Loving my Oldies

That is brilliant, Dave. I am so happy for you, your wife and your dogs - your care and devotion are paying off.

And such a beautiful one, too, Grumpette. They certainly deserve to win, not the least to show people what wonderful wonderful dogs Rotties are. She was very special.

BLOODY BRILLIANT Grumpette

LOL Grumpette, I would not say no to winning some money. :laugh: :laugh: I'd hire a Nanny for Danny ....... .......

CavsRcute, I've forgotten which dog/s I had with me at the time, but I remember Angus and I both sitting on the floor in the consulting room a couple of years ago. I still laugh to myself about it. I have just come back from being out shopping for a couple of hours and because Woolies is geting all their Christmas hams and whatnot in, they'd moved the cat mince that Danny has taken an intermittent liking to, so I bought a couple of packs of human grade mince. Of course, I couldn't wait to see whether he would take to it, so cooked it all up (I cook all his mince now, very very lightly until just brown), gave the others a bit and put Danny's in front of him. Well, he won't need a feed tonight!! :thumbsup: He ate and ate and ate. I was beginning to think I'd have to take the bowl away :laugh: , but he eventually stopped. He looks fine, too, not as though he has pains anywhere. Yee Ha !!! :cheer:

Oh, VM, that brings back memories. I rescued a German Spitz many years ago - what a mess he was in, so much so that my groomer came over and groomed him at home for me. He was beautiful, pitch black and lovely nature. I had intended to keep him, but one of my dogs at the time was insanely jealouse of him . He ended up going to a home where there already was a rescue dog and it was love love love at firt sight. I'll have to find my photos.

Frankly, VizslaMomma, Danny and I would have been up s**t creek had it not been for my local vet, Angus Martin at Hornsby.

That is hugely stressful when you can't get to the reason. Good luck with the b/bands.

When I had to start using belly bands on my toy poodle some years ago, I used to just buy the cheapest I could find at Woolies. Homebrand I think they were.

Thank you, Stressmagnet. I couldn't have done it without the help of my local vet. SASH vet has been verging on useless. She even sent me an email suggesting (more like implying) that I wasn't able to give Danny the care he required simply because I'd said that I felt that the number of times Danny had to be medicated each days was exhausting him (and me). My vet rings every couple of days to check how we are doing and even rang me yesterday (Sunday) for an update. I asked him a question about Aloe Vera and, despite being pretty sure of his answer, he still took time to check the literature to be 100% sure. How terrific is that? One of the best things is that the number of times for medications has been cut back, so we have only six lots of syringing of medications per day and one of them can be mixed up into the Aloe Vera . Even typing all that makes me feel a bit hysterical, .

And never forget that the beautiful dogs Grumpette and Allerzeit have just don't "happen". They are wonderfully socialised and trained, much loved and live great doggy lives. :thumbsup:

Take the dog to the vet, explain the situation and see if they will actually confirm the address on the chip if there is one. I am sure they won't tell you the name of the person (unless they have to leave the room and inadvertently leave the computer screen open :D :D ). Not a nice situation to be in when all you care about is the dog's welfare. The people at the Shoalhaven Shelter may be able to help in this regard. Good luck.

Oh dear, I have tears in my eyes laughing at that one. I tell mine that I am so grateful they don't have any concept of human beauty, otherwise they would sure be looking for somewhere else to live. :laugh: :laugh: The photos, as always, just show us how beautiful, healthy, happy and loved your dogs and Neko's siblings are, Kirislin. So beautiful.

It is extraordinary that it is only three days since I last posted - seems like ages. Danny and I are still on a roller coaster. It isn't as crazy as it was and there is no doubt that he is somewhat better. He rarely throws up and on a couple of days in the past few, he has eaten what I would consider almost normal sized meals. I no longer shudder when I stroke his back and feel the ridge of his backbone. The syringing of food didn't last long as he was finding it very stressful. The last time I tried, he saw the syringe and ran away . The food that has been most successful is Natural Balance so thank goodness for Trinabean's recommendation in another topic as I would never have known about it. I've also had a bit of success with Eucanuba Intestinal Kibble - mentioning these for anyone who might be having similar difficulties. He is now on a appetite stimulant (Periactine) but as this is a tablet, we are now back to why I started this thread in the first place . The only thing that gets a tablet down (even a small one) is peanut butter, but although he enjoys that, he always throws it up, so not much of the tablet can be getting through . This is given twice a days and he doesn't throw up the evening's tablet. I think mornings aren't good for him and I have started giving him his medications later. The main thing, I think, and hope, is that we are no longer going backwards or even standing still. I am pretty sure we are making progress. Thanks to Steve's input, I have started him on Aloe Vera as well.

