Depression Sets in With Sparky

Since my last update on Sparky on April 19th, I’ve noticed that he seems depressed and has lost over five pounds.  Since that day that I gave him the sedative, I only had to give it to him one more time this past weekend. The reason I did this was because the vet had taken off the splint on Friday. So now Sparky only has a bandage and I was worried that if I left him alone all day Saturday, the temptation to take off the bandage would be great.  If sparky took off the bandage and started to lick his wound again, we would end up in square one.

He  has been leaving his paw alone for the past three weeks.  But now I wonder if the pill was too strong for him. Even when Cristian takes him for a walk, he says he is unmotivated. Maybe that drug is too strong.

I just took this picture of him sitting in the doorway. It is about 2 feet from my desk. He usually goes out in the sun when I leave the door open for him. His breathing is kind of heavy too, so I am kind of worried. Today I am going to the vet again.

Another symptom of Acral Lick Granuloma is that once the obsessive compulsive behavior is controlled on a specific area, they might start off on another area of their body. And that is what he does at night, he licks one paw continuously. I told this to the vet and he said to give him the sedative every night to stop this. But I can’t do this. I am seeing the effects of one pill from almost a week ago. I can’t stand seeing him this way. His name is Sparky for a reason! when I hear him doing this at night, I tell him to stop and he does right away.  It’s like he already knows he shouldn’t be doing that.

Since that time that I wrote about my brother, I have barely talked to him. I saw him the day we celebrated his birthday. On the other hand, I have been able to focus more on my real estate work. And in this last week, I have been working on putting together a contract. This dry spell has been way too long.  I still am looking at other options for immediate income by applying for jobs. I did go one day to my graphic artist brother’s office to help him organize everything. But that is more like temp work. Baby steps……lead to new steps.