Happy 14th Birthday, Kitsune!

On December 26th, 2022 we celebrated my amazing dog’s, Kitsune’s, 14th birthday!  Somehow my sweet, adorable little “puppy” is 14 years old already!

I know human kids often complain about having birthdays near the big winter holidays.  But it’s so fun to have a birthday to celebrate here the day after Christmas.  Every year on his birthday Kit gets a few presents, and we make him a special birthday dinner.  This year for his dinner Kit got a bit of steak, plain mashed potatoes, and green beans.  He seemed to have a lot of fun playing with his new toy.  There are some clips of him opening and playing with it near the end of the video that I’ll post below.  Because a 14-year-old dog playing with his new birthday toy is just about the most adorable thing ever!

Kitsune Health Update

Kit’s been doing well, which makes me so happy.  2022 hasn’t been the best year for him, unfortunately.  For anyone who doesn’t know, he was diagnosed with IVDD back in September.  His recovery was long but luckily went well, other than the fact that one of the medications he was on, a steroid, to treat his IVDD ended up causing symptoms of Cushing’s Disease.  We’re still not 100% sure whether he is taking a bit longer than normal to get over idiopathic Cushing’s, or if he perhaps already had the beginnings of Cushing’s Disease that was then made worse by his medication.

Right now Kit is on a bunch of supplements to help support his back, joints, muscles, and liver.  In two months or so he’ll be going back to the vet for follow up blood work so we can evaluate whether his liver enzyme numbers have come down.  We’ll most likely, at that time, decide whether we need to pursue further testing.

All that doesn’t sound like the best news ever but, luckily, if Kit does end up having actual Cushing’s Disease it’s something we can manage.

A Set Back?

After his 8 weeks of rest for his IVDD recovery we got the ok to start letting Kit get back to normal again.  For awhile we were worried.  After having to rest for so long his muscles were weak.  We could tell that Kit was getting sore, especially when he would get up after laying down for awhile.  During his IVDD recovery I had to stop giving him a lot of the supplements I was using to manage his arthritis because they conflicted with the medications he was on.  His vet and I suspected that it wasn’t his back or his neck that was hurting him this time, it was actually his arthritis acting up.

I put Kit back on all his arthritis supplements as soon as I could, including fish oil and turmeric.  Thankfully, after a couple of weeks back on all his regular supplements again his pain started to ease.  He stopped looking stiff and uncomfortable after getting up out of bed.  It’s been hard, because the weather where we live hasn’t been great lately.  But I’ve been trying to take him on some relaxing walks when I can, to help rebuild the muscle mass he lost during his recovery.

Kit is Sick of Relaxing!

As much as we’ve tried to slowly reintroduce Kit to being active again, according to him he’s ready to go, go, go!  Besides a few remaining Cushing’s symptoms that we’ve been able to manage well, Kit is pretty much back to normal.  He’s back to his everyday trouble making, including pestering his younger brother, Fenrir, chasing the deer out of our yard, and trying to knock over the kitchen trash.  His middle name isn’t Trouble for nothing!

Living in the Moment

Kit is the most adorable little old man ever and I strive everyday to cherish every moment with him.  I really couldn’t ask for a better dog, and I’m going to continue to do everything in my power to ensure that Kit’s senior years are pain free, and full of happiness, love, and fun!

I’ve kind of tried to get away from doing these types of posts – just general updates on my own dogs.  But a lot of people have been asking me how Kit is doing and I figured his birthday was a good day to post an update.  Maybe I’ll try to find a better balance and go back to posting dog updates a bit more often.  You can also always check in with Kit and Fen over on our Facebook page, or on Kit and Fen’s Instagram pages.

Happy 14th Birthday, Kitsune!

And here’s to many more!

Comment below!  When is your pet’s birthday?  Do you do anything special to celebrate pet birthdays?  Thanks, as always, for reading!