We feed our dogs at 3pm every day and usually, all three dogs come running. They bark and jump up and down, and run around in circles like circus animals full of excitement.
Jack is obsessed with the dog next door (Reb), and sometimes plants himself at the fence peering through the gaps at him. When he doesn't appear at feed time, we call out 'dinner' and he's at our feet in an instant!
Yesterday, Jack did not appear.
We found him cowering in a dog bed behind the ottoman near my study. He wouldn't (or couldn't) get up. When I demanded that he 'come here' (he usually walks to my feet when I make that demand), he attempted to move forward, but slumped back down with an apologetic look in his eyes.
Even though he cringed, I picked him up and he was very tense in the body. When I put him back down on the ground, he could barely stand up and when he tried to walk, he staggered and his back legs seemed uncoordinated.
He staggered outside for a pee and then struggled to get back up the one step into the house.
Adoring Husband offered him a mouthful of food and Jack turned away. We offered him some water and he turned away.
Wishing that I had some Valium to feed Adoring Husband, who by this time was panicking and talking in a very high pitched voice demanding to know what could be wrong with Jack - as if I'm the expert - we decided to take him into the Vets.
AH phoned the Vet to let them know that we were coming and told them that we thought perhaps Jack had a tick because he was displaying some of the symptoms .. like partial paralysis of the hind legs.
On the way into town Jack had a loss of bodily functions from both ends .. of course, in AH's panicked state, he didn't want to take the time to put anything down under Jack in the car, so he had a nice smelly mess to clean up later!
Luckily there was a towel in the back of the car, so we wrapped Jack in it and as we walked into the Vet's clinic, the reception area was full of people and their dogs and the receptionist looked up and asked if we had Jack.
She took him straight out the back and they did an immediate check for ticks .. which turned out to be clear.
Then we had to wait for a room to be free to take Jack for further investigation.
Finally the Vet came in and took Jack's temperature, which was a whopping 41C, took a sample of his stools (which by now were splattered all over his rear end!) and disappeared into the back rooms to do some tests on it.
He returned with the unpleasant news that Jack had pancreatitis, that he was in a very bad way and needed to stay there overnight with a saline drip, antibiotics and to be monitored closely overnight.
He said that this is caused by too much fat in the diet. We have always fed our dogs a raw meat diet and for the past few years have fed them heart smart mince from the butchers, so I'm not sure where the 'too much fat' comes from. We never feed our dogs scraps from our plates or anything OTHER than the mince.
You know me .. I am sceptical of this reasoning .. and having done a little research online last night, couldn't find any reference to too much fat EXCEPT where people feed their dogs the fatty scraps from their own plates, and that the highest incidences of pancreatitis in dogs usually occurs in the holiday seasons when humans tend to eat more junk or fatty foods and share it with their dogs.
However, we are now changing their diets from raw meat to processed dry food, on the Vet's advice and we'll see if that makes any difference to Jack's health.
The reason that I am sceptical of this Vet's advice, is that we have taken one of our other dogs to this same Vet twice in the last few months, with the same symptoms/complaint and have been given a different reason each time. She still suffers from the same complaint. If the change of diet doesn't make a difference to both of the dogs, I will be changing Vets (after I take a few months convincing Adoring Husband).
So the Vet phoned AH this morning to advise how Jack was doing and his temperature has dropped to 39C and he is doing well. The Vet wants us to leave Jack there until late this afternoon.
Wish us luck!
Adoring Husband has been on a special diet since he had his tumour removed in August. Something similar to the ketogenic diet to reduce the acidity in his body, which means removing, or considerably reducing, his intake of milk (which was getting close to 2 litres per day).
We've done this hoping that his PSA readings will either drop, or at the very least, steady off.
This has caused a bit of a dilemma for AH who loved his cereal in the mornings (which I made gluten free and sugar free) and now has to find a replacement breakfast.
AH is a creature of habit and abhors change of any kind, so it's been a struggle for him to change his thought processes for breakfast meals.
I was very pleased to see him take the initiative and create a healthful breakfast for himself ...
An egg wrap filled with mushroom, baby spinach, smoked salmon and feta cheese with a side of fresh asparagus out of the garden and some rocket. I was almost disappointed that I had declined his offer to make it for me too!
I am on nest watch at the moment.
There are two nests that I'm watching, but this one is the lowest and I'm hoping to get some nice shots of the chick/s when they hatch.
Can you believe it's just after midday! I'm twelve hours early!!
Afternoon all!
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