Akula, NOT to be left out....

A couple weeks later.... Concerns have risen. AFTER getting an all clear from 2 separate and trusted vets - Akula has Chronic kidney disease and Systemic hypertension. I would have liked to have known this prior to surgery.... Well, that explains Akula's excessive drinking like a racehorse.... One vet's office says he'll be needing a needing a special diet and high blood pressure meds - a half a pill twice a day. The primary vet told me his blood work numbers show a light elevation in a couple different numbers that are only consistent with old age and not a death sentence. Not necessary to change his diet.
     Cataract surgery for dogs are extremely different than for humans in that humans can recover and see shortly thereafter whereas dogs have to deal with inflammation for a long time. Akula doesn't love receiving the eye drops anymore than love giving him the drops. Or various pills but here we are. It's still too soon to give up hope on his eye recovery so we shall ...see....
     Meanwhile, good thing he has a hard head cos he's now booping it into walls and things. He's real slow now, head hanging low. He ambles about with his head hung low.
     He's often really slow when it's time to go into the backyard. There's a big half circle brick step, 6" or so tall step to the back door and glass screen door. Often, I need to tell him to "follow my voice......." so he knows which way to go.
     The worst thing about this is all is the malamute in him can no longer protect his family, particularly me. He knows I'm "wounded" from my stroke. I now have to protect him. The mothering instinct in me.... He knows it's there and I've not done wrong by him so he's able to find his way to the - HIS - chaise lounge bed in the living room.

The Legend of Sasin....

Whoever wakes up first and finds the "prize" has to clean it. We finally got Sasin aka Sassy to a diagnostic vet clinic to solve the mystery of her vomiting issues. Well... She has "Mega-esophagus"... WTH??

Poor Sassy has a "Mega-esophagus" and our vet has not seen one has bad/big as hers. "It should not be visible on an x-ray". Her's and Akula's food and water bowls are now up on 5 gallon paint buckets and the condition has greatly improved BUT...

if her food manages to not get down to her tummy, anything and everything caught in her esophagus will find its way out with deadly accuracy to target any last cleaned and disinfected area. The esophagus is the black tube to the left, below the spine. Our vet said something about it's not supposed to show up an x-ray. Great...

So with the food bowls on the buckets, almost daily vomiting reduced to a few times a week. Yay! But... vomiting was still happening and since I'm a kinda light sleeper, if I don't hear Sassy ringing the bells at the door, I'll be the one getting to clean it up. Yay, me....

So, again... I got to thinking when it was grooming time. Sassy will sit in the corner of the couch to avoid nail clipping. I got to thinking... She's sitting almost upright! I started rubbing her chest and her throat, hitting that sweet spot where Lil Miss Princess gets a thorough rub down in her "spa day". I say "Bailey Chair" and Sassy will come, knowing it's a good thing. I'm retraining her to come to "Gravity" cos it adheres to the "1 word, 3 syllables" rule for dog learning.

This also means treats and snacks have to be well thought out cos even a bite of BBQ'ed steak can "release the hounds".

Now... where the diagnostic clinic urged us to get a Bailey's Chair, we declined, needing to research this. Considering it cost over $1,400 for the diagnostics service, we weren't about to wrestle an unwilling participant into a $275 (at least) chair!

From time to time, I snooker Sassy into getting on the couch and into position as shown. I'll massage her chest then throat. Easy peasy.

So far she has not yakked Sassy style!!! Yay!!!

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