On death...
So, since I have nothing to do and this is rather... important, I guess I'll post a bit.
Cai Cai is dying. ;-; He can't drink (he'll try for 10 minutes and the water level will not drop and it will just be dirty with food particles and slobber afterwards) so he has to eat snow. He can't eat anything hard because he can't chew it. He can't eat too much at a time or else his throat gets blocked and he has to cough it all up. He used to liked Kix a lot until I gave him a bowl that he ate too quickly and he had to cough up a few chunks. Now he won't eat it anymore. He likes lunch meat because it's thin and soft, but he pretty much requires that someone feed him all day - just little bits all day. He's like a grazing cow now... but on lunch meat and cheese (and formerly Kix). He's also having a hard time breathing. He seems to have a tumor in his throat which is probably making is throat passages really small, so he's always panting and always snoring. His throat problem is also making his once-menacing bark into a raspy quack.
Worst of all is that his five senses are pretty much failing him (with the exceptions being touch and maybe taste). He went blind in his left eye while I was gone for fall semester due to a tumor in his brain - the eye looked pretty normal except for an enlarged pupil that took up 80% of the eye's area. After Charm left on the 5th, his eyesight in his right eye has been getting worse and worse - he's pretty much completely blind now. He's run into a lot of walls, people, furniture, and even today on a walk, we crossed the street and he tripped on the curb. It was pretty funny to watch him run into walls the first couple of times, but it's become so frequent that it's really sad... he'll just slowly amble into a wall and then look around and bark for help.
His hearing is almost there, but he's unable to pinpoint the location that the sounds originate from. I was standing directly in front of him (though a little further away) and told him to come to me... He turned left and ran into a doorframe. Of course, he was a little dazed and confused so he just stood there... I told him to come again and the same thing happened. When he hears someone go down the stairs from my room, he starts walking towards my bookshelf (the opposite direction). And he just stands there confused and dazed (again) and he starts barking his raspy bark to try and get us to help him. I think it's safe to say that it's a problem with the hearing in the right ear because he's always trying to follow sounds by going to the left...
He can't smell really well anymore either so this means he can't find food. You have to hand feed him and actually touch the food to his nose for him to know it's there. Just dangling it in front of his face does nothing - he doesn't start drooling or try and stare at it because he can't see it or smell it: he doesn't know it's there unless you touch it to him.
He can still feel at least, so he knows when he's run into something and that's the only way we can lead him around or feed him... I think he can still taste because he still has an affinity for meat, but it's a little hard to tell.
I leave on Friday so after that he'll be really lonely with Mom and Dad going to work every day. So Dad said we're going to put him down on Wednesday and have him cremated... He would have been 11 years old in April.
Cai Cai is dying. ;-; He can't drink (he'll try for 10 minutes and the water level will not drop and it will just be dirty with food particles and slobber afterwards) so he has to eat snow. He can't eat anything hard because he can't chew it. He can't eat too much at a time or else his throat gets blocked and he has to cough it all up. He used to liked Kix a lot until I gave him a bowl that he ate too quickly and he had to cough up a few chunks. Now he won't eat it anymore. He likes lunch meat because it's thin and soft, but he pretty much requires that someone feed him all day - just little bits all day. He's like a grazing cow now... but on lunch meat and cheese (and formerly Kix). He's also having a hard time breathing. He seems to have a tumor in his throat which is probably making is throat passages really small, so he's always panting and always snoring. His throat problem is also making his once-menacing bark into a raspy quack.
Worst of all is that his five senses are pretty much failing him (with the exceptions being touch and maybe taste). He went blind in his left eye while I was gone for fall semester due to a tumor in his brain - the eye looked pretty normal except for an enlarged pupil that took up 80% of the eye's area. After Charm left on the 5th, his eyesight in his right eye has been getting worse and worse - he's pretty much completely blind now. He's run into a lot of walls, people, furniture, and even today on a walk, we crossed the street and he tripped on the curb. It was pretty funny to watch him run into walls the first couple of times, but it's become so frequent that it's really sad... he'll just slowly amble into a wall and then look around and bark for help.
His hearing is almost there, but he's unable to pinpoint the location that the sounds originate from. I was standing directly in front of him (though a little further away) and told him to come to me... He turned left and ran into a doorframe. Of course, he was a little dazed and confused so he just stood there... I told him to come again and the same thing happened. When he hears someone go down the stairs from my room, he starts walking towards my bookshelf (the opposite direction). And he just stands there confused and dazed (again) and he starts barking his raspy bark to try and get us to help him. I think it's safe to say that it's a problem with the hearing in the right ear because he's always trying to follow sounds by going to the left...
He can't smell really well anymore either so this means he can't find food. You have to hand feed him and actually touch the food to his nose for him to know it's there. Just dangling it in front of his face does nothing - he doesn't start drooling or try and stare at it because he can't see it or smell it: he doesn't know it's there unless you touch it to him.
He can still feel at least, so he knows when he's run into something and that's the only way we can lead him around or feed him... I think he can still taste because he still has an affinity for meat, but it's a little hard to tell.
I leave on Friday so after that he'll be really lonely with Mom and Dad going to work every day. So Dad said we're going to put him down on Wednesday and have him cremated... He would have been 11 years old in April.