Beyond Adolescence - part 2

[SpanielsGalore]

No point banning coffee, as it didn't work last time. 🙄
Haven't had any cake updates from a while. @VanGoSunflowers Have you stopped baking already? You still had 8 cakes to go to make it economical.

Fuming that's she been made to wear a drying coat

I never realised until I got a lab how expressive they are. (Probably the same for all dogs).

It takes ages for the top coat to fully dry @TheHungryHungryLandsharks but rain rarely goes through to the undercoat unless they're out in it for a long time. It mostly sort of beads on the top coat. I do recall a few occasions when they've been totally drenched through and taken hours to dry though.

As regards wet dog smell, I've nothing to compare them with... They just smell of wet wool when they're damp, like if you handwashed a lambswool or Shetland sweater, but I have no idea if that's how every wet dog smells or not. I'm a knitter so to me PMD wool just has a sheepy smell when it's damp but very little odour when dry. Is that what wet dog is? Like wet sheep? Or do different breeds have a different smell?

The problem with dogs is they are incredibly good at masking pain. Anyone who saw P running round the woods yesterday wouldn't know there is anything wrong with her. We were doing agility before her luxating patella diagnosis. Hindsight being a wonderful thing, I now realise that's why she sometimes paused on the A frame. Her knee cap popped out of place and she'd have to stop to click it back in.
All her symptoms manifest as anxiety and sensitivity to noise. She becomes clingy and trembles when the bin men come round. The car phobia I think is down to every journey ending at the vets for a while.
The only physical sign is very subtle. Her right leg is slightly behind her left one and she's only putting weight on her toes. But she doesn't limp and still runs and pogos up and down like a nutter. 🙄

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks It's often more difficult to spot things when they creep up on you. Presumably Satan's sight has been progressively deteriorating, so you wouldn't notice so much. As opposed to if she'd gone blind overnight.
It's hard not to feel guilty though. I know I did with P's knee. After she was diagnosed, I watched videos I had taken of her on walks, and her hoppity skip was bloody obvious.
I was joking to my DD that I'd have to live off beans on toast for the next few months. Except toast is banned as it's a massive trigger for P, so it would be beans on toast sans toast. 😂

Physio went well. She's pleased with the (small) improvements in P's flexibility so we continue as we are with short, mostly on lead walks and hope for continued improvement. 🤞

Neither the nutritionist or physio feel it is worth doing any invasive procedures to investigate the knee, so we aren't going to bother. They are both in agreement it is probably a bacterial infection and that tests should have been carried out when the metalwork was removed, to establish what was causing the inflammation then. It's all too little too late now.

On a happier note - today is K's Gotcha Day. 💖 I can honestly say I have enjoyed every minute of having her. She may be tiny, but she has a huge personality.

Oh - and my kitchen is going to be painted in Parrot Flight. Imagine whatever colour you like for that. 😂

Its good to hear that the physio is seeing improvement in P @SpanielsGalore and that at least you've resolved the dilemma about having further investigative/diagnostic treatment. Been through the guilt thing with our last two, all the "should have" thoughts, but there comes a point when you can't keep beating yourself up over it. You're doing everything you can for her.

Happy anniversary to you and your sweet K ❤

Ah so I assume the kitchen will be Norwegian Blue then 😉

@CoubousAndTourmaIet Yes. And I'll be pining for the fjords when I'm in there 😁

It's horrible, isn't it? I had the same with my sprocker. I probably kept going for too long with him, but he was only 3 years old. I didn't want to give up without trying everything possible.
If I can get P back to how she was in August, then I'll be happy with that and we'll manage her condition with two or three short walks a day rather than long treks.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet errrr it's sort of hard to explain! But to me wet dog smell is just damp and a bit musty? Like when you haven't aired your house or put the heating on in ages and it gets that faintly unpleasant smell that makes your nose wrinkle? I'm quite jealous you don't have that issue...maybe I should get a PMD! 😀

@tizwozliz beautiful, as always!

@SpanielsGalore yes, I know what you mean. Those out of hours emergencies where you panic and rush them to the vets are easier in many ways as you can just react and know you did everything you can in a short space or time, whereas even though Satan isn't mine I feel guilty for not noticing. We moved the furniture in DMums house a while ago and she kept bumping into it afterwards and we should have realised...but like you say, when it creeps up on you you just don't notice.

Beans, even on toast, is banned in our house! It's one of the few smells I cannot stomach ever since I was pregnant with DD1. Poor DH used to love a good fry-up. P is 100% worth the cost though (as all our babies are) isn't she? And such good news that the physio is seeing some improvement. Will keep my fingers crossed for P though ❤

Are you celebrating with K? Or just a normal day? I do celebrate the dogs birthdays - they get a 1-2-1 mummy walk followed by an entire bacon roll to themselves (because I am soft) but gotcha days aren't really a thing here, for obvious reasons.

