12-15-2015, 02:28 PM
"Quality of life" are the three words you never want to hear from your Doctor or Vet. I heard it a lot with my dad. Now we hear it again from our vet.
Jingles is on blood pressure meds and coughing meds, twice daily. It's gotten really hard as he's smart and can sniff out the pills, so we're constantly shifting food to disguise them. Once he finds them, he'll refuse that food, pill or no. We have all the flavors of pill pockets, all on the rejecto list. He suffers from horrible coughing fits, which have on the increase. Small dogs often get constricted or collapsed trachea. He is up several times a night coughing, so we haven't had a decent night's sleep in weeks. He also gets these frightening anxiety attacks where he races about the house, trying to get out any door, for which we have some dog Xanax.
Last Saturday, we took him out to the Jetty, which was closed due to high surf, but he got to walk on the beach a little. Then we had breakfast at Aldo's which has a dog friendly deck that he loves. I played ball with him in our backyard for a half hour or more. We've been doing that regularly and he loves that too. That night, his cough worsened and he started limping really badly on his hind leg. No idea why. Maybe he pulled it jumping off the couch. Maybe he strained it coughing. No more ball or walks until that improves.
My mom will be taking care of him when we go to Spain. She is aware of his conditions, and they have a great relationship. She sleeps with him; My mom's mattress is on the floor, something she did for my Dad, and Jingles loves that he can get on or off her bed without jumping. He also loves to play ball in her house, which is big enough for better ball playing, and my mom takes him on daily walks through the park. She said if he does pass under her care, she'll bury him next to Redbell. I hate to saddle her with this, especially after what she went through with my Dad, but Jingles would never survive a kennel at this point and I'm just not ready to put him down yet.
My mom is doing well on her own, except this morning she set the toaster on fire trying to restore some kettle chips from dinner. Nothing like a kitchen fire to get your day started. I was there last night (the kettle chips were left over from my dinner) and put the fire out as soon as I smelled it. That was a freak accident, but I'm constantly worrying about her mental state - she worries too as a lot of her friends are losing it or lost it already.
Tara is deep in her finals, which has been a struggle this year. She might get her first B ever, in Calculus, which probably doesn't sound that dramatic, but for a top-of-her-class straight A teenager, it's different. I still wince at the memory of telling her that Redbell was passing over Skype when she was in Oaxaca last summer. I'm a mess too. Fortunately, I've got my work under control for my absence, but my Fit is dying from too many trips over HWY17, so my first order of business on my return is getting a new car that I can't afford. Stacy is handling it as well as to be expected - she's the stable one. Should Jingles survive our trip (it's the longest we've ever been away from him), we will have to judge his 'quality of life' and decide what steps must be taken next.
Jingles is on blood pressure meds and coughing meds, twice daily. It's gotten really hard as he's smart and can sniff out the pills, so we're constantly shifting food to disguise them. Once he finds them, he'll refuse that food, pill or no. We have all the flavors of pill pockets, all on the rejecto list. He suffers from horrible coughing fits, which have on the increase. Small dogs often get constricted or collapsed trachea. He is up several times a night coughing, so we haven't had a decent night's sleep in weeks. He also gets these frightening anxiety attacks where he races about the house, trying to get out any door, for which we have some dog Xanax.
Last Saturday, we took him out to the Jetty, which was closed due to high surf, but he got to walk on the beach a little. Then we had breakfast at Aldo's which has a dog friendly deck that he loves. I played ball with him in our backyard for a half hour or more. We've been doing that regularly and he loves that too. That night, his cough worsened and he started limping really badly on his hind leg. No idea why. Maybe he pulled it jumping off the couch. Maybe he strained it coughing. No more ball or walks until that improves.
My mom will be taking care of him when we go to Spain. She is aware of his conditions, and they have a great relationship. She sleeps with him; My mom's mattress is on the floor, something she did for my Dad, and Jingles loves that he can get on or off her bed without jumping. He also loves to play ball in her house, which is big enough for better ball playing, and my mom takes him on daily walks through the park. She said if he does pass under her care, she'll bury him next to Redbell. I hate to saddle her with this, especially after what she went through with my Dad, but Jingles would never survive a kennel at this point and I'm just not ready to put him down yet.
My mom is doing well on her own, except this morning she set the toaster on fire trying to restore some kettle chips from dinner. Nothing like a kitchen fire to get your day started. I was there last night (the kettle chips were left over from my dinner) and put the fire out as soon as I smelled it. That was a freak accident, but I'm constantly worrying about her mental state - she worries too as a lot of her friends are losing it or lost it already.
Tara is deep in her finals, which has been a struggle this year. She might get her first B ever, in Calculus, which probably doesn't sound that dramatic, but for a top-of-her-class straight A teenager, it's different. I still wince at the memory of telling her that Redbell was passing over Skype when she was in Oaxaca last summer. I'm a mess too. Fortunately, I've got my work under control for my absence, but my Fit is dying from too many trips over HWY17, so my first order of business on my return is getting a new car that I can't afford. Stacy is handling it as well as to be expected - she's the stable one. Should Jingles survive our trip (it's the longest we've ever been away from him), we will have to judge his 'quality of life' and decide what steps must be taken next.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse