My 2 Oldies

[ish]

I’ve got a couple of elderly GSDs and whilst I know how lucky I am to have had them in good health into their old age, sometimes seeing them declining is hard. 

Chili is 14 and a half this weekend. She’s bright, happy and always hungry! Last year she started having difficulty with her back end, dragging feet and stumbling a bit and was diagnosed with (I think) lumbar-sacral instability, which is a degeneration of her spine. She’s had good improvement with cortisone and at the start of this year I was able to half her dose, but she got a bit wobbly again recently so is back on 2 a day. She has fish oil and omega oils, but no other medication so far. My vet said we can try rimadyl and other such things if need be. She’s very bright in her mind and her body lets her down a little bit - she’d love to play fetch and chase the young dogs

 

Checa is almost 12 and a half, very sound for her age and up until a fortnight ago had no health complaints. I noticed she seemed to be bracing when I was out with her one day, and she lost her balance and toppled over the same afternoon. She was well in herself and still hungry - didn’t look like vestibular to me. The local vet was little help, said it was her hips due to her age despite it not matching her symptoms. My vet says it’s something CNS affecting her perception, possibly brain inflammation/trauma/tumour. She’s a few days into a course of cortisone to try to reduce inflammation. I thought she was a bit better the last few days but today she toppled over and lay there as though she wasn’t sure what was going on. After a bit she got up and wagged her tail and seemed to get on with life again. I don’t want to put her through any suffering for only a bit more time, but feel she’s still happy enough to see if the cortisone helps

 

Why does time have to fly with our beloved pets? 

[RuralPug]

Ish I know how much you care for all of your GSDs but the ones that have been with us the longest have the biggest pieces of our heart and it is, as you say, so very hard watching them slow down as age and illness take their toll.

I have outlived so many seniors and they have all been special.

Bottom line is their lives are just too short. 

[ish]

Thanks RP,  nice you understand

 

The girls have both had good days today so I feel happier about things. Hoping for lots more good days for them 

[Loving my Oldies]

It is very hard to see our beloved dogs decline.  I have had only very small dogs, but I think it must be harder with big dogs unless you are young and nimble enough to get down to their level and/or sit on the floor with them to be able to give them cuddles and balance and comfort particularly when they have episodes.  

 

I have four little oldies, each with medical needs to the extent that I print out a daily chart to ensure they have all their meds and at the right times !!!

 

In the case of your two, Ish, at their ages I wouldn’t be worrying much about trying to decrease meds, whatever keeps them well in the here and now.  

 

Pix please.     

[ish]

Does photobucket still work here?

 

Chili - first pic taken Nov last year and second pic taken this week 

 

 

Checa - first pic Nov last year and second pic this week

 

 

 

Chili still enjoys getting out so I’ll take her to training on Sunday to celebrate her half birthday - definitely some chicken nuggets are in order. We had a party and cupcakes for her birthday last year. Checa prefers to stay at home with her boyfriend Monza (he’s 10 and my 3rd oldie) and enjoys a wander in the paddock to sniff where the bunnies have been 

[Loving my Oldies]

Oh gosh, they are sooooo beautiful Ish.  So regal (when they want to be LOL).  

 

I didn’t know Photobucket still worked.  They had stopped allowing you to transport pix to other sites unless you paid some enormous annual fee.  Must have seen the error of their ways.  

 

 

[ish]

Checa went back to the vet yesterday. Earlier in the week she had a couple of funny turns, very minor, only a few seconds but enough to have me worried. My vet could actually see good improvements with her perception and coordination - I guess it’s hard to see it yourself when you’re constantly around them and they’re still away from what you consider normal for them. He’s prescribed another med which will hopefully resolve the new issue and believes there’s still tricks up his sleeve for the future, which gives me good piece of mind. I’m away next week for nearly a week and Dad is house sitting, I’m worried about leaving the old girls but neither would enjoy such a long trip away from home. Dad does a great job looking after the dog but might not pick up on the little things

 

[RuralPug]

ish just let me know if you would like me to drop by once or twice and check the girls while you're away. I'm only 10 minutes away.
Or you could ask your Dad to send daily videos to you of them?