As soon as I saw you'd brought this thread back to the fore, Coogie, I figured she must have popped up again. I hope she can be outed and prevented from her nefarious activities.

I have my bottle of Aloe Vera, already opened and Danny dosed. I decided to err on the side of caution and gave him 2.5mls. He is now happily chewing on a dried roo tail bone. Think I'm going to cry............. with happiness.

ChewieTAG, I feel like that too after several weeks of consultations with vet at SASH. AnimalLover99 has mentioned aloevera and it was mentioned to me by DOLer Steve and so I am about to PM her as to what she might recommend for my dog. My dog has different symptoms from your little one, but heaps of medications and virtually no appetite. Perhaps draw Steve's attention to this thread??

Well that's cruel. Why isn't he on your bed? :rofl:

I think from now on that I just have to see all this as part and parcel of Life with Danny. He is elderly, has a medical condition and will have his good days and bad days ---- and I mustn't slip up on giving him his medication because I can't get out of bed :o . He has had another 1/2 container of "slurry" and a few pieces of kibble which I'd put down for Jeune. (Bunter and Tamar were at the groomers.)

One of the vet nurses suggested that, too, Yonjuro. I did buy one at the same time as I bought the ones in the photograph. We have actually had a run with one of the containers in the photo and he ate the whole :thumbsup: . It is only a fews mls as it is 1:1 food:water/chicken stock. However, he was pretty eager and was grabbing at the nozzle when I'd give him a rest, and we are ready and poised for second and third helpings through the evening. He and I, the floor and towel do end up wearing a bit, but I am sure we will become pretty proficient as time goes by. I just hope he can keep it down. He has thrown up a few times today, but just bile, no food, which is good and bad. Bad that he is throwing up, but good that none of it has contained food. This means everything he ate yesterday has successfully passed into his stomach and has been digested. By his refusal to eat this morning followed by a few little throw ups makes me assume he wasn't feeling very well. I guess at his age, that is to be expected let alone factoring in his gastritis.

All set . . . .

Let's face it: that woman is a superb athlete herself, amazingly fit and streamlined. I wonder who is keeping up with whom :laugh: :laugh:

I've had dogs in the past who have had both laser and acupuncture. No signs at all of any improvement. Granted both those experiences are long in the past and methods may have improved and knowledge increased, but I wouldn't be rushing off to have it done.

:cry: I give up. :banghead: I can't even find solace in :drink: anymore as it wipes me out. After this morning's performance, I think the only way I will stay sane is to accept that he doesn't want to eat 95% of the time, give him his medication and accept whatever happens. Because of the demands of his medication regime, I have been getting up (sort of) at 7am and going to bed at the earliest 11pm but mostly later. I try not to sleep through the day as it doesn't matter how tired I might be, I won't sleep at night. Sometimes I am still awake at 3am and 4 am and then the alarm goes at 7am :eek: Anyway, this morning, I simply couldn't wake up and finally staggered out when the alarm (radio) had been going for nearly an hour). Fed all the others and tried three different dishes with Danny all of which he'd eaten yesterday. He looked at me as though I was the cruellest person in the universe. I shut all the others out on the deck and put down the three bowls of food for Danny to chose from, trying with each to get him started by putting little pieces in his mouth, which he just spat out. I say I can't do any more, but of course I have to keep trying. Yesterday, I even bought a couple of those plastic containers that people put mustard and tomato sauce in to see if they would work with syringing, but unfortunately, they are opaque and he was either getting nothing or too much. Does anyone have any suggestions for syringing food because the ones I've been given by SASH are inoperable or the nozzles are too narrow to draw the food through? I've been to a couple of chemists to see what sort of selection there is, but haven't seen anything yet that would work.

RuralPug, if I could just find a favourite forbidden food . I've even mixed cat food in with the i/d and Eukanuba Intestinal canned foods. He ate it, but with dire results ... too rich. The things that really gets me is that I have never encouraged any of my dogs to be fussy. Sure if they are recovering from years of neglect and untreated illnesses (I'm referring to rescue/foster dogs I've had over the years), you go out of your way to find something they like. But with my own dogs if they are well and happy, if they don't eat what I give them at one meal, I don't go running off to find something they will eat. They'll get the left meal at the next mealtime LOL. But with this little guy, I reckon he has had a bit of an upset tummy for quite a while, because I'd take him to the vet saying he was down in the dumps. He would be diagnosed with a sore neck or sore back and medication would see him right again. Until a few months ago when all this started. I think it has been there for a long time, just undiagnosed. Makes me feel so awful for him because nothing is worse than feeling generally off for a long time. Anyway, to be on the safe side, I am now cooking the other dogs' meat and mixing as I have done for a long time with vegies and, if I have it, some rice. They love it!!! Danny doesn't though which makes me think he has been off-colour for a long time.