Monday, September 21, 2009

Illness - of a canine variety


What a stressful weekend. ** Warning graphic content in parts of this post**

As you may (or may not know) we have two lovely dogs, that is Charlie on the left, we got her as a puppy back in 2001 for Christmas when we first moved in together as a family. About 6 months after we moved to Newcastle we *acquired* Skye on the right from a work colleague of mine who was moving to an apartment in Sydney. Jamie and I were both working full time and Mark had started school so it was time for Charlie to have a companion. They have been inseparable since. They are both now 8 years old and are really good dogs, don't fight, behave themselves, eat well and are very healthy.

Over the last couple of years they have been a bit of an after thought. They are truly outside dogs, amuse themselves and get exercised... well sometimes. I keep thinking that we should give them up to the RSPCA, but then vow to walk them more and spend more time with them. We always decide that we love our dogs and they are apart of our family.

This past weekend has proven this. Skye got sick. Saturday morning at some point his eye became inflamed. We all went out in the morning and when we got home, Mark went into the back yard to find something and told Jamie that Skye's eye looked yucky. Jamie was busy cutting wood for our kitchen, so didn't really react. I came outside soon afterwards and Mark told me, I took one look at the eye and my immediate thought was "YUCK" followed by what the hell can I do, I'm not good with human eyes, (I hate doing eye drops at work, have had a couple of patients with glass eyes and they disgust me), so off to the emergency room for animals on Saturday afternoon we went. ($150 to walk in the door and then it goes up).



The vet was 39 weeks pregnant!!! She gave it a good look at, followed by some antibiotic cream, and we had to go home to bathe it in saline and put the cream in twice a day. Skye got progressively sicker, hardly able to lift his gorgeous head, every time I went outside, he came and rested his head on my knee with a look that said "Help me mummy". Phoned the vet again last night (Sunday about 8,30pm) cos it was looking worse, really red and very painful looking. She didn't think it was an emergency, but to go to the local vet on Monday morning.

We were able to get the 8.30am appointment at my local vet this morning, he looked very concerned. He felt it was a retro-orbital abscess (ie, infection behind his eye) and that he'd need a general anaesthetic for a better look and that he may lose his eye altogether. Dr Smith called back about midday saying there was no obvious cause of the infection at the front of the eye (scratch, injury, seeds) and that his original thought of it being the retro-orbital abscess was the most likely. We could treat it conservatively with antibiotics with a 10-15% chance of success (they are NOT good odds), but the likelihood of it tracking back causing meningitis and ultimately death was too high. The best option he thought was to remove the eyeball and clean out behind it. So that is what we have done. Dr Smith called back about an hour later saying that we had made the correct decision, the infection behind his eye was HUGE, and he would have lost the eye at some point. He is on the way to a full recovery. He has stitched up his eye socket and should be good as gold again soon. Supposedly dogs do very well with vision only in one eye (the only one he has now).


My poor puppy, what a weekend. Its amazing how your thoughts turn to cost when faced with a vet bill. It will cost about $1200 all up by the end of it (I hope), but the thought of losing him is just a bit much. If it had been cancer, and he'd need radiotherapy or chemo... well that is a different story. Dr Smith says he'll be back to his old self in a few days, may be a bit disorientated until he realises that he can't see out of his right side, but will recover well. Need to call them back in about an hour to see how the anaesthetic is wearing off.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

09:09:09

How totally cool is that?
I was part of the ABC radio up here's listener event of taking a photo of whatever you were doing at 9.09am this morning. Hmmm.... I was Facebooking. But I took my photo of it.
I remember recently when it was 12:34:56pm on 07/08/09 once again the numbers lined up 123456789 (albeit with some zeros)

Today I've been baking, made a small batch of cupcakes as I'm gonna miss Friday morning tea at work this week and Jamie has a football meeting, so I'll provide a few cakes. Also made a spagetti bolognaise. Hopefully it will be nice, starting to smell pretty damned good.

Nothing else to report.

Friday, September 04, 2009

Internet Haunts.

I think I mentioned that I'd talk about my favourite blogs/internet sites on my last post.


1.
Link
This one is very new to me, actually from my ski holiday and I'm totally addicted. So pleased that Alicia posts very regularly. My favourite thing about this site is the cupcakes! She does a poll each week asking what flavour cupcake she should make the following week, and is working through the alphabet. Last week she made an Anzac Biscuit type one using Quick Oats, this week will be Raspberries (looking forward to that one), must remember to go back and make the lemon ones. She also looks through Flickr and Etsy and picks out gorgeous things to look at. Quite jealous of her drive and dedication to her blog.







2.
This one by Elsie Flannagan is an old favourite of mine. Elsie is sort of a scrapbooker, that is where I first found her, but now she is an independent artist and altogether odd girl. She is quite eccentric and I really enjoy that about her. I'd love to have one of her paintings, which are cartoon girls, she could make it of me... I keep thinking about getting one commissioned but as she lives in Missouri, postage to get it here as well as its actual cost might be a bit exxy. When we do our USA road trip, I hope to her shop Red Velvet Art is still going so I can pop in!







3.
The next two are my sister's blogs. Sheena Time and Roy Time. Not sure why she doesn't just combine the two and keep it more regular. I will have to get her to make a banner! I like keeping up to date with the kids photos, I know what's going on in their life, just like seeing them. Cute little munchikins.







4.This is a picture of Olivia Wild (she's on the OC) but the website is called "Go Fug Yourself" and I think its brilliant. Its written my two american girls who critique celebrities clothing/style. It can be bitchy, but really its just what we are all thinking. Another reason NOT to be a celebrity. There are about 4-5 posts each weekday (American Time) so there is always something to read. This week the Daytime Emmy's were on, so all the soap stars got a real flogging. FUN.






5.Another oldie, but favourite. The message board at Blue Bazaar has slowed down heaps over the past year, but I still check it out about once a week. Put my two cents in. Its all about scrapbooking and other paper crafts. But it is more about the friendship and the community. They are a bunch of women who I know, but have never met. I was able to talk about my problems with fertility and then spread the good news when I finally became pregnant, they are all very supportive. There have been some good stoushes at times, but that was only to do with politics (quite funny). I dont' really care much for scrapbooking any more, but still enjoy the community.







6. This one is a real heart breaker. Tammy is the mother of Parker a boy with multiple special needs and health concerns. Makes me so happy to be Australian and have access to health care. Its quite emotional reading, and to be truthful she can be a bit annoying (very Mormon and *thankful* of everything) but a good read just the same.





I'll have to leave it at six. I also haunt Facebook (obviously) and the ABC Newcastle website, but they don't really need any reviews. When shows such as the Biggest Loser or Masterchef are on, I hang on those sites.