Loving my Oldies

I feel your pain. I don’t know enough to comment on Probiotics, but I am sure there will be DOLers with experience. My vet suggested Periactin (just bought over the counter at the chemist) for one of my inappetent dogs, but to what extent it worked would be hard to say as she was very old and had been diagnosed with Cancer. I tried just about every food known to man to try to find something Jeune would eat, but your situation is very different. A young dog needs to have a good diet which is nutritious and has variety. Have you tried her on meaty bones? At her age, she needs a diet that is going to help her teeth. Jeune passed away last week and I still have a lot of Periactin, so I would be happy to send you some if you wished to try it. Jeune weighed under 4kg and had 1/2 tablet once a day. However, you should check with your vet first.

Think you have put this in the wrong thread, @Boronia

Make me so cross that people have to go through this sorrow, I think it would destroy me. Few people and their dogs are as lucky as these are to have found someone like you, @BJ. Sheer bloody mindedness, I think. It’s like taxi drivers not taking dogs --- the dogs are probably cleaner than many of their passengers. I don’t think that is a weird question . I think it depends on the dogs’ personalities, but it is an interesting proposition.

Thanks @Boronia. I’ve been buying those very cheapie donut beds from Kmart for a whileThey wear out very quickly as I wash nearly every day and they aren’t made for that sort of wear and tend to disintegrate I have never seen the range on your link at my local Kmart, but I will certainly keep them in mind.

@jemappelleHope this works: https://nightlullaby.com/search?q=dog+bedding

Thank you for the update. Booka has the kind of loving humans we would wish for every dog.

@jemappelle, I am still getting all the ads, but one finally popped up that looked like an original and their prices were similar to that which you paid. I took the plunge and have ordered two. Hopefully, I picked the right company - I am looking forward to receiving them. So much of my bedding is really old and, frankly, the cheapest have lasted the longest. One of the things I’ve noticed is that if there is a round bed, the dogs will opt for that. Most of my round ones have almost disintegrated hence my purchasing these new ones.

This is the part of your very very sad post that stands out for me. You have tried very hard, you have totally loved and cared for this dog for several years. What your dog goes through is so hard for him and so hard for you. You have not failed him if you decide to let him go.

What a traumatic experience for you both, @Mark powell. I hope your dearest one is on the mend soon and that you, too, can start to feel better. @Scratch has set out what I would consider the most detailed and carefully considered excellent plan of action. . I have had a few blind dogs over the years, but never one who became blind immediately from an accident. Given time, your little one, will manage very well, but as Scratch said, he is probably still hurting quite a lot from the accident and would be very confused. Has your vet put him on pain relief? My blind dogs have managed very well, but have always been in a family of several dogs and only one human. So the furniture isn’t moved around, there aren’t lots of different noises of people coming and going or confusing signals. My latest little dog is blind and came as a foster in January of last year. Despite being severely compromised healthwise through neglect, she adapted very quickly and within days was finding her way unerringly around the house. You are both probably in shock, but when this starts to wear off, you will be surprised at how quickly your “real trooper” starts to return to the happy active little dog he was before. Good luck and please keep us informed as to progress. We do really care on this forum.

Oh my goodness. Lucky lucky dogs and lucky lucky @BJ. A house full of love.

Living the life. I am worried that she harbours a secret desire to run away to the Circus.

Thank you @grumpette. I hope it is Danny and not Bunter she meets up with. Shortly after Bunter came to live with us, he took real exception to Jeune and was intent on doing her damage. Luckily, she was young and spritely then and very happily lived on the couch. I used to divide the house every few hours to give Jeune room to run around, go downstairs etc without being attacked. I even listed Bunter for rehoming and had a few acceptable responses. However, one day when we were all in the lounge and Jeune was in her usual spot on the couch, she just jumped off, walked past Bunter to go downstairs and Bunter didn’t bat an eye. With equilibrium restored, Bunter was removed from the adoption pages.

Thanks, @jemappelle. Gosh, that was a long time ago, wasn’t it? Hard to remember the good times, yet, but thank goodness for photographs to prompt memories of happier and healthier times.

You are so right. And such a good way to put it because we love them all and would do anything to keep them well and safe, but sometimes one comes along . . . .

