Nursing
I am feeling rather sleep deprived at the moment, in a post four day coke/speed binge kind of way, but without the preceding fun.
JJ, our ancient (at least 16, no one knows for sure) beloved golden haired tripe hound whom many of you know well, is in a very bad way and has been for the last fortnight. She had a stroke three weeks ago and it has affected her mind and her motor functions. She's lost her spatial awareness and the strength in her legs and keeps falling over, pacing when she's not collapsing and getting stuck in spaces, for example she'll walk into the corner of a room and not be able to get out and then get distressed, and then starts crying. She also keeps going into stupid places such as under the toilet and getting stuck there, also falling down the stairs, of which we have many. She can't even remember how to get into her lair under my bed these days and howls because she can't find it.
I'm having to stay up all night to look after her as she's up all night - I haven't had a solid night's sleep in the last two weeks - and I'm effectively tied to the house unless there is someone here to palm her off on to for a brief period, which there hasn't been much.
We've got some medicine that seems to be doing some good, in the sense that's she's at least more comfortable and not quite as distressed, but it is likely that she's either going to pass away peacefully in the next few days or weeks or she may well have to be put down. We were thinking that that might have to happen last Monday (before we got the new medicine) and it was very upsetting. The new medicine offers no long term hope, most like, but it does seem to be giving her the chance of passing away in a comfortable way. I am hoping that she will sleep away and to be honest I expect it will happen soon as when ever she does sleep her breathing is so faint. I really don't want to have to put her down as she's been a great dog and a good friend and she did save Malc's life. It's a difficult decision to make and I feel like Judas while seriously contemplating it, on the other hand the calculation must come down to whether she has any quality of life and the answer to that is sometimes definitely yes, but mostly no. We shall see.
Soph x
JJ, our ancient (at least 16, no one knows for sure) beloved golden haired tripe hound whom many of you know well, is in a very bad way and has been for the last fortnight. She had a stroke three weeks ago and it has affected her mind and her motor functions. She's lost her spatial awareness and the strength in her legs and keeps falling over, pacing when she's not collapsing and getting stuck in spaces, for example she'll walk into the corner of a room and not be able to get out and then get distressed, and then starts crying. She also keeps going into stupid places such as under the toilet and getting stuck there, also falling down the stairs, of which we have many. She can't even remember how to get into her lair under my bed these days and howls because she can't find it.
I'm having to stay up all night to look after her as she's up all night - I haven't had a solid night's sleep in the last two weeks - and I'm effectively tied to the house unless there is someone here to palm her off on to for a brief period, which there hasn't been much.
We've got some medicine that seems to be doing some good, in the sense that's she's at least more comfortable and not quite as distressed, but it is likely that she's either going to pass away peacefully in the next few days or weeks or she may well have to be put down. We were thinking that that might have to happen last Monday (before we got the new medicine) and it was very upsetting. The new medicine offers no long term hope, most like, but it does seem to be giving her the chance of passing away in a comfortable way. I am hoping that she will sleep away and to be honest I expect it will happen soon as when ever she does sleep her breathing is so faint. I really don't want to have to put her down as she's been a great dog and a good friend and she did save Malc's life. It's a difficult decision to make and I feel like Judas while seriously contemplating it, on the other hand the calculation must come down to whether she has any quality of life and the answer to that is sometimes definitely yes, but mostly no. We shall see.
Soph x