found to be the right choices for Trixie through all the years we have had her and are just guidelines. Speak with your veterinarian first before you try anything and go with your instincts.