rthstewart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rthstewart) wrote2018-12-20 08:20 am
rthstewart) wrote2018-12-20 08:20 am
Entry tags:
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
It's not secret to those who have followed me that dogs are a big part of my life. Dogs are prominent in my fic and Jina is probably best represented in my first labrador, Ghitsa, crossed over the rainbow bridge after an amazing and long life 15 years ago.
There is Thorin Corgishield, who is, at the moment, alive and well. (The introduction of worrying fretting shepherds in H&M was due to the introduction of a worrying, fretting herding breed in a house previously occupied by labradors)
McKinley, however, has always been another story. There was the ACL surgery in 2014, the time she ate the retrieving bumper, and the neverending cycle of pain meds and infections, ears, feet, lumps, warts, growths. We got McKinley, like all of our dogs, from breeding/show kennels at 1 year of age, or a little older, when the breeders decide to not show them, don't want to breed them, and are looking to rehome them. McKinley was supposed to be a breeding bitch for an assistance dog program but they sent her back realizing that she had personality traits (in particular no desire to please her owner/handler) that they did not want handed down to generations of assistance dogs. She's dumb as a stump, in her own Labrador world of food and smells and oddly poorly socialized despite years of obedience classes -- she will still bark at people and dogs she has known her whole life. She's 12 going on 13 and the size of her file at the vet is a source of consternation and horror.
And she's been hospitalized since Tuesday (3 separate hospitals) with possible kidney and liver failure, or maybe lepto not covered by the vaccine, or maybe it's the infection that's caused the vomiting even of white rice since last week. Maybe the NSAID we tried for her severe leg pain that was supposed to pose lower risk of stomach upset and liver compromise (and did give her great mobility) has triggered a cascade. We don't know. Care is currently, conservatively going to run to 5 figures.
This is incredibly difficult. With other dogs, they have told us and we knew. They spent their last nights at home with us and we took them to the vet and were with them. With McKinley, I don't know what the right decision is and when we will know.
So here she is in her finer moments.
I'm not really going to respond to comments, OK? I'm not as on top of things as I normally am (I tried making biscotti yesterday and forgot to add the butter). I've been down this road before, there aren't any good answers, I know all about care of aged and ailing dogs, and we have truly the best vet care money can buy.
There is Thorin Corgishield, who is, at the moment, alive and well. (The introduction of worrying fretting shepherds in H&M was due to the introduction of a worrying, fretting herding breed in a house previously occupied by labradors)
McKinley, however, has always been another story. There was the ACL surgery in 2014, the time she ate the retrieving bumper, and the neverending cycle of pain meds and infections, ears, feet, lumps, warts, growths. We got McKinley, like all of our dogs, from breeding/show kennels at 1 year of age, or a little older, when the breeders decide to not show them, don't want to breed them, and are looking to rehome them. McKinley was supposed to be a breeding bitch for an assistance dog program but they sent her back realizing that she had personality traits (in particular no desire to please her owner/handler) that they did not want handed down to generations of assistance dogs. She's dumb as a stump, in her own Labrador world of food and smells and oddly poorly socialized despite years of obedience classes -- she will still bark at people and dogs she has known her whole life. She's 12 going on 13 and the size of her file at the vet is a source of consternation and horror.
And she's been hospitalized since Tuesday (3 separate hospitals) with possible kidney and liver failure, or maybe lepto not covered by the vaccine, or maybe it's the infection that's caused the vomiting even of white rice since last week. Maybe the NSAID we tried for her severe leg pain that was supposed to pose lower risk of stomach upset and liver compromise (and did give her great mobility) has triggered a cascade. We don't know. Care is currently, conservatively going to run to 5 figures.
This is incredibly difficult. With other dogs, they have told us and we knew. They spent their last nights at home with us and we took them to the vet and were with them. With McKinley, I don't know what the right decision is and when we will know.
So here she is in her finer moments.
I'm not really going to respond to comments, OK? I'm not as on top of things as I normally am (I tried making biscotti yesterday and forgot to add the butter). I've been down this road before, there aren't any good answers, I know all about care of aged and ailing dogs, and we have truly the best vet care money can buy.
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- Sensuum
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