Lavender Farm
Oil on gallery-wrapped canvas, 16x20.
Please contact me for price and delivery information
Last weekend, I thought our oldest dog was at the end. We took her to the vet on Monday to see if anything could be done for her, and I was expecting to come home without her.
She is nearly 15, a chow-German shepherd (as far as we know), and has been creaky for a while. Last week, her night-time pacing and doggie dementia combined to make exhausting and terrifying situations for her and us. For instance, one morning, her panting woke me, and I found her stuck halfway through a small end table that, trying to escape from, she had dragged to the middle of the kitchen.
It would be funny, and I am sure that in future years it will, if it were not so unhappy and dangerous for her. By the time I got her out, she was so whipped she could barely walk.
But our miracle-worker of a vet, who himself has a 15-year-old dog, didn't say, "she's clearly too decrepit to keep living." Instead, he said he had ideas, and encouraged us to try them.
We made a recipe of beef and rice and veggies for her. Started giving her benadryl to get her to sleep at night. Put her on doxycycline and prednisone. Got a bottle of something called Sunilite, which helps not only with doggie dementia, but also with the odd flipping of night and day that many old dogs experience. We're going to try her on melatonin. And we got her a collar that has a naturopathic something in it that is supposed to help calm her.
And by gosh, she's better. She's still ancient, but she is stronger and happier and clearly more herself.
I know it's a matter of days or weeks at the most, probably. But if she can be happy and not panicked, and not exhausting herself by pacing around, then those days or weeks are going to be good for all of us.
In the meantime, I painted this from a photograph that someone sent me. Here's the photo:
6 comments:
Dear Carrie, I love the way you write and I love the way you paint.
Elissa
Hi, Elissa. Thank you so much for the note. I'm so glad, today and every day, to have your support. I want to find out where these fields are and go there!
Carrie, I wish you and your dog the best. A lucky dog indeed to have someone like you to make him as comfortable as possible. Thanks for sharing your vets recommendations, many of us will be in your shoes with our dogs in the too near future.
Sorry, meant to say 'she' not 'he'.
Thank you so much, Leecia - Day by day, she is doing better and better. It's really remarkable! Today, she's eaten a half a can of food, a handful of dry food and nearly two chicken breasts. The difference is instantaneous. I know we're only talking weeks, probably, but they willl be much better weeks.
Thank you so much, Leecia - Day by day, she is doing better and better. It's really remarkable! Today, she's eaten a half a can of food, a handful of dry food and nearly two chicken breasts. The difference is instantaneous. I know we're only talking weeks, probably, but they willl be much better weeks.
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