15 posts tagged “pets”

It looks like I may have to take one of my dogs to the vet tomorrow. My poor little DancerMan is having trouble using his back legs.

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I noticed this morning that he was wobbling around and I thought this was a prelude to one of his epileptic seizures so I gave him one of his phenobarbital pills. I can not tell if it has made any difference. I do not think he is worse, but he does not seem any better. He has some problems getting around right now. It looks like he may be having some nerve problems with his back legs. He is still eating and drinking so that is a good sign, and he does not seem to be upset or distressed by his problem. He probably is so used to experiencing mobility issues periodically due to his occasional seizures that he is not scared yet. I am going to watch him overnight and if he is still not moving well I am going to see if I can get him in to the vet tomorrow.

Its been a while since I have posted anything and although there has not been a lot going on there has been a few things.
 
Health:

I have been feeling a little down (not enough to go back on meds but just not peppy). I know part of it is just because of the frustration from being unemployed. I also know part o fit is from being worried about my health. There is nothing really big going on unless you consider that I am 'big'. That definitely is getting me down. Being unemployed so often I have gotten in to some very bad habits and also very sedentary behavior all which has allowed me to gain more weight than I am happy with. Heck gaining any weight is not something I am happy with.

Recently I had an IA attack and before it I had noticed something that I am not sure if it is connected to my IA or if it is another health issue. I have been having a lot of swelling in my legs and hands. I am not sure if it is symptom that can be tied to my IA or if it is a symptom of High blood pressure. (I have taken my blood pressure multiple times and it is borderline high [i.e. 135/85 or 128/87] it has not been extremely high but it has not been low {right now it is 119/84 so not too bad}). For right now I am going to keep an eye on my blood pressure, cut back on the soda, try to limit my salt in take and just in case it is a symptom of my IA I am taking an extra Benadryl once or twice a day if I feel the need. Of course taking the extra Benadryl is not helping my activity level, but I have noticed some of the swelling has gone down so maybe its the Benadryl or maybe it is just the reduction in soda and salt. I am fortunate that I have never been one that felt super sleepy from Benadryl but it does make it easier for me to sleep once I get to sleep so I do sometimes spend much longer in bed than I should be.

Friends & Family:

I gave one of my best friends a ride to get her cataract surgery. She is one of those fortunate people that have never had much need for any kind of surgery.  The only surgeries she has had were her tonsils out at the age of 5 and her wisdom teeth removed. Because of her limited surgery experience she was pretty nervous about the whole thing. She made it thru it just fine and is healing nicely. The biggest ordeal of the whole thing was the wee hours of the morning that we had to get up to make it to her surgery appt on time and to her follow up appt the next day. I do not blame her for being nervous about the surgery itself, after all it is her eyes that are being operated on. It does not matter that it is a very well practiced surgery that is supposedly pretty simple, there is always that one time that something goes wrong. I have  always had a  fear of loosing my  eyesight.  I  developed the fear as a child when I started getting glasses and there was a period  of time where I had  to get a new prescription  in as short a time as  6 months. I was afraid that my eyesight was eventually going to get so bad that I would not be able to see. 

My roommate has been considering adopting a rescue dog. He is a cute 3-4yr old beagle missing one leg. We have been keeping an eye on him on the groups list of adoptable pets on Petfinder.com . We were going to go see him last weekend but the weather was so bad that we made arrangements with the foster home to go look at him this weekend. I really was not super enthused about getting the dog, I was not against her getting a dog I knew she would take care of it. I just am feeling drained from being unemployed so I was not super enthused, but she wanted to get him so I agreed to go look at him. Did I mention that it is almost a 2 hour drive to get there, well it is. We drove all the way down there (mad-tante might know where I am taking about if I say Morse Mills) only to find out that he is not a cat friendly dog. {my roommate never thought to ask that, and I made the mistake of thinking that would be one of the first things my roommate would have asked since all our cats are indoor cats}. So we petted him and turned around and drove back home. I had mixed feelings about the whole thing. I was glad that we were not getting him, I just was not ready for another dog. I was a bit miffed with my roommate for not thinking to ask, what I thought to be, the most important question. I was glad it was a nice day and the drive was a pleasant one. I felt bad that the poor dog was still going to have to be passed up, he is a very active energetic dog, despite having only 3 legs. He seemed genuinely upset that the people petting him were leaving him behind, yet again. I was glad that he was in this foster home where he got lots of attention instead of at a shelter in a cage.

