{"id":675,"date":"2012-04-02T01:39:14","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T01:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fatbeetle.com\/blog\/?p=675"},"modified":"2012-04-02T03:51:34","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T03:51:34","slug":"autumn-comes-in-floods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fatbeetle.com\/blog\/?p=675","title":{"rendered":"Autumn comes in floods"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to all of yo<\/span>u who wrote asking after our dog. As most \u00a0of you may know, while we were in the UK we got the bad news that our dog, Barnum\u2019s, \u00a0heart condition had worsened, and that he was not predicted to live. Barney is a fine dog, we took him from a pound and gave him a good life. We’ve known for some time that his health was failing, and his once unquenchable thirst for walks was now becoming diminished, and he was spending most of his days just sleeping.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since our return from the UK, and with some sterling work by the good vets at Belconnen Animal Hospital, he \u00a0still plodding along, and seems happy enough. \u00a0On the other hand, he may just be pretending that he\u2019s enjoying life so he doesn\u2019t get the final jab. At the vets a few weeks back day we found out he had gained a little weight, nearly a kilo, so was cleared for light exercise. He stopped eating when he was unwell, but over the past week his appetite has returned. He is now interested in the family again, and started \u00a0taking, (what for him,) would be short exercise walks.
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His current meds regime is;<\/span><\/p>\n

Pirilium; heart meds, hypo down throat. 20 mg daily<\/em><\/span>
\n Vetmedin: heart pills: one morning one night.<\/em><\/span>
\n Diuretics Flusapex two morning two night. B<\/em><\/span>
\n Arthritis tablet; Calpex one morning, one night.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Ok,\u00a0so the other day we thought that as he\u2019s now well maintained on his heart meds and diuretics, we can rest a bit easy. But then we got\u00a0 another “panic stations” alert from\u00a0 the mother-in-law. Barnum spends his days at the mother in law\u2019s house as he can be indoors there, and she is able to let him out for a piss. If he was at our house he\u2019d either be locked out in the garden, which at this time of year can get very cold and wet, (more on this later,) and he\u2019s too dumb to shelter from the rain, or he\u2019d be indoors where he would happily piss on the furniture. So each day the two dogs get dropped off with Mary for the day.\u00a0But \u00a0the other day Lee-Anne got a \u00a0phone call from Mary, who declared that he was “Dying, he won\u2019t get up, I can\u2019t move him,”<\/em> and that he,\u00a0“wouldn’t see the day out!\u201d <\/em>When Lee-Anne got around there from work, the dog was happy to see her. He was\u00a0 probably most happy to see her as he knew he would be going home, and at home he isn’t constantly hassled to prove he is still alive every five bloody minutes by the mother in law. (She has issues.)
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So as I say he is now back to doing reasonable length walks, in fact we do some of the walks which were our regular walks before he became ill. However these are taken at such a sedate pace I have to remember to keep awake during them. Consequently he’s gained another 3 kilos.<\/span><\/p>\n

One unfortunate side effect of the diuretics he is on\u00a0 is that his failing eyesight has worsened. He now constantly walks into things, (furniture, me, trees, ) and spends long periods staring into cupboards and wardrobes. Yesterday he leapt down from our car, missed his footing and landed on his face. He gets a little concerned at his loss of eyesight, and who wouldn\u2019t? Lee-Anne I keep him by her feet and talk to him constantly so he knows \u00a0where we are, and that he is not alone. He is confused if left alone. Though seeing as \u201cconfused\u201d was his normal state of mind before he got unwell it\u2019s hard to know what is blindness and what is stupidity.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is no way just losing eyesight would be a ticket out for the smelly old \u00a0hound. He has to try harder than that! His blindness means that he has to have an eye kept on him during our walks, as he can veer off and get lost so easily. Oh, and he now has a tendency to fall into drainage ditches, wombat holes, and over cliffs, or to try to cross \u00a0rivers and motorways as he encounters them, if a eye isn\u2019t kept on him.<\/span><\/p>\n

The nights are the worse though. Well for Lee-Anne they are, not for me. Being deaf does have some advantages. \u00a0<\/span>Every night her hearing is attuned to noises that may come from Barney. One night it was a funny sort of noise that got her investigating. There he was, stuck fast in the corner of the toilet trying to find where the door to the backyard was, so so he could go out for a wee. He\u2019d missed his exit by about a yard.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Edited to add; We had a scare with him last week, not so good news. His condition\u00a0 took a abrupt turn for the worse. His heart was not pumping out the fluid in his abdomen and lungs. Rob, the vet (apt name!) gave him a jab to try to boost the diuretics he was on.\u00a0Also the \u00a0diuretics he was taking were doubled in dose. We made the heartbreaking decision\u00a0that, if there was no improvement in his condition over the weekend, the coup de grace will be given on the Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The doubling of his diuretics, and an increase in his anti-inflammatories however had the desired result which \u00a0means he’s now made a slight recovery, good enough for him to be granted a stay of execution. Fortunately the dog is still not suffering, or at least pretending not to be suffering. Last Sunday he had a fantastic walk down by the lake, which he obviously relished. So we’ve put off his final vets visit until there is a change.<\/span><\/p>\n

We now have a mop and bucket on standby for when he has a little “accident”, and he’s now being walked four times or more a day, (one main walk, then a lot of short walks) to keep the fluid moving through him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Walking a blind dog is an adventure in itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

