Fragile

Pip's little sister went for an operation last Friday. We hope she's healing beautifully. We have our paws and fingers all crossed for you. Our thoughts are with you Pip and Kristin.

We finally got around the scare and the scary and found a certain balance in our lives again.

I had a scare one morning last week. Waking up and moving over to Dom's chair, i looked at him and he didn't move. Usually when i wake in the morning, he will be all ready to go for a leak. But here i am looking at him and he didn't move a muscle. I put my hand over to his chest to check. Suddenly he jumped up startled. He was just in deep sleep. Very very deep sleep. It must have been the medicines.

A day later, i found him a bit wobbly and didn't quite use his left hind leg. It got worse and he started to hobble around and lie down most of the time. That got us worried and we were off to the vet again last Thursday.

The vet checked all his legs and was bending it here and there just to make sure he didn't sprained it. Then he made Dom walked here and there to see his gait. It turned out he became anaemic from not eating properly. Poor nutrition.

He hasn't been eating his kibs for the past 2 weeks.. or so. Ever since he was sick, he stopped eating his kibs. He has been very choosy about his food lately.. and still needs to be handfed. I think he's beginning to like the idea of being handfed.

Eating just chicken breast without the normal nutrition from his kibs is just not enough. The minerals that are contained in his kibs are just not found in just chicken. The past week has been a bit of a topsy turvy as each day, we struggled to force him to eat something... and trying to come up with new ideas for food for him. At one time, i even started to beg him to eat. He seem to understand and took a few more mouthfuls.

The vet advised that if he really does not eat, give him some essence of chicken... or an egg.. or something. We got to keep him eating else he'll be wobbly. When he's anaemic, he does not feel like eating at all. Lethargy and he just lies down the whole day.

Then we cooked a pot of chicken... added some carrots.. peas... potatoes... and sweet potatoes. We mix some up with an egg... with some flour and oats.. and we have meat patties. Meat patties go into the oven for a crunchy feel and he seem to like that. My sister suggested i put some of his kibs into the mixture too and we have meat patties + kibs included. He ate some of that too.

We made some progress these few days. He is not limping anymore and seem to have more energy. He's even eager for a walk. We had a short slow walk yesterday around the neighbourhood and he was so happy to get out there for his mails. We can't do long walks at the moment as we do not want to stress his heart. We are being careful and am scared.

His lungs are much clearer and he is without fever now. The medicines did help but his enlarged heart will always be enlarged.

We had a long talk with the vet... and dad asked the vet a lot of questions. Even the ones that i didn't want to know. The vet said, if we are lucky, we'll probably get 2 more years with Dom. He was quick to add that his own dog survived 4 more years after his dog was diagnosed with a heart condition. We can't really know. It will probably get a bit worse in the end and some of his organs will give way slowly. But for today, we'll just have to be happy and be thankful for another day well spent.

What we must know is that we cannot stress him too much. He'll just be like an old guy taking it easy now. With love and lots of care, he'll probably outlive me :)

We have a lot of people praying for him everyday. Thank you all so much. He is so loved by so many.

"We who choose to surround ourselves
with lives even more temporary than our own,
live within a fragile circle;
easily and often breached.
Unable to accept its awful gaps,
we would still live no other way.
We cherish memory as the only
certain immortality, never fully
understanding the necessary plan."

~ Irving Townsend