It took a couple more days to figure out that Shana was suffering from lyme disease. It got so bad that she did not want to get up, and if she was in a lying down position, I would need to pick her up and then keep her in my arms for any trips up or down any amount of stairs. To date, Shana has been an incredibly healthy and active dog, and it would really take something nasty to keep this girl down.
Once she was on the appropriate course of treatment, our vets wanted to monitor her temperature for a period of time. Luckily for Shana and thanks to our veterinarian, we did not need to take it the old fashion way through out the day. Instead, a Pet Pace smart collar was loaned to us for a little more than a day. Shana wore the collar (it's the purple one on her neck in the picture), and the collar broadcasted results to the modem plugged into our house. That modem helped send the data directly to our veterinarians office.
It produced a report like this, that the vet could also send to us to show us how she was doing.
The red arrows show where Shana had some spikes in temp, but pretty much remained in the normal range of temperature. Additionally, this helps monitor pulse rate, respiration, activity rate, and even position!
Below are the pictures of the collar from the top and bottom:
I forgot to take a picture of the modem. This really helped us keep Shana more comfortable by not needing to subject her to multiple butt violations during the day. Already she was on five pills, as this started out with what looked like a simple stomach upset. So that original problem was being treated alongside the lyme disease, which cropped up as different symptoms later on.
This way I could also let Shana just rest (something she has never in her life done voluntarily besides regular sleep), and not keep waking her up to check her vitals. While I wish I did not need to find out about this disease this last week, I am so happy to have had this technology to use.
So if you find yourself with a really sick dog but are able to take them home and care for them, ask the vet if they have something like this on hand. It could make your life a little easier during this very difficult time. Not to mention that your vet can actually see if something of concern is happening when they check in online perhaps before you notice anything.
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