Socknitters Forum

[silfert]

Oh, how sad! Small comfort, but at least there's a rational explanation. Sending lots of hugs!

[BusyJ]

Lou, how is Murdock doing?

Judy
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[appaloosa]

He is doing great! thank you for asking. He is getting stronger every day and his hair is growing in. No more chicken leg. We are very pleased with him. We just need to build up his back end now. It will be easier when the temps are cooler and the dang deer flies disappear. He is now our million dollar baby. it sure is nice to see him without pain and "smiling" again. He can even get into the truck on his own again. He's thrilled! As far as he is concerned, life is good.
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Appaloosa

May you always run with the wind at your back and good friends by your side.

[BusyJ]

Since it was cool on Sat I decided to let Katie lay out on the patio for a bit and enjoy some fresh air. Since she cannot get up on her own I didn't block the gate to the yard.
About an hour later I stepped out on the deck to toss some dog hair (if I put it in the trash the fans and AC will just blow it out of there again) and heard Katie woofing. I looked over on the patio where I had left her and she was not there. I panicked. I called to her and she woofed again. Each time she would woof I would see the high weeds on the hill move. I rushed out to put my boots on and went out to "rescue" her. She had evidently squirmed and wiggled until she had gotten herself off of the patio and across the narrow strip of yard (about 8 feet) and was in the weeds on the hill side. Luckily the weeds were so high and thick that she had not gone far down the hill, just far enough that I could not see her.
I got her up and we walked up to the patio. This time I put the bench across the gateway (we haven't put an actual gate there as the fence is not a complete fence, it just connects the pool deck with my house deck, more a privacy thing right now).
In her journey backward into the weeds she managed to get both of her back feet in to dog doodoo. I always take her to potty and as I call it I "flick a poop" out of the yard and over the hill into the weeds. I had to clean her up as good as I could with a cloth and towel. Later I took a bucket and soap out and a quart size baggie and cleaned her feet better.
I have a couple of fatigue mats that are the holey type (so the water would drain away for her) that I was going to use to bathe her outside but Dale had piled some tables on one of them (the others were still in at the store) so I could not give her a full bath. She would just be laying in the water and would not have dried very well. Maybe next weekend she can get the real deal since I have gone in and gotten the other 2 mats.
Considering that she has not had a full bath since April 2009 she does not stink and does not really look that bad. Her bib gets all messy where she drools and slobbers but I clean that up when needed.
Just glad to still have my baby with me.

Judy
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[silfert]

Oh, that must have been an awful feeling! Just those few moments of, "Where...?" Glad that everything turned out okay.

[NeedleQ]

Can't image how you felt when you didn't see her. Happy that she had not gotten very far and was easily found.
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needleq

Ravelry: NeedleQ

[BusyJ]

It really was terrifying for me. All is well now and the bench is across the gateway whenever she is out alone.

Judy
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[BusyJ]

Katie is still hanging in there. She is 12 years, 4 months, and 8 days old.

We no longer go across the family room, the kitchen, the back entry, out the door, across the patio and onto the grass to potty. Now we just go out the slider onto the deck. I use puppy pads for her. She is too tired to make it that far before she has to pee. So to save some stress on all of us we opted for the deck and puppy pads. We usually make it all on the pad. When she doesn't I douse the deck with water that has OdorBan it.

She still seems to be in no pain and is happy and looks good, just the mobility issues.

She does get me up anywhere from 1 am to 4am to get her a drink. I have to then sleep the rest of the night on the sofa because if I go back up stairs she lays and whines and yips til I come back down to be with her. Love that doggie to pieces.

Judy
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[NeedleQ]

Glad to hear that Katie is still doing good for her age. Glad that you found a comprise for her so that she still gets out even if it is just to go potty. Hope you are doing okay too.
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needleq

Ravelry: NeedleQ

[BusyJ]

Katie is still hanging in there. She is now 12 years, 5 months, and 1 day, LOL.

She still wakes me in the middle of the night to come give her a drink and stay with her the rest of the night. A small favor that I gladly do.

Judy
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[BusyJ]

Katie is still with me. "She is now 12 1/2 years old, or will be Dec. 6.

She actually let me sleep all night long in my bed last night!!!

I was a bit worried when I woke at almost 6 and had heard no whining from downstairs. When I went down she was fine.

Judy
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[WolfWalker]

My two oldest cats, Speedy (14) and Freon (10) have both been diagnosed with Hyper-T. It's been very easy to get Speedy's T4 back on track, but Freon has been a total nightmare. His T4 at first was so high it was off the vet's test range, then after we started treatment he got into a scuffle with one of the other cats here and developed an abcess in one breast, so he required surgery for that. Then his T4 went down way too low, so we're struggling to get him back into the normal range.

Then there's TK (kitty born here to a feral mom) .....at just 2 years old he recently was diagnosed with severe arthritis in both hips! We've done 6 weeks worth of adequan shots, and although there has been a great improvement in his mobility, I'd still like to try and get him onto a cosequin like supplement daily. Weather changes seem to increase his pain level. He's also on steroids and anti-yeast meds for a long standing yeast infection that my "old" vet failed to diagnose. Unfortunately, it went systemic and he'll probably remain on these meds the rest of his life...which could possibly explain why his hips went so bad on him.

My dog, Angel, has Hypo-T.....diagnosed at 3 years old, she's now 10. Thankfully once we got her dosage right she's remained stable throughout the years.

Thankfully kitties Radar, Gypsy, Lady, Autumn, Heidi, Bruiser, and Data are all healthy! I have enough trying to remember who gets what meds and when! LOL!

[tracyknits]

One of my kitties developed hyperthyroidism at age 13 - all the classic signs: weight loss, increasing aggression and boy, near the end of it, he was just so agitated all the time. I opted for I-131 treatment - expensive, but compared to the cost of ongoing vet treatment, testing and drugs, there is a breakeven at about 1 year (which Kleenex has exceeded - he's now almost 2 years post-treatment). I definitely recommend the I-131 treatment if you have a facility near you and can afford it; in the long run, it's cheaper and definitely easier on both you and the kitty compared to frequent vet trips and that entails!
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REVISED 2011 Knitting Resolution: 6 "big projects" - shawls and/or sweaters ('cause I'm just too distracted by other patterns to do only VLT patterns this year!)

[BusyJ]

My Katie is gone. When I came in from sitting with Mom, Katie was laying on her side. She was whimpering and had thrown up and had some blood on herself (this I found out later was where her canines had cut her lips). I called my son since he was just out at the office, then tried to call Dale. I called 3 numbers before I got ahold of him. I had called the vet because I was terrified when I saw that her stomach was bloated. When Jen, the vet, got there and examined Katie she asked if we could get her in the vehicle to take her to the clinic. I asked why. She said she thought Kate had a twisted stomach and they would need to fix it. I said no surgery, Katie is 12 1/2 years old and would not survive it. Jen said she only had a 25% chance. I asked if she had brought the stuff to put Kate down, she said yes but she wasn't sure I was ready to do that. By this time Kate was beginning to be in pain and was having trouble breathing. I told her to do it. I was with her to the very end.
I know it was the right thing, the only thing, to do but that doesn'tmake it hurt any less.
Katie was 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days. A very long life for a St. Bernard.

Judy
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[silfert]

Oh, Judy! How awful for you. I can think of everything you're supposed to say in this situation, but I can't think of one single thing that will really help. I'm glad for Katie's sake that you could be there for her, and I'm sending you all the hugs you can hold.