General:

I took pictures of jewelry that I have made and just need to start editing them so that I can upload them. I will try to get some of those posted as soon as possible. We have been having some very warm weather here. I just wish the weather would level out in one direction or the other so that I get the temperature in the house steady. If it stays warm I am going to have to consider putting the AC on early. Since we spent most of today on the road I did not check out the lawnmowers like I planned. We have two different mowers, a push one for using in the dog yard and a rider for all the area outside of it. We really need to get the lawns mowed, all the rain we have gotten has made for a very plush lawn. Of course it is supposed to rain again, so now it will have to wait a few more days.

I have been slowly  trying to catch up with my Vox neighbors. I have let so much time slide by since I did any posting of my own. I have started commenting on other blogs, but I still did not feel ready to create my own post.

I am still a mix of jumbled thoughts, but Thanksgiving gives me something I can use as a focal point.

I have so much to be thankful for that I know I could never think of everything to be able to write it all down. There are many things that I am sure I would totally overlook and not realize just how thankful I should be about them.

I will always be thankful for my family, past and present. I am thankful for my friends, they are such good friends that I often wonder if I can ever be as good a friend to them as they are to me.

I am thankful for the 'Good old Days'. I am thankful for each new day.
I am thankful for the bad times too, because they help me to appreciate the good times.

I have noticed recently that my eyes are getting worse and I am in definite need of a new prescription for my glasses, but despite this I am thankful that I have eye sight at all.

I am still working, I am truly thankful for that. It is still iffy as to how long it will last, but I know that my coworkers/project managers are trying to keep me working. I say a silent thank you for that each and every day.

My parents are each in good health for their ages, this is definitely something to be thankful for.
My sister and I still get along more often than we don't, this is also a plus.

I have pets to snuggle with and to cheer me up when I am feeling down.

I have a wonderful neighborhood here on Vox and I am thankful to Six Apart for making this possible.

I am thankful I have a home, I have electric, I have water, I have heat, I have food in the pantry and in the refrigerator. I have a car that still runs, with only minor repairs so far.

I am thankful that despite problems here and there with my health, none of the problems are so severe that I can not enjoy my life.

I am also very thankful that I live in the USA, and that there are people who work everyday to make sure I do not ever loose the freedoms I get to enjoy.

We have had another pet issue going on at the same time as all the dog fighting. One of our older cats, Tommy, has gone from weighing a healthy 16lbs about 1.5 years ago to weighing 10 this Saturday when we took him to the vet. We have already wormed him and treated him for fleas so we knew it was not anything to do with those two things. We had noticed that Tommy was drinking a lot more than usual besides losing weight and this concerned us. So blood work had to be done. They tested him for Feline leukemia and FIP (although I am not sure why since he was up to date on his shots) and those test came out fine, ( I was sure they would).

The vet called us back on Sunday with the results of the blood work and Tommy has diabetes (we suspected this because of his symptoms). Tommy now has to get insulin injections twice a day every day as close to 12 hours apart as reasonable. After 5 days I am to take Tommy up for a glucose check to see if the dosage the vet has prescribed is going to be the right one or if changes need to be made.

Because we have multiple cats the vet is going to let us try just working with the insulin first, but if that is not enough we may have to put Tommy on special food. We should be used to that, we now have to give all the cats some canned food as well as their dry because Nacho has such a high metabolism he does not keep enough weight on with just eating the dry food, he is also one of our older cats.

I have had a lot of problems with my Best Friend #2's dog Micheal lately. You may have read in a previous post about how we kind of take care of many things for BF #2, including trying to keep Micheal in line. Well because we have really not wanted to be the ones doing all the work Micheal is a bit wild and rambunctious, plus he is all muscle. About 75lbs of it. He is is a mix breed dog so we are not certain what all he has in him but we suspect Lab and Rhodesian Ridge Back, and possible some pit bull. I do not have anything against pit bulls and even feel they are often mis-labeled as bad dogs when they are just untrained dogs.

