Old wobbly dog, written things, me

[bunn]

Rosie Roo is wobbly on her long legs and has a bit of a head tilt. The vet thinks she's had a vestibular incident (a bit like a stroke for dogs, only not really because apparently it doesn't have the same brain symptoms as strokes in humans).  The vet prescribed antibiotics, an anti-nausea jab, and careful supervision to prevent her falling over. It's lucky that I bought some more floor rugs recently to offer the ancient dog improved grip.

Rather to my astonishment, she did eat the first dose of antibiotics, wrapped in tuna, but she's eaten very little else today. It's tricky, as she's not really supposed to have anything high in fat (for her iffy pancreas) or in phosphorus (for her failing liver). This cuts down on tasty things to tempt her appetite, but perhaps tuna is acceptable?

I hope she will be hungrier tomorrow.  She is at least 15, probably 16 or older, and she's been doing pretty well up to now. 

I finished writing Dáin's Saga, which took me over the million words on Ao3!  Then I wrote another short thing about an elderly Gimli meeting Celebrimbor. I couldn't think of a good title for it so plumped for Gifts and Guilts, which does the job, more or less. 

Am still struggling slightly with the flu aftermath.  I was hoping to be able to go for a swim in the sea this week. Maybe it will happen, if the last of the sore throat and coughing finally packs itself off.  The sky was so blue this evening, and the sea so green. 

Comments

[sir_guinglain]

I hope both Rosie and you get better.

[bunn]

Thank you! Bot of us seem to be cautiously on the up!

[grundyscribbling]

Aw, poor Rosie! Sending good thoughts her way, and yours too as it sounds like you're still a bit poorly. :(

[bunn]

She was rather outraged by her own balance, but I think she's improving and also less surprised by the whole experience.

I however am extremely grumpy at viruses of all kinds. Bastards.

[anerea]

Aww, getting old is tough no matter the species. But tuna does sound like a good treet and I hope what it hides does the trick.

Whoop whoop on Daín's Saga! Thanks for the note, I'm going to go download it now — I'll finish it after Quentë's fanfic of your fanfic. And I like the title "Gifts and Guilts"; very curious so I'll look for that one too.

Do hope you shake the last of your bug and recover your strength quickly now — not being able to get onto the sea is an awful thing! (It's been three or four weeks for me, for different reasons, but maybe we'll both find the oomph for it on our respective sides of the planet in the next couple of days! ♡

[bunn]

I wish you swimming oomph! I keep thinking: is today the day? But it's raining today and a bit chilly, so maybe not.

Hope you enjoy Dain, I must say I found him fascinating to dig into as a less-written character.

[anerea]

No rain nor wind today, but had things needing doing, including a 2 hour nap — I woke about 30 minutes into it in the extremely heavy state and promptly fell asleep again. I q about to do the same again when I woke another hour and a half later, but my sister popped her head in reminding me I'd wanted a swim — and we all actually managed to get it together to pop down to the beach before sunset, just a brief 10 minute dip in rather chilly (for us) water, but oh so good!! Crystal clear as usual, and looking up through the water to the light as the waves barrel overhead is just one of my favourite experiences ever.

Hope you get to enjoy your dip soon!

[chainmailmaiden]

So sorry to hear that about Rosie, the vet said the same to us about different symptoms for strokes in cats when Flossie had hers. Steroids seemed to be their go to for helping her cope with the symptoms and they did work initially, but it does rather depend on what caused it as to whether they keep helping.

Floss was off her food for a little while, and had to be on a drip for hydration. Not sure if Rosie's drinking ok, but if not we found Oralade helped with that once Floss was back home, it's suitable for dogs and cats and you can get it from Amazon. Finely chopped, poached chicken breast with some of that on (slightly warmed up) proved to be a popular snack for Floss when she was recovering - though again not sure how relevant that would be for Rosie. Tuna was also popular too, and I'd have thought that would have been ok from the fat content as it is considered low fat, I think it's low phosphorus too - long time since I did nutrition at A-level though!

I did find I could make balls of the minced chicken to cover tablets, which was useful for getting Floss to eat them. We also used cheese, but that would probably be a no go for Rosie with the fat and salt :(

I hope she recovers ok, and you can find ways to make her comfortable and treats to tempt her. Hope you recover fully too from 'flu, Bacchus got it at Easter and is still feeling rough from it, though has at least been able to go back to doing judging in the past week having got taste and smell back!

[bunn]

This was a REALLY helpful comment, thank you so much.

I was kind of despairing a bit about getting food into Rosie, because although she's drinking well, she was absolutely refusing to touch various pre-prepared products.

However, you made me think: what does she really love? So I bought an entire chicken and roasted it with beer and garlic, and let her sit there sniffing while it slow-cooked. And hurray! She's now eaten most of that, and I'll stew up the bones today to give her a second go at it. Maybe with some brown rice.

Fairly sure that roast chicken is not a very balanced diet, but I suppose a chicken every other day is not *that* expensive. After all she has to eat something!

She didn't eat all her antibiotics yesterday, but we did manage to get half of them into her using the chicken ball technique.

[chainmailmaiden]

That is good news, I'm glad she liked the roast chicken. I did think after posting about how much she seemed to like pomegranate molasses drizzled on her food when I bought some for a dish I did when we were doing Horror on the Orient Express. Not sure how obtainable that is in your neck of the woods though. I do hope she continues to recover well, it's so worrying when you can't get them to eat properly. Bacchus is a lot better thanks, he still has a cough but then that's not uncommon with flu for a while afterwards.

[bunn]

... and I forgot to say, get well soon to Bacchus. It's so annoying when a bug goes on and on and on like this!