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He’s still very loving and wanting to be with us, so we’ll not deny him that until he starts showing signs of suffering. The vet is happy with his quality of life, and there’s no rush to have the coup de gr\u00e2ce administered. As Rob said; “his quality of life now revolves around walks, food and sleeping, see he gets as much as he wants or can handle.” <\/em>Fingers crossed, he should be with us for a few more months, at least until after he gets a trip to the seaside, when we take a week\u2019s break there in later in April.\u00a0 He may not be able to see where he is, so may not realise he is at the coast, but his nose hopefully still work well enough to inform him. Of course getting him to manoeuvre in a strange house with no sight will be interesting. (Have I mentioned he isn’t the brightest spark in the fireplace?) <\/span><\/p>\n

The mother in law, when she heard of our intent to take him down the coast was infuriated. “He’ll be too confused”<\/em>.\u00a0 She stated that she hoped he passed away before he went to the coast to save him from the fears of being in a strange place, which earned her a rather sharp rebuke from Lee-Anne.<\/span><\/p>\n

She then had the audacity to say to me that she would have had him put down months ago. A little memory refresher for you;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Slight deviation; Mary comes up with some crackers too. The other day her and Lee-Anne were walking around one of the Lakes in Canberra. Naturally Lee\u2013Anne had taken our dim mutt Barnum with her. Mary also has a dog; a vastly overweight, ancient, and arthritic black Labrador called “Chibby”. Chibby wasn\u2019t on this walk as; “it would be too much for her.”<\/em><\/big><\/span><\/big><\/p>\n

At one point on the walk, Mary turns to Lee-Anne and being serious says; “I may buy a pram so that I can bring Chibby down to the lake and push her around in it, she\u2019d like that. What do you think?”<\/em> Lee-Anne\u2019s reply; “You really don\u2019t want to hear my answer to that question, mother.”<\/em><\/big><\/span><\/big><\/p>\n

In fact Mary declined to have Chibby put down until the dog was blind, incapable of walking at all, and incontinent, Chibby was virtually dead before she got\u00a0 the final jab. So I treated her thoughts with a sea-full of salt and profound contempt.
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Edited again to add. Yesterday I put my back out. I did this by the amazing gymnastic feat of “getting out of my car”<\/em>. Yup, rodgered by back totally, and I’m off work today. But, this was the day that Barney was due to be put to sleep if he hadn’t made a recovery. As I say above, Barney is doing a good enough impression of a well dog to be allowed to keep going. So, last night at three am, Millie decides to throw up blood, more blood than you would think it possible for one small dog to own. This morning we rushed her to the vets, she’s still there, hopefully recovering. She has had a gastric bleed problem in the past, we hope this may be just the same, and resolve itself without the need to resort to ($$$$) surgery.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s all fucking fun and games around here folks!<\/span><\/p>\n

Yep, we\u2019ve got another holiday booked. It\u2019s been weeks since we last had one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ok, this is odd but quite nice. We had planned\u00a0 a week down the coast, as a winter break, in April, (Lee-Anne and I also have a “dirty long weekend away” planned for May, but don’t tell Bethy)<\/span><\/p>\n

So I checked my leave allowance total to make sure I have enough days owing to cover the days away. Seeing as not so long ago I \u00a0had a six week break in the UK, I was worried I may be a bit low, and have to use my flex days.<\/span><\/p>\n

I found I have 321 hours of leave remaining. To find out how many days leave; 321 \/ 7.2 = 44.58 days. To find out how many weeks leave 44.58 \/ 5 = 8.91<\/strong> weeks owing.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Looks like I can keep my flex days for when I really need time off.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Ah, come on, it\u2019s not my fault! I didn’t use hardly any leave up last year, as our only \u00a0holidays were booked during the time \u00a0I was off work for 2 1\/2 months following my bike smash, and so \u00a0that was taken as sick leave.\u00a0 <\/span>So the leave I didn’t use got carried over into this year, plus I’ve started accumulating this year’s leave now. Also the time we took off over Xmas had loads of public holidays in it, so although I was off for six weeks, I think I only used three weeks leave plus some flex for that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>We\u2019ve booked this place Waves Beach Villa.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Beautiful, modern, clean. Spectacular parents’ retreat. Directly situated on and overlooking Tura Beach coastal reserve and white water views of Tura Beach. Walking access to Tura beach through the nature reserve at the front. All 3 bedrooms are beachside.2 bathrooms and wcs. Double lockable garage with internal access and remote. Nice yard. All modern cons in kitchen with dishwasher,microwave and entertaining equipment. BBQ on front upper deck, looking over the narrow nature reserve full of birds and kangaroos, onto the white water views of Tura Beach. Plasma TV,DVD in lounge area and tv and dvd in parents retreat. 2 Separate decks to parent’s retreat to enjoy some time away from the kids. 2 bedrooms on ground level opening out onto the yard. Laundry,w machine and drier, iron etc downstairs. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Bethy\u2019s boyfriend, Reece, is coming down with us too. They will be sharing a bedroom under the same roof as us. Does that\u00a0 make me feel old or what?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bethy turned 17 in February, we had a meal out with her dad, Reece and his grandparents. (Reece lives with his grandparents, for various family reasons which I won’t go into.) We had a fine bit of grub at Zen Thai <\/a>and a pleasant evening celebration. I love the fact that Bethy chose to have this Birthday celebration, rather than going out and getting pissed and arrested like some of her peers do.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>God we\u2019ve had some wild weather of late. It\u2019s almost like the weather gods have conspired to make me feel homesick by transplanting the UK\u2019s normal wind and rain quota over to Aus. \u00a0<\/span>Check this out for the way Canberra has been affected.<\/span><\/a> The flood drains outside my office have been well up, and I was worried about our local <\/span>\u201cstorm drain cats\u201d<\/span><\/a> population. I was glad to see that after the floods had reached the top of the flood drains, the cats were still out on patrol.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some phone footage of the drains during the storms. You lucky things, how many other friends do you have who would share video of their drains with you? No need to thank me.<\/span>
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