For some reason Parrot Flight makes me think of bright blue and green 😂Which I am assuming you have not gone for...although DH and I 'starter' flat had light green cabinets and dark blue walls which was surprisingly lovely

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks It's strange what pregnancy does to you. During my first one, I couldn't drink tea and could only stomach weak coffee! 😱 Never drank if again after giving birth.
We don't really celebrate any special days. They might get a FB (or MN) post, but that's about it. No presents or special treats. Although I did take N down the beach and treat her to an ice cream on her birthday. The other pair were sadly neglected.

I'd call it blue and it's in the blue section. But my living room is Seafoam and from the green section, and everyone other than me swears it's blue. 🙄 It looks brighter in my kitchen than in this link.

https://www.valsparpaint.co.uk/paint-colours/blues/parrot-flight/

@SpanielsGalore You must have been gutted not to be able to stomach tea😂It's odd, as I loved beans before...but even now the smell of them turns my stomach.

Well, N is an older woman - she deserves special treatment 😀Did she eat the whole icecream?

Ohhhh that's a really nice shade of blue! I love house decor type stuff.

Sometimes I think I missed my calling in life and I should have been an interior designer. We haven't put our Christmas stuff up yet as we're going to do it when DH is home next week - family tradition and all that. Amazing though how everyone loves putting the tree and decorations up and yet it's me who takes it all down alone! 😤

It's an awful thing @SpanielsGalore with F and his epilepsy he was having more and more medication, we even took him to a homoeopathic vet. Every time he had a bad seizure it took him longer to recover and he had to relearn stuff. We knew how it would likely end but as you said, you don't want to give up, especially with a young dog. He was only 4, but looking back we should have called it a day much sooner. We did let him go on too long.

With A, the guilt centred around having the sodding vaccine in the first place and I don't think we'll ever stop blaming ourselves for his loss.

Not been through pregnancy aversions but migraine has a similar effect on me, can't stomach tea or my Barleycup stuff.

We don't celebrate gotcha days @TheHungryHungryLandsharks but we do them a nice dinner on their birthdays. That applies to canines and felines equally.

Our house is quite beige. Wheatgrass and cream tones with warm woods. The house is the complete opposite to my own style which is dark and gothic. I wear a lot of black and purple. You'd probably expect me to have a black dog not a white one, and live in a Dark Academia meets Addams Family house, but it's very neutral.

@SpanielsGalore oh wow that’s interesting what the nutritionist said, and makes perfect sense. Hopefully the supplements make a difference for her. Also glad the physio went well too. At least you don’t have to try and do that long drive/logistical nightmare with the other dogs any more. And happy gotcha day K! 🥳

@Silverbirchleaf I was going to say the same as @SpanielsGalorethat dogs mask pain very well. Vinny’s physio told me it can often take a lot of pain before a dog will show any signs of discomfort.

I think V is the same in that his pain manifests as anxiety and noise sensitivity too. A couple of months ago we had a period of him being extra sensitive to noise and barking at everything, and just generally acting slightly different than usual. I had mentioned it when we had a 1-1 with our trainer because I was having a bit of a meltdown about his behaviour (thinking it was teenage arsehole-ness after we’d been making so much progress), and she said any slight change in behaviour she would get them checked for pain. And lo and behold at his physio appointment the next week they said his back legs felt very stiff. When V was first seen by the physio at the start of the year it turns out he had damage to his cruciate ligament, and the only reason I had it checked out was because he had a very intermittent limp. Like so intermittent to the point that he would do it for couple of seconds maybe once every 2 weeks, but he must have been in a lot of pain and we had no idea.

So I think it’s definitely worth exploring. After my experience I think a good physio are worth their weight in gold!

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks I love satans mullet. I always wanted a cocker with the long hair on top, I think it’s so cute.

I was busy sorting some stuff out in the cellar for maybe 20 minutes earlier, came back upstairs and V had chewed a hole in the rug!!! I am so annoyed as he’s not chewed anything for MONTHS. I have no idea why he did it!

@CoubousAndTourmaIet what do they get for dinner? Glad the cats aren’t missing out on their birthday dinners ❤

I love a neutral house! It means you can have more fun with the decorating of it, and change it up more often and buy fun things like snazzy lampshades (of which I have several).

@YorkshireFelix whoever walks her always gets comments on her haircut 😂someone once said she looked a bit like Boris Johnson and I took so much offence - she is not scruffy!!

