Catching up...

image from www.allposters.co.uk

My word, it just doesn't seem possible that we are now in June and thus far I have blogged about nothing of any substance in 2015!

To be honest, I haven't really done anything that has inspired me to actually sit down and blog.  The past few months have been something of a "black hole", with the combination of depression and menopause making my life a tad miserable.  All in all, it's been very much a case of living with the "downs" rather than the "ups".  Still, here I am once more, finally feeling much better and more balanced :-)

Our dogs have both had problems recently, and have both been referred to Davies Veterinary Specialists.  Daft Matty managed to slip two discs in his neck ~ and I still don't know how he did it!  In the end he was able to avoid surgery with some hefty doses of various medications and rest, thank goodness!  He did have to spend a few days in Davies' hospital, though.  We were told that he should not wear a collar for walking purposes now, so we have bought him a very good walking harness from a company called Dog-Games.  They don't supply one-size-fits-all harnesses, which have never been a good fit for any of our sighthounds in the past.  Instead, the three components of the harness come in different sizes, so you measure your doggie and select the appropriate pieces.  We bought the fleece-lined components for Matty as we thought they would be more comfortable against his skin.  We will be getting one for little Nikki shortly, too :-)

Because both dogs have various joint problems we decided that it was probably a good time to get them new beds as well!  We finally went for the Muttress solid memory foam beds from Tuff Mutts.  (I'm not being paid to "advertise" these companies, by the way, just letting you know what we have bought for the mutts!).  These dog beds are pretty fab, actually ~ my son was very impressed LOL

As for Nikki, well she has had another flare-up of the wrist joint problem in her front right leg.  She has been on Rimadyl (an anti-inflammatory) for a number of months and the dosage has recently been increased.  She has also been on antibiotics, along with Tramadol for pain relief.  Our vet told me that really there was nothing more they could do and referred us to Davies.  Alan, the specialist vet I saw there, examined Nikki and took x-rays of both her front leg and also the back left leg in which she was shot before she was rescued.  She is scheduled to have an operation on the front leg on 24th June, to remove the joint completely and fuse the leg with a metal plate.  She is currently on antibiotics again to ensure that there is no chance of infection in the leg before the op.  All being well, she should only be in the hospital for two or three days.  When she comes home she will have to be confined to one room and not exercised for a certain amount of time.  The complete recovery period is about 12 weeks.  Hopefully, with having the joint removed she will no longer have the pain and swelling that she has been suffering with.

Alan also talked to me about her back left leg and showed me the x-rays.  She has about half a dozen shotgun pellets still embedded in the bone of the ankle area, as well as a couple more in her lower ribs :-(  We knew that she still had pellets in the bone but hadn't realised that there were so many, nor that she also had them in her ribs ~ my poor little baby girl.  The good news, though, is that she may be able to have similar surgery on the leg, i.e. removal of the joint and fusing with a metal plate.  We will have to see how things progress, and how well she heals from the first operation.

In other news, we had our annual holiday up to Orkney last month.  This time we stayed for a fortnight, which was just as well as it turned out!  This year we had decided to go by train to Edinburgh and then fly to Kirkwall.  Neither of us particularly enjoys flying but we felt that we ought to at least give it a go LOL  Actually, the flight wasn't bad at all to be honest and was certainly much quicker than our usual journey up there.  I have to say, though, that we both missed the lovely views from the train between Inverness and Thurso, and also coming into Stromness on the ferry.  We will most likely be going back to our usual route again next year.  It may take longer but the journey is much nicer ~ and a fair bit cheaper too!

Unfortunately, we were both pretty poorly whilst we were away.  Adrian came down with the most dreadful cold and looked absolutely awful whilst we were waiting for the bus at Kirkwall Airport; he was as white as a sheet and just couldn't stop shivering.  He was really unwell over the next couple of days, and spent most of the time dozing in bed.  I too came down with the cold, albeit I wasn't quite as ill as he was.  The trouble was that I was running a couple of days behind Adrian, so the first week was more or less a complete wash-out!  Still, I suppose there are worse places to be ill in ~ at least we had lovely views from the bedroom window of the flat we stay in!

The cold left us with horrible coughs, which still flare up from time-to-time.  (Apparently, there is a lot of whatever this particular bug is going around and the cough can last for a number of weeks.)  By the second week, Adrian was feeling a fair bit better (apart from his cough) but I felt very tired, so we didn't do much at all this year.  We had had plans to visit various places on the island but sadly we just weren't well enough to do the trekking about.  Oh well, we will just have to wait until next year ~ yes, we have booked two weeks in the flat already LOL

Well, I think I should finish this post here now that I have relayed our tales of woe!  I promise to post about more cheerful things soon :-)