Going to the Dogs

The other day you met Belle. She has been with me for five and a half years now. Of course she is very special to me. We have been through a lot together--rehoming Rico, moving from Arizona to New Mexico, to Colorado, to another house in Colorado and finally back to New Mexico again. Because she has the auto-immune disorder Discoid Lupus (akin to he systemic form of Lupus which both people and animals can have) she has been on Prednisone the entire time I have had her  I gradually weaned her down to a very low dos of 2.5 mg a day--which is half of the smallest tablet they make it in, at least that I have been able to find. But it has side effects. One is a gradual weakening of bone, joints and muscle. While steroids are often used to help arthritis and similar issues, the long-term use is damaging. I am not sure the medical reasons for this. Anyway lately she has been having worse arthritis problems, especially in her hips. The last two weeks she gets wobbly and weak, sometimes cannot keep her back legs under her. Recalling Butch's problem, that is scary to me too but I try to be calm and steady her, get her to lie down and "sleep it off." I ordered some homeopathic medication which is herbs and trace minerals suspended in ionized water and it is helping some but not enough or too slow so today we went to the vet.

I saw the x-rays and she has calcium buildup and weakened sockets but she got her first of four shots in ten days of the drug Adequan. I did read up about it on line and it is supposed to be a near miracle treatment for dogs, horses and even cats with such problems. I am hopeful. The rest of her quality of life is pretty good but I know she would be very unlikely to survive surgery--if it would even help, so my main hopes are pinned on this treatment. Say a little prayer to the doggie deity with me!

Rojito continues to thrive. He is feisty, sassy and also very loving. He likes to dig, and not always in appropriate places but we are training him. He's very bold, running out to chase the pigeons who are nearly as big as he is and helping the Blues run the rabbits off.

The other two dogs in the household are Beebee and Kaycee, both rescues from the Humane Society in Colorado Springs. My brother is partial to Queensland Heelers or Australian Cattle Dogs (ACD)--quite a separate breed from the Australian Shepherds. They come in red or blue, normally with the merle coat or mixture of red and white or gray/black and white hair giving a tweedy or mottled effect, a trait they share with many of the Aussie Sheps. We think Kaycee is purebred as he shows no trace of anything else. He is about four now, growing out of the obnoxious puppy stage but still a rascal. He answers to "You S**T Bird!" about as well as his name LOL. Beebee (her name is actually Blue Belle but that was confusing as I already had Belle when Charlie got her to replace Cokie, his old mama mostly-Heeler a few years ago so it's BB--Beebee) She is at least half Heeler we think but the rest is a mystery. At times I think Corgi, another herding breed but I'm not sure. I don't have real good pix of them but will see what I can come up with. That's BB on the left and KC  on the right when he was still a kind of lanky pup--he has the usual ACD solid blocky build now. The white head spot is an ACD trait. Anyway that is the canine members of the Morgan-Walton household.

To explain that, my maiden name is Morgan as of course is my brother's last name; my married name is Walton and I still use it for many purposes but sometimes hyphenate it as Morgan-Walton. I answer to a lot of names and few of them are my formal legal one! I'll save that story for later!