Micheal is about 4 years old now and he is getting more and more rough, and even aggressive to some of my dogs. Recently he attacked my long haired Dachshund, Malcolm (this time unprovoked by the Doxie) and he almost killed him with all the damage he did.

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2 comments

Well as I mentioned last night, I had court today. It was okay since it was only a review hearing, but I was still not happy with everything that was being said and done.

I had another first happen today, because of all this. I was fingerprinted even though I was not arrested.
So far I have been handcuffed and read my Miranda rights, but not arrested (way back when this all started) and then fingerprinted but not arrested.

I thought it was kid of odd that they would fingerprint me even though I was not arrested. I thought fingerprinting was only done when you are arrested.

Basically today was to let the judge know that this whole things has still not been resolved and we still plan to go to a jury trial. The judge has requested that the prosecutor's office, my attorney and I, and the Humane Society lady, get together before the trial to try and work something out. So Friday I have to go back to the court house to the prosecutor's office for us to all meet together and try to come up with a solution

I just want to pull my hair out, I am so tired of all of this.

Well tomorrow I have another day at court. It is supposed to be a 'case review'. The county clerk sent out a letter a couple of weeks ago notifying myself and my lawyer of the scheduled review. See there was supposed to be a jury trial and the clerk's office and my lawyer's office were supposed to get together to discuss the date for it to be scheduled. In the mean time a new Assistant Prosecutor has been sworn in and assigned my case. My lawyer and she at one point were discussing a possible plea. I have not heard anything about it in quite a while. I know part of this is because I have not been calling my attorney. I kind of was enjoying not thinking about it. Since there has not been a trial or a plea the court has set up a review hearing. I honestly do not know what to expect from this hearing. Well I know that not too much can be done since it is a review hear and not a bench (judge) trial or a jury trial. Well I suppose if the attorney and the prosecutor have arranged a plea and I agree to it, I could be making a plea and ending this mess, but some how I do not expect that to happen.

I am definitely going to have to get to bed soon and get some rest before my anxiety level gets too high.

I have been having some discussions with some people lately about what is an acceptable number of pets to have.

I know there is a lot of problems with hoarders or collectors as some people have come to call them.

I have read some news articles where the animal expert has said that a hoarder does not necessarily have to have a large number of animals but that they way they care for them is part of what makes them a collector.

I have also heard some officials say that having large number of pets does not make you a collector/hoarder if you take good care of the animals.

So what number do you think is the right amount. 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 ? What is too much? 5, 10, 15, 20, 30
 
What if the they all have their shots, they have all been tested for feline leukemia, or heart worms depending on if they are feline or canine? What if the animals are fed and watered daily? What if when they are ill they are taken to the vet for care or given prescribed medications for repetitive illnesses?

What if the cats are given free roam of the house and have cat towers and cubby cubes to play/sleep in? What if the dogs each have their own bed to sleep in?

What if the house is in the country and the dogs do not bother the neighbors? What if the cats are all indoor cats? 
What if all the pets are spayed and neutered so as not to reproduce any unwanted puppies and kittens?

So what is an okay number?
1 cat and 1 dog?
2 & 2
4, 5, 6, 7, 15

I do believe that if someone is not caring for their animals then any number is too many. If someone wants to care for their animals but is gone out of town a lot and at social function then they should consider a smaller number or maybe even none. I also believe that if someone spends most of their time at home (aside from work) then if they are taking care of their animals they could have more than a really busy person could.

So maybe some of you could tell me what you think about this.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I did manage to get my cat to come back into the house. And my Oreo is doing well on her antibiotics. I have not taken her temperature to see how much of fever she still has or even if she still has one. I figure since she is acting more herself I am just going to keep giving her the meds and just double check her temperature later. 

This ice storm needs to end soon!! I am almost out of Pepsi. LOL! I have one Pepsi and one Dr. Pepper left. I do not even have very much juice left. I may have to go cold turkey and drink plain water. Good thing I like water.

Even my doggies and kitties want the storm to end soon. Oh wait maybe they don't; I just gave them all canned food, because we are low on dry food and I wanted to stretch it so that I will not run completely out. So I imagine they are really happy that we are stuck here. Canned food is only a treat for my critters.