This has been a bad week for the dogs. Copper had a bite to his eyelid that got infected (maybe from a mole or maybe from Tally - they play rough
) and his eye was all iritated and oozing goo. We ended up at the vet on Monday nite. Tuesday Tally ate a combo of hamburger grease, leaves, and dirt (hubby dumped the grease in the woods and she found it) and ended up with a bad case of diarhea. Accidents all over beds, rugs, floors, and even on Copper
for two days before we were able to get meds for her. Two nights of 2AM clean-up, bed-changing, and laundry washing. Once the meds kicked in everyone got a better night's sleep. Then Friday morning Moe couldn't walk on his deformed front leg. I lay on his dog-bed with him and cried, thinking that this might be the end for him (he's almost twelve and aging very fast). Last night he was no better, barely able to walk. Today we took him in to the vet. Nothing is broken, but his joints, especially his crooked leg, are very painful (no swelling though). He was given a script for Rimadyl and the vet said that he should be improved by tonite. We have to give it to him for three days and then stop to see if things are better. He was confident that they would be, but if not, he needs to be anesthetised to do an x-ray. If that happens they'd also remove his problem cyst - why waste perfectly good anesthesia on a mere x-ray? We are hoping it doesn't come to that. He also gave us something to put on the cyst that will prevent licking, and it works great so far. Given his health issues, the vet thinks he'll have another year at least, but probably not much more than that.
The chart says he's like a person 77 years old. I just hope when the time comes that he will go peacefully in his sleep and I won't be forced to make the decision to euthanise him. I will do it if I have to, but I hope I won't have to.