Medb Intro & Update
Our furry family has expanded! And unfortunately the new addition is having problems. :-/
Medb’s Comes Home
In January, I went on a trip to White Wilderness for my birthday. The experience was amazing. When I was there, I saw a little puppy named Voodoo. On the last day of the trip, we arrived into the yard and were playing with the puppy litters that the operation was raising. One litter was only two puppies, Druid and Voodoo. Druid was an active, playful puppy. With the energy he had, he is going to be a wonderful sled dog. The other puppy, VooDoo, was shy, small, and did not want to come out to meet people. We managed to lift her out and hold her while Druid was being his hyper self and playing with a sock covered water bottle. She was so small, my hand could almost cover her up. Here’s what it looked like:
I decided to take her with me. She wasn’t going to be able to become a sled dog due to confidence issues. So with Leah’s approval, we have a new puppy. 
When we got her home, we decided to rename her to Morrigan Medb, or just Medb for short. (Pronounced Maeve, more info on the name over at the Wikipedia entry for Medb)
Medb in the House
She grew fast and is a sweetheart. We knew she would be a challenge to raise since she had confidence issues. She was very shy, but came out of her shell quickly at the house. Sebastian is a great big brother and corrects and cares for her. She loves meeting other dogs and people now and did great in her puppy class. Here’s a great shot of her from her graduation day.
Click picture for larger version
Medb’s Health
Unfortunately Medb does have some health problems. She has some brain damage, so she does not have complete control over her back legs. She has been managing it in her own special way. It just makes her much more special to us. Our vet loves her, but does not know how life will play out because of her mental capacity. She is playful though through it all.
Medb and the Emergency Room…
On Easter and our 2nd wedding aniversary, Medb started having seizures. She had one while I was taking a quick name. Leah heard some weird noises, and found Medb on the floor having urinated on herself. She was very disoriented, but recovered ok. Then later in the day, she had a full seizure when she stood up to get a drink. When she was walking over, she locked up and fellover. She came out of it ok, but she also had some fluid in her lungs from what we could hear. :-/
Leah called the emergency vet and they recommended bringing her in. They took her, did some tests, and recommended we admit her for a few days while they tried to stop the seizures and remove the fluid from her lungs. They were not able to determine a cause of the seizures, but thought it was something to do with her brain damage. It was a hard and difficult time for Leah and myself. She is such a sweet puppy and it kills me to see her so drugged up, she can’t move a muscle. The fear of losing her was hard to take too. The vet said she was high risk and were not sure how long she would last.
Here’s what she looked like when we went to go visit her at the emergency vet.
Click picture for larger version
When she came home, she could not move for a long while until she adjusted to the medications. We had to hold her head up when she ate or when she drank. The good news was that she was recovering. After a time, we were able to take her to the dog park again and she loved it. She was walking and playing like all was normal.
Regression
The last few days, she has been having more seizures. She is having about 3-4 a day and they are full gran maul seizures. The horrible thing is there is nothing we can really do. Our vet gave us more meds to see if upping to dose will help. It is all guesswork though until we can get her to the neurologist at the UW-Madison Vet school on May 8th. Hopefully they can give us an idea on what she is going through and what to expect as she grows up. She deserves the best life she can get. I hope it is a long and happy one.
More updates as they develop.