I took the Man to the vet this afternoon because his behaviour was causing me problems. I have not said anything on line because y áll had enough problems but I have been exhausted when I get out of bed in the morning and The Man is the reason for this exhaustion and also the reason why I extended my Sabbatical. I have been wakened two, three and four times a night – most nights – with The Man just yelping – I investigate and he is standing facing a blank wall and just yelping, or he is staring off into space and bark/yelping. He calms down and a couple of hours later, he starts again Its ‘been a concern and after a while I do get tired and sleep deprived. Ok what I know, – his arthritis is “progressing” he is going blind, he is loosing his hearing and we suspect there is something akin to a Dog form of Dementia. Mustapha (The Vet) believes that he wakens up in the dark, declining eyesight, scared, not knowing where he is, goes outside to have a wee, and forgets how to get back in – poor eyesight in the dark – gets scared, barks for help, not a lot we can do really other than comfort him and make him feel safe. Well, no! On the way home I stopped off at a hardware store and left him in the car with herself comforting him, and bought two fairly bright night-lights. One I will power on tonight and the other is an outside motion sensor light. I really do know what else I can do. He has a bit of a cough so some medication for that, 10ml of Fish Oil and his arthritis medication. So we’ll see how we go from here. And no, nothing will happen to him. It is not being cruel – he is still much loved and It is my responsibility and my opportunity to repay him for some of the fun we have had together over the last 13 years. Well not strictly true, to say that there is nothing we can do Instead of wheels I have ordered a “Dogger”a stroller for dogs. It should arrive sometime in the next week or so and I will introduce him to it when I get back from Adelaide this coming weekend. Ok, I know I did say that I was staying home until the end of September and generally that’s true, but I need to go be in Adelaide this Friday and Saturday, so back to my little park bench in South Terrace.
The Man has an abscess on his bottom and we have been looking after that. This was also a visit to the vet. We have antibiotics and a saline wash twice a day and rather than diminishing it seems to be slightly larger if anything. I will go on for another few days with the medical treatment, then I will make another trip to the vet. I don’t know what can be done, but the fact that he is old and in decline regarding his health, in not an issue, he still needs good quality vet treatment and I want him to have just that – he deserves it. But somethings are working – he has been sleeping a lot better since the night light. He is sleeping through the night and – importantly – I am too!! Such a little thing, like a night light, has made an enormous difference.
When I get back from Adelaide I will spend all next week running back and forth from hospital with Herself. We have appointments every day, except Friday. On Tuesday she is going for an Ultrasound on her kidney and perhaps from all this we can finally discover why she is loosing blood. I took her to hospital last week and she recorded a BP of 235/90, which she thought was quite ok. She worries me at times.
The drive down to Adelaide was, thankfully, quiet and uneventful and I am now safely in my little Park Bench in South Terrace. Ron was a piper in the Black Watch, Highland Regiment. He was one of the Black Watch Pipers that Mrs. Kennedy asked to play at her husband’s funeral in 1963. Her husband, of course, was JFK. This is an interesting story of itself and sometime I will relay it – perhaps in the next post. As far as we know, there is only one piper remaining of the
pipers who were chosen for the funeral.
Oh, the Dog Stroller arrived on Saturday morning but since herself was out with one of the boys. I was still driving back from Adelaide but the postal people left a note on the door saying that it could be collected on Monday. I will do that and I really do hope this will help. At least it will get him out and about in safety and pain free.
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