Don and Dixie invited us out to dinner at The Oney Frosty in Town in Adin, just over an hour drive from here. It’s their favorite spot for BBQ, which is served on weekends. It was very nice of them. Also nice to see the countryside with a personal guide. So far we have only eaten out three times and we've been here four weeks! Pretty good uh?
This is another attempt at showing the size of the lone pine tree
Willie and Foxie posing by the big pine
Foxie running in the park (that’s what I call the grassy areas down by the river)
Random old farm equipment
Flowers on the foot bridge
View from our back window of a rainbow
View of the river from the log seats
Spring flowers
A tree branch (another random shot)
Had enough pictures? I have several more of the river. Maybe I’ll save them for future posts when I run out of things to write about…
Sunday, May 26th I took Foxie out to do her business in the morning and as she returned she shook her head and promptly fell on her side. She popped right back up but was extremely unbalanced. As the morning progressed she got worse, not better. She was unable to hold down food and eventually gave up on eating. So she was nauseous as well. Well I would be too if I was that dizzy! It got to the point where we had to carry her up and down the steps so she could go potty. It being the middle of a holiday weekend and knowing how expensive an emergency trip to the vet is, I hopped on the internet and searched for a diagnosis. All signs and multiple web sites, pointed to Idiopathic or “Old Dog” Vestibular Disease. Idiopathic means the cause is unclear. Other symptoms include rapid eye movement and walking in circles. I hadn't noticed her eyes up to that point and they were indeed jerking rapidly right to left and back again. Later in the day she began walking in circles. Usually pet owners think their dog has had a stroke and may need to cross the Rainbow Bridge. So not so!
There is no treatment for this syndrome as it seems to just go away by itself. It may take two to three days to see improvement and another week or two for the dog to get back to normal, although she may have a head tilt forever. Compassionate nursing was suggested by the following web site: thebark.com - vestibular disease. So taking care of Foxie became my main priority. I carried her in and out of the trailer, slept on the new window seat so I could be at her side should she need to go out during the night, and fed her chicken and rice while she laid in her bed. She’s pretty smart and quickly learned she was much more comfortable if she stayed in bed. She had a really hard time laying down and would start the process only to flip completely over the other way usually colliding with a wall. Poor thing! She continued to fall over every time she shook her head. She stopped vomiting though so I felt pretty confident when the Klaich Animal Hospital vet from Reno returned my call on Monday that he would confirm what I’d learned on the internet and agree we could probably forgo a trip to the vet in Alturas and he did!
It’s been over a week now and she’s almost as good as new. She still has the head tilt and rarely falls when shaking her head but she has a definite list to the right most of the time.
You can see she was wagging her tail when I took this picture. She’s a happy dog again! And Willie’s right there with her giving moral support.
This morning as I started on my walk up the canyon with the dogs, Don stopped us to tell me about the rattlesnake that Dixie spotted on her walk yesterday! This is only the second rattlesnake they've seen in the last fifteen years. Great. I figure where there’s one there are more. So what am I supposed to do now? Walk the dogs on six foot leashes? That sucks! I welcome your comments on this. Do I risk a strike and most likely a dead dog or do I walk the dogs on leashes???
One last thing before I close. Do you like the new name for my email? Paul thought I should change it so I did. Again I am open to suggestions.
Adios amigos, hasta la vista…
Hmm, I’m craving Mexican
Kim (and Bob) Dance
We let out dog run and there are lots of rattlesnakes around Grangeville, ID. Most dogs understand the rattle as a warning not to come any closer, if they happen upon them before they have a chance to rattle is usually when they are bitten.
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