Thought I’d do a quick update for a couple of reasons.

1.  Inquiry minds want to know 🙂

2.  I’m hoping someone may have suggestions.

Now that you’re curious, let’s begin.

Homeschooling is moving along slowly.  At moments I feel guilty that we’re not sitting at desks for hours a day doing school work and then I remind myself – I’m teaching a pre-schooler and a kindergartener.  This is a lot of one-on-one and we can get through quite a bit of material in 1-2 hours.  Those 1-2 hours don’t have to happen all at once and many days they don’t.  For example we did some reading this morning and then more reading this afternoon before moving on to math.  In between we had some first-hand experience at the vet’s office where Lili was able to sit with the vet as his examined one of our dogs and she also got to put on the stethoscope and listen to her heart.  Very exciting stuff and something she wouldn’t have been able to do if she had been sitting in a classroom anywhere else today.

I have been looking at some other curriculum and have found some Science curriculum that I really like so we’ll be ordering that soon and working a more formal, but fun Science study.

Naomi’s homeschool experience is much more relaxed.  Lots of play, reading, fun with Lego’s, puzzles and art.  We are working on name, letter and number recognition as well as sorting, but that’s as deep as it gets.

As time goes on we will slowly incorporate more into our day and sign up for some outside classes like art, dance, Spanish, PE and whatever else looks interesting.

Now, on to the reason we were at the vet.

Our younger dog, Lexie, hasn’t been eating well and as a result, losing weight.  When I say she hasn’t been eating well I mean she is eating little to nothing.  It is something that started a couple of weeks ago when I noticed she wasn’t finishing her food.  I thought maybe she was bored so tried something different and while it excited her at first, the excitement was over the next day.  Then I started cooking for both dogs.  Our older dog, Jada, was and is still thrilled with her new food and Lexie was also thrilled, but the next day wouldn’t eat.  Then she went two days of eating pretty much nothing so I called the vet.  They examined her and did a lot of blood work, but found nothing.  Over the weekend we saw no improvement so we went back today.  Another examine and x-rays showed nothing so they decided to try steroids (she has problems with her skin), a de-wormer and an anti-nausea med.  The vet didn’t seem overly optimistic that this treatment will be successful, but wanted to at least give it a try.  We’ll wait a couple of days and if we see no improvement by day 3 we’ll have to decide between an ultra-sound or exploratory surgery.  Fortunately, she is drinking well and staying hydrated, but refusing food and not eating isn’t good.

The other symptom we’ve been seeing is a weird thing she does with her tongue.  The only way to describe it is like she’s licking the air.  The vet doesn’t know what’s up with that because everything in her mouth looks good and her neurological exam is fine.  Just another mystery.

The vet also brought up the C word today.  Sure didn’t want to hear that cancer is a possibility, but also realized that it could be the cause of her sudden lack of interest in food.  Then he asked the tough question of whether or not we would choose to treat if it was cancer.  Obviously it’s something he thinks is a serious possibility or he wouldn’t ask and it’s something we have to seriously consider as well and prepare for the possibility of having to make a tough decision regarding her care.

One other piece of information I should provide is that Lexie is a Keeshond.

If anyone reading this is familiar with the breed and/or has experienced something similar with their dog please share, even if it may not be good news.  We want the best for our little 4-legged baby and right now things aren’t great.