I was up most of the night mopping Stevie's nose, which kept bleeding. You can't pinch a dog's nose the way you can a person's nose, and there aren't any handy pressure points, either. No, a bloody nose on a dog can be a problem.
Apparently the cancer grew into a spot that was very irritating, and he kept sneezing and sneezing and sneezing. He sneezed so hard and flipped his head around so fast that I thought it was going to fly off. If I could have stopped the irritation, and he could have stopped sneezing, I think we would have had a chance at stopping the bleeding. I gave him 100mg of diphenhydramine (aka Benadryl™) and that seemed to help a little, but not enough. Or maybe it did, because I think I finally was able to go to sleep around 4 or 5 am. But not in bed, oh no. I had to sleep on the couch downstairs because Stevie was so uncomfortable, poor guy, that when I tried to go lie down in bed upstairs, he followed me upstairs, ("I want my mom"), and if he started sneezing up there it would have been way too messy.
Every time he sneezed he'd spray blood EVERYWHERE. Putting him outside isn't an option, we are in the last throes of winter and currently in a cold snap and it's been 20 below at night, 10-20 above during the day. This cabin is only 16 x 20 and most of it is carpeted. A good sneeze by a bloody-nosed Stevie can cover the whole place in blood.
He has a travel kennel but it's huge, and right now covered with snow. But I guess we are going to have to try to get it dug out and find somewhere to put it. We may have to lose the coffee table and have the dog kennel between the couch and the TV instead!
The vet says there is no way to stop the bleeding. Does anyone have different information? Stevie can't take steroids systemically because it makes him incontinent (yeah, that's just what we need, an incontinent and bloody dog). You can't cauterize a dog's nose because they have different structure inside than we do.
He's feeling much better this morning, the nose has stopped bleeding for now, and I got a little sleep. He's still perky, eating fine, playing in the snow with the other dogs, and trying to catch those impossible squirrels.
Cancer is terrible. Stevie doesn't deserve this.