We are so lucky to live in this time of instant photos, @Kazm. I’ve been scrolling through my photos and have forgotten so many. Those in the post above are from a long time ago, though. Seems another life time.

Thank you everyone. You have all been through this loss and pain, so it is very comforting to have kind and understanding words from those who come from a place of knowing. Two loved ones gone in a couple of months - such a strange feeling. After Danny died a few years ago, I was a three dog family for only a little while as I started to foster again. But I don’t have the energy or drive to start that again. The past year has been difficult because I am a born worrier and, in terms of my little dogs, I have had a lot to worry about. And I’ve been sick for months with a diagnosis only a couple of weeks ago: Laryngopharyngeal Reflux. Not looking for “poor little you” just telling why I don’t have the energy for fostering anymore. So we are back to three little dogs: Tamar 16, Mezza 16 and Sooty 14. Tamar has been with me nearly as long as Jeune as I fostered her just a few months after Jeune in June 2004. Poor little Tamar was a complete nervous wreck, her first rehoming didn’t even last 24 hours and as she had turned to Jeune for comfort, eventually I could not bear to separate them. She was about 6 months old and spent her week in the pound listed as a male. Still makes me angry and sad. Jeune was uncommitted, but Tamar was attached to Jeune by an invisible cord, moving when Jeune moved, going downstairs when Jeune went downstairs (even in the dead of night), getting into Jeune’s bed and, when they used to sleep on the bed, if Jeune changed spots, Tamar would move to be close to her. I remember being quite surprised when I noticed that Jeune was going down to the bottom of the bed, but Tamar was staying in her place at the top of the bed. Strangely, this started to change a few years ago and I wonder if it had something to do with Jeune having been diagnosed with cancer. It was quite a dramatic change in that, until a few years ago, Tamar would not even start eating unless Jeune had started. I am quite relieved this separation happened because I have seen in one of my dogs, a long time ago, the terrible grief at the loss of a mate. So despite one strange thing happening this morning, Tamar has not shown signs of distress. The strange thing (and probably quite unrelated to Jeune’s passing) was that Tamar came into the bathroom, lifted her head, gave one great screech-cum-bark and left the room. Because she is the only dog I’ve adopted who was a puppy (apart from my first two dogs in 1993), I’ve always called Tamar my puppy and she still is, just a 16 years old puppy. She has her own problems having been diagnosed with Upper Motor Neurone disease. Luckily, she is very light so, although her back legs are all over the place, she stills gets around easily although she does fall over quite easily and trips over things (like the water bowl) despite them being in the same places forever. Tamar loving Jeune: 2009 Jeune and Tamar on the bed 1a by Cynthia Waters, on Flickr Tamar Jeune 2 by Cynthia Waters, on Flickr Tamar Jeune 1 by Cynthia Waters, on Flickr

And you took the best photos I have I her. When I am not so raw, I will take a trip down memory lane with them.

Today, my beloved crossed the Bridge to join so many of my little dogs. It was clear the time was right, but it absolutely broke my heart. Jeune has been in my life since November 2003 when she came as a little foster girl of 3 years. This was the last photograph which I took because she’d eaten everything in her bowl. IMG_1191 by Cynthia Waters, on Flickr And below a thread I started when she was first diagnosed with a tumour. Hard to believe it is nearly 4 years.

Yes, I think so too. I sure as hell hope so.

Poor little thing. Nothing funny about being doped to eyeballs.

I recall many years ago a dog coming into rescue who was blind from living in a pothead house. The people thought it was very funny to blow smoke into the poor little thing’s eyes.

So wrong

That goes without saying, but I was responding to the video that LG had posted. And if they have escaped and attacked before, my sympathies for the owner are somewhat tempered. (This may have come out in the video LG posted, but I only read the article, I didn’t listen to the man, because I can’t hear.)

Hard to find words really. He is obviously devastated. How do you live with the knowledge that dogs you’ve loved have killed another person? Huge emotional burden.

Goodness, I’d forget my head if it wasn’t screwed on. Some weeks ago, sample packets of dried cat food were being put in people’s letterboxes. Normally, I would just give these to someone with a cat, however, this time I gave it to Jeune. She loved it .... then. Won’t touch it now You’ll find it in cat treats area, called Temptations.