I have been a bit busy and haven't sat down to update my blog much. I have books to review here, on TK, and Historical Tapestry, but that will have to wait until either later tonight or tomorrow. I am happy to say that I am almost done my first R.I.P. book. I got a bit side-tracked in the challenge reading some more Star Trek books. Although, this one is Star Trek, so I have not really broke away from the Star Trek reading yet. I have now read the first four books in the New Frontier series by Peter David, though. I wish I had read them before, but they came out in 1997 and that was the year I decided to stop reading Star Trek books for a while.
Thanks to everyone for your messages about the loss of my cats. My mother's house is so empty, so I go visit the kittens to get my cat fix (yeah, they are not really kittens anymore but they are only young and the cats I put down were 14 and 15, so compared to my cats, they are kittens) but the 'kittens' are not very friendly in that regard. They only come to visit me to be fed or let out. They are not lap cats at all, and I miss that. Sam and Snowball both were lap cats and they used to sleep on my bed. Now it is just me and Sandy, and you can tell that Sandy misses them too. She has never lived in a house where there were no cats either. I am wondering if she is left wondering when it will be her turn. I am hoping it won't be her turn for a while!
I have an animal question, though, does anyone on here have any experience with giving a pet pills for arthritis? I have heard that they only work for a little while, and then they are useless. Sandy has arthritis, but I am worried if I put her on them now, in a year of so they will stop working and then she will really need them. Or, should I give her a year of mobility now where she is 12 because she might not make it to 13. I have never had a dog make it this long, so I was hoping for an opinion on the subject. My vet priorities are to see what is making her gag all the time and get the test for the thyroid problem so we can get some of the weight off her.
My god. You know, my priority for right this minute is to give her a bath, or she won't be the only person/animal in the house gagging all the time. I guess she was hot, so my sister sprayed her with the hose. Now all I can smell is wet dog... it's bad. Mind you, she hates baths and I am trying to be nice to her after last nights 'incident'. She was not supposed to be where she was and it was dark, and well, I royally tripped over her and then since it was dark, I wasn't really sure what part of her I tripped over, so I managed to step on her and trip over her again trying to right myself. I really shouldn't worry, I almost killed her and she rolled over for me to pet her. I think she thought I was playing with her. (I call us even, though, the other day on the stairs she stepped on the back of my pant leg and I almost fell down the stairs which would have hurt. I used her to catch myself, and yes, she expected me to pet her during that incident too. I admit it, my dog is an attention whore. She will use any opportunity to get a petting in.)
Dogs do tend to be attention whores, don't they...they do anything for a belly rub ;)
ReplyDeleteMany sympathies on the cats. :( Ours are finally hitting what technically the vets call their 'senior years'---it's hard to believe, since they're only 6, and they still act a lot like kittens. The idea of them eventually dying is something I try not to think about. It's sad that pets live such short lives.
ReplyDeletechris: That's for sure!
ReplyDeleteHeather: wow, six is seniors? That pretty much means that they are seniors for most of their life. Kind of strange. I didn't start thinking of my cats as seniors until about 9. And Sandy I have noticed her aging a bit in the last few years, but at 6 she still acted like a puppy.
I am so sorry to hear about all your pet losses and health issues ... I can truly sympathize as one year I lost all three of my beloved pets within 8 months of each other.
ReplyDeleteRegarding treatment for dog arthritis, I think I can help. My dog, Caribou, had surgery for elbow dysplasia when she was only 8 months old. She did great, and went on to become a certified search and rescue dog...but, as we knew would happen, she eventually developed arthritis in the affected joint. She was first started on Rimadyl when she was about 5 years old. It didn't work all that well for her and when she was seven, I switched her to Duramax which is like Celebrex for people. It is a miracle drug! She is now 9.5 years old and still doing great on 75mg a day of Duramax (she started on 50mg a day). I would highly recommend trying it with your dog if your vet agrees. It can stress the liver and kidneys, but most dogs do well on the drug. It has given my girl many more years of pain-free, high quality life than she would have otherwise. Good luck!
Thank you Wendy! Not being very well-versed in animal health care, I am always worried that I am being charged way more than is necessary, so I try and know a bit before hand so I can make more educated decisions on the choices for my dog. Success stories are very helpful. :)
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