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Theo and I went for a beach wander in the March sun. Waves crashing on the sand, and an almost empty shore.


Read more... )

One of Theo's absurdly large ears is painful and a bit gunky again. I am tentatively putting this down to my having given him too many Asda Southern Fried Chicken Chunks as treats on his training course. Back to beef and insects only and ears wiped out daily with leucillin.

An Update

Nov. 14th, 2024 11:46 pm
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For some reason I haven't posted here in ages, but I don't really want to drop out of the habit, so here's an attempt to catch up. 

Itching things
Read more... )I am now feeding Theo the new insect-based dog food pellets, which he seems to like a lot, as much as almost anything apart from cheese.  Cheese is his absolute favorite thing. 

Nenya cat remains competent and untroubled by Woes. 

Not even going to try to post about World Events.  Times too interesting. 

I read a copy of Neil Gaiman's M is for Magic which had been hanging around, to try to decide if I wanted to keep any of my Neil Gaiman books, now that it turns out he's a creepy sexual predator. Haven't decided, but did conclude the end of M is for Magic seemed oddly cold and depressing, so I will probably get rid at least of that one. 

The number of orders arriving at the Shop on the Borderlands is up considerably on last year, but the value of orders is not: we are mooching along sending out about 20% more stuff, but with about the same money coming in as last year.  Unsure if this is down to what we've got in stock, macroeconomic trends, or just... randomness.  We have reduced the enormous backlog of RPGs in the house but not in the Shop, however, which has to be a good thing. We might even have slain the backlog by the New Year at this rate. 




We took the canoe out a couple of days ago, just a gentle paddle for half an hour.  I wanted to check that she was still in good condition, thinking of probably selling her in the Spring. She's not really best adapted for the amount of wind we get here, and we haven't used her much since we got the kayaks and the boat.  I will miss her but hopefully we can find a more up-river home for her where she will get further moderately-sedate adventures. 

Ears again

Sep. 12th, 2024 10:41 pm
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Theo's ears did not improve, so he had to have a general anaesthetic so his ears could be flushed and treated. That was about two weeks ago.

There were no foreign bodies in his ears, and neither the vet's local swabs nor the ones sent off to the lab found anything significant apart from an overgrowth of yeast.

By the next day, the ears were full of wax again! But a course of steroid pills and ear-drops have resulted in healthy-looking ears that don't seem to itch - though they still smell slightly of cheese. The total cost was £520. Ouch.

The internet has of course a thousand and one theories as to how to prevent yeast overgrowth in dog-ears, and I am now wondering whether to try an exclusion diet in the hope that he might be reacting to something in his food... or just accept that he's prone to these issues.

I don't know. I might try one of the new cold-pressed insect-based foods. On the face of it, more ethical than meat-based food for dogs, and I'm sure he would be happy to eat it : he's not picky.

Ears again

Aug. 15th, 2024 10:42 pm
bunn: (Default)
 I see I made myself an Absurdly Large Ears tag last year, but then forgot about it. 

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I've also been giving him Piriton and probiotics.  I tried removing chicken from his diet, but none of these measures seem to have entirely sorted out the situation. 
 
I've now ordered some ear stuff from Stinky Stuff.  It's nigella seed oil with olive and coconut oil.  I'm a bit dubious about it being snake oil, but there does seem to be some support for nigella seed being effective against minor ear issues in dogs.  And it's well reviewed, though really one cannot tell at all any more if online reviews are posted by actual customers or bots.  And for that matter, the evidence of actual customers is pretty shaky. 
 
If the problem were worse I'd have him back to the vet, of course.  But I know that he's not going to let the vet put the otoscope even in the less-sore ear, and when I had him in to the vet in the spring (May, I think) the vet was quite unhappy about prescribing antibiotic drops without using the otoscope first.  I'd quite like them to take samples and check them to see what the problem actually is, if it gets worse, too.  I bet that they won't be happy with me taking samples, so again that will involve knocking him out. 
 
So  going back to the vet again about this is going to involve full sedation, and so I'm trying all the options to see if we can sort it without that. 

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