That’s why I only like my vet at the clinic where I go. The other ones are okay, but they sometimes miss things.
On the way home from the vet yesterday, I stopped at a friend’s house. When it comes to dogs- Dee is amazing. She has OCD but she also has a way with dogs unlike anyone I have ever seen. She makes the dog whisperer look like a fool. I stopped to show her Winston (he needed a more dignified name) and we spent some time in her company. She has been working with dogs now over 60 years and she is quiet and introspective. She didn’t say much, but he got a thorough looking over and personality check. She said she would call me later.
I just got off the phone with her and she believes strongly that Winston hasn’t been “walked to death” as some claimed. His pads of his feet aren’t even worn. She believes he has been crated or kenneled much of his life and has lost muscle tone. This is also why he is so fearful of noises of any kind, and cautious when meeting other people and dogs. It’s also why he can’t walk well. He never got the chance! She told me to make him a sling with a towel and when he comes to areas he is reluctant to cross or move over- to help him out by putting this towel over his back end and carrying his rear over the obstacle. I have done this and it works like a charm!
Her theories make much more sense than the vet’s. I am also going to start giving Winston glucosmine/chrodroititn/MSM mixture in his food and start slowly exposing him to new people and places so he can develop into the dog I know he should be. Right now the espresso maker scares him when it makes frothy milk because it hisses.
This morning he was trying to play with Brandy for the first time. I see a really good dog emerging from all of this. Kojo slept with him last night on his belly. He now sleeps in front of the front door.
On the kitty front, I have been still bottle feeding Mason. His teeth are now just starting to come in and I can see where he almost ready to get off the bottle and into solid kitty food. When he arrived, he was 9.8 oz. He is now 15.8 ounces. He loves his belly rubs, his poop is no longer so challenging for him and he has a delightful personality coming through. No hider here!
Morgan the black cat who arrived with the other seniors in March and who was unapproachable, is now allowing me to pet him and stroke him. He has moved so far ahead in the socialization period, that I am going to take him (instead of Glory) to the vet tomorrow. Morgan is an old guy and like Juno he has breathing issues. I could hear him breathing across the room but I couldn’t get close enough until last week to do anything about it. I finally caught him and put him in my socialization cage and have been giving him antibiotics. He is breathing easier now, but he still needs to be seen and evaluated. His eyes just look wonky- I know that’s not really a word but it fits for how his eyes seem to not focus. I don’t know what is going on, but hopefully Dr. Steve can figure it all out.
There it is, who would have thought he was living in a crate, that sling and the massage you were going to start should help his muscle’s tone up nicely. He is going to be a awesome boy, and sleeping by the door thing, my aussie was always by the front door and night, during the day he alternated between the front door and the back sliding door. When we were not home he was at the front door and many a time we had to slide him when opening the door so we could get in. Was a guarantee that no one was coming in. What a great friend to have.
Explains why he wouldn’t go into the crate we have here. He doesn’t need a crate anyway. His crate days are over. This morning, he is like an entirely different dog. He was even trying to play with B-Dog earlier!
Here he is in our back pasture
He looks great!!!!!! What a good boy! Totally different than yesterday! Praying still for you, Mike and this precious boy!!!!
He looks great, can’t wait to see your post about him in that pasture in a few weeks, when he can run and play. this board will be filled with Happy Tears, so much joy for him, you wont be able to contain yourself when he gets to be the dog he is meant to be.
Wow, that is one handsome dog. He looks alert & happy, like he has places to go and people to see. Really nice to see such an engaged dog. Good for him and Thanks to you.
He really does look like a different dog! As I know you know, cats and dogs pick up on the emotions of their people. He has probably been scared his whole life living with that woman and now feels nothing but love and acceptance. How wonderful!!
If Winston grew up in that car with a crazy person (for lack of anything else to call her), he probably did not get many chances to run or even stretch out. Give him a couple weeks running around chasing after squirrels, and he’ll be a whole new doggie.
Here he is in the sun enjoying life…
What a beautiful boy he is!
Go Winston!!
He’s actually eating a caterpillar!
Progress is being made with many of the animals in your care. That’s good to read.
I have to shake my head when people talk about the advances society has made in the last two or three centuries. it is true that technology has improved life for millions (and made it worse for the same millions). We have medicine and attitudes now that are much better than they were. But what is the good of it all when it’s not applied properly. If a person is discharged from a mental hospital as ‘cured’ but isn’t, or can’t get help in the first place because there’s no funding, how have the results changed over the years?
Fortunately, we have now, as society did then, people who care.