This will be the final post of rileyroozers.com. Two nights ago, Riley was taken to emergency and he had an emergency gallbladder removal, a gastrotomy for a foreign body removal, and a liver biopsy. He had normal bloodwork results prior to the surgery and his immediate recovery went well.

The next day, he did not improve as expected and the doctors showed concern and they put Riley on IV pain medications and fed him through a naso-gastric tube. His bloodwork results continued to be more concerning as time went on and the doctors on his case tried every option, but complications had occurred from his surgery and Riley’s condition continued to deteriorate until Wen had to make the heartbreaking decision to let him go.

Thank you to all the readers of Riley’s blog through the years. I hope that you have received enjoyment from following Riley’s posts.

Godspeed, Riley. You were truly the best boy….

Riley MacDuff

06/04/25 – 11/24/25

Living with Masticatory Muscle Myositis has not been fun, but there have been signs that I’m starting to recover. The pain of opening my jaws widely is subsiding and now, Wen can brush my teeth on both outside and inside surfaces with a toothbrush without any screaming from me. I’m still hesitant about anything having to do with my mouth, but at least the intense pain is gone.

Also, I don’t ignore my favorite squeaky toys anymore and I can grab them with my teeth again, carry them around, and bite down to make them squeak if they are fairly soft. My jaws are opening a little wider than before, so I can chew my food and treats better all the time.

We don’t know how long it will take me to fully recover, but I’m on two months of meds, just to make sure that I don’t relapse. Progress may be on the slow side, but it’s sure appreciated!

Over the years, Wen has bought several different turkey hats for us Scotties to wear for pictures on Thanksgiving. They have always been funny and silly-looking and unusual additions to our hat collection. Let’s face it—who doesn’t look ridiculous with a turkey on their head?!

Several months ago, Wen submitted a photo of me to the Pet Savers 2026 calendar contest and I was one of the winners to be featured on a month page. Our copy of the calendar arrived in the mail the other day and we were thrilled to see my picture as Mr. June!

Pet Savers is located at Spokane Valley, Washington, but my amazing pet photographer, Kris Phillips of Furever Photography is now living in Post Falls, Idaho (which is close to Washington) and when we did a photo shoot here last June, she suggested that we might be interested in entering their calendar photo contest, since she was sponsoring it like she sponsors the Colorado Pet Pantry calendar contest here.

We had lots of wonderful photos from my Lookout Mountain photo shoot and the one we chose for the calendar contest turned out to be a nice nature shot with an old log and wildflowers. We are pleased to have taken part in a fundraising calendar contest that benefits pets and very proud to see my calendar photo as Mr. June!

This last week has been a rough one for me, thanks to my developing Masticatory Muscle Myositis and having severe jaw pain. I’m on medication for my treatment, but since it’s going to take weeks to months for the pain to subside, everyone’s kind of feeling sorry for me.

Wen must have thought that I needed something special for a pick-me-up, so she came home with a Bo Nix Broncos jersey for dogs, just in time for the big game today and she gave it to me. Now I am the proud owner of a Bo Nix jersey and even better, my meds have kicked in and I’m feeling a little more like myself. It may be baby steps, but every slight improvement is definitely welcomed!

Here I am, taking it day by day with my Masticatory Muscle Myositis. It still hurts to open my jaws widely, but I’m taking my meds and my appetite’s good, so I’m eating my normal dry food. I’m chewing tentatively though and I’m hesitant to let Wen brush my teeth, but she’s persistent and trying to be very gentle, not opening my jaws as she brushes.

It’s going to be a long haul—weeks to months before I get better, but I’m not getting worse, so that’s good and as I said, it’s a day by day thing.

It’s a name with big words, Masticatory Muscle Myositis, and it’s the condition that I am currently being treated for by our veterinarian. Two days ago, I didn’t want to open my jaws so Wen could drop in my daily medication for my gall bladder and I wasn’t anxious to chew either. After noticing that something was wrong, Wen tried to see if I had a sore tooth, something like a stick or piece of wood stuck in my gums, or Myositis, because I screamed in pain when trying to open my jaws widely. My appetite was normal and I ate my dry food, but I chewed tentatively when given a treat or an ice cube. I also didn’t catch my favorite squeaky bottle toy in my mouth when she tossed it to me and I didn’t carry it around in my mouth, biting on it incessantly as per usual.

One of Wen’s previous Scotties, Duffy, had Myositis and evidently he screamed when trying to open his jaws also, so Wen made an appointment with Dr. Nina, our vet, to get me checked out yesterday morning and I spent half the day at the vet. After an exam and bloodwork, I was prescribed medication to treat Myositis and antibiotics to cover all the bases and Wen picked me up and took me home.

Myositis is something that you don’t get over quickly, so I have two months worth of meds to take and hopefully, I’ll regain the full use of my jaws. Meanwhile, my meds are hidden in yummy soft food so that they are easy to get down.

Masticatory Myositis is an autoimmune disease where the body attacks its jaw muscles and there is no certain cause, so it’s a mystery how I came down with it. I can still chew, so fortunately it’s not worst case scenario. We just hope and pray that I am able to recover fully and that there isn’t a lot of muscle wasting in my face from the progression of the disease, so cross your fingers!

Well, we Scotties were groomed two days ago and we are once again clean and stylin’. Gigi, our groomer, did her usual magic and transformed us back into nice-looking Scotties. We have grooming appointments every eight weeks and by week number seven, we are looking like shaggy dogs, so it’s always great to look good again.

Just because we are all spiffed up, it doesn’t mean that we aren’t immediately snooping around in our backyard as soon as we get home, resuming our digging and eating dirt and mulch habits. Our looks may have been improved, but we’re still Scotties through and through!

Don’t blink or you’ll miss it! My sisters are hanging out together, but it won’t last longer than a couple seconds. It’s actually such a rare occurrence that it’s picture worthy. Yeah, just as I thought. As soon as you look at them, they’re off doing their own thing.

It’s interesting that both of them will hang with me for long periods of time (separately, of course), but not with each other. Considering that the two girls have never fought or even had issues, you’d think that they would be besties, but not really.

Sisters! Who knows what those two are thinking?!

We are looking forward to watching the Denver Broncos on Thursday Night Football tonight. They just played four days ago, so it’s a short week for them to prepare, but hopefully that won’t matter and they will have a big win.

We Scotties each have our own Broncos jersey and even when we were little puppies, Wen made sure that we had puppy-sized jerseys to wear. (She actually took a picture of me wearing my orange puppy jersey back in 2013). I guess you could say that we’ve been life-long Broncos fans with our Broncos footballs, dog toys, and wearables so that we Scotties can be a part of Broncos Country too. Go Broncos!!! Let’s win tonight!!!