Ahhh was V left alone? It could be a protest chew! Twatdog digs protest holes in the garden if I close the door…even if I’m stood at the window watching him! I hope it wasn’t an expensive carpet…

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks it could well have been. He barked a couple of times because he didn’t like that I wasn’t glued to his side which is what he prefers. I’d already turned the rug round the opposite way because he chewed one corner when he was younger. This is why we can’t have nice things 🙄

They'd sometimes have a big turkey leg for Birthday or Christmas dinner @TheHungryHungryLandsharks , or a chunk of beef roasted with carrots and potatoes. Other times their specific favourite thing. So for M that was home cooked lasagne, R was roast potatoes or fried bread, S loved chips, F scrambled eggs on toast, A home made soup (his nickname was The Soup Dragon) and B at the moment goes mad for mash with sweet potato, broccoli and Lancashire cheese. I love that they all have their particular favourite things.

Exactly! I like neutral because I have original watercolours on the walls, can add different cushions or throws on the sofas. We have an open fireplace so it's more cottagey than modern.

Oh that's a pain about the rug @YorkshireFelix I know the feeling about not being able to have nice things, only in our case it's mostly been because of the cats. They wreck everything.

Wow they all had good taste in favourite meals!!

I'm sure it's the much needed confirmation that I am completely bonkers. I can't even remember how we discovered Rosie loved fried bread, it's not something we would have often, in fact I can't remember the last time we did.... The other things make sense to some degree, but that one is kinda weird...🤔The M/R/S trio also liked pancakes rolled up with tuna fish inside 😂

@YorkshireFelix they’re buggers aren’t they?? Tbh the real issue is you think they grow out of it and then they don’t!

Jeepers @CoubousAndTourmaIet your dogs have very good taste!

40mph winds here. But I am wrapped up in my new dog walking coat which arrived yesterday (treated myself and have now asked for something different for Christmas), and ready to be buffeted. Then off for bacon rolls with DDs and my parents. I’m going to try and resist the urge to smother Satan in kisses, but I’m still feeling guilty…so she might get one or two. I just need to avoid her warts. 🤢

Our dogs have just been weirdoes though @TheHungryHungryLandsharks

Stop the guilt over Satan. When you're with them every day, the change is so gradual that you don't notice it happening. You and your mum both have the experience to help her through this. She knows she's loved, warts an' all 😘

Oh, what coat did you get? Was it the Dryrobe dupe or a Didriksons?
I've been living in my Seasalt Plant Hunter(s) lately and I've just recommended it on yet another mn thread. It's so good when you find your perfect dog walking coat. The holy grail for me has been finding a fleece lined hood that stays up without obscuring the vision. Love it so much I now have it in three colours (in my defence, all were bought for a silly price from Seasalt Ebay outlet).

Heavy rain here again this morning and Brie is not in a hurry to be out.

We thought our old cat had got more chilled out @TheHungryHungryLandsharks turns out she’d just gone deaf. These things do creep up.

I’m hoping today is better than yesterday, which started with me yelling like a fishwife at a man (it’s always a man) to control his off lead dog that had zero recall. One of my particular bugbears.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet - hoods are a pain. Older pup likes to walk at heel, just in a position where I can't see her when my hood is up. If i turn to check where she is she turns too staying in my blind spot so I'm always thinking she's gone missing 😂

Ah, clearly she's got you sussed @tizwozliz 😉

Hoods are a nightmare for me crossing the road, because I have very poor vision in my right eye, and if there's cars parked I just don't need another blind spot from my own hood! This is the first coat I've had in my 61 years where the hood is actually wearable.

Am I selling it yet? Am I doing for Seasalt Plant Hunter what @brushingboots has done for the Regatta Dryrobe dupe and @Bupster has done for Didriksons?😁

One of our dogs went deaf in old age @BackToLurk .
In fact it may interest @TheHungryHungryLandsharks to know from a breeding perspective, that it was the only one who was almost a pure white. S was white with a brownish nose where the others had strong colour on their ears, darkly pigmented eyes and a jet black nose. S was prone to ear problems and started going deaf at around 10 years old.

The only thing I dislike about the dry robe dupe is that the hood is a bit shallow and doesn't stay on my head properly – I don't have a particularly big head but that's a bit annoying.

It's really warm (relatively) and sunny today and I am regretting not putting my washing on before the walk to make the most of it.

@brushingboots I always wear a hat, as the hood's no good on it's own. I have to hold it up on a windy day, but it stays on with a hat.

Finished my supplement shopping yesterday. Including the consultation, it's cost me the best part of £400 so I hope it helps P. I'm hoping most of them are only for short term use, to restore her gut health. Obviously the joint care ones are for life.

Talking of not noticing things, my new hobby is watching P poo. It's blatantly obvious she's not squatting properly. There's very little curve to her back and she stretches forward a lot. And when she wees, her left leg is stuck out to the side at an odd angle. Presumably because the movement in her hip is compromised.
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