|
BACK TO START PAGE
As I have already told you, my life did not start very well. Of course it must feel more pleasant for a pup not getting stuck in the actual "entrance". Presumely I was a DAMP-pup, or whatever they call it for animals - that is to say maybe I suffered from a small brain damage, caused by the lack of oxygen I experienced during my birth. Unconcentrated, over-active, epileptic - all of the symptoms are at any rate there.
My previous mistress even used to mention "CP", but Löken was objecting: "He is not as bad as that," she declared. She is no veterinary, but at least she has been reading about it some book, so I presume she should know. |
 | Later there were the slipped discs in my back, which only partly were operable. Sometimes Iīm still in pain and then Iīm feeling a bit confused, losing my self-control and getting scared of ordinary things, like for example walking in the stairs - the bumps might hurt me!
On such occations Toke is taking his chance to be boorish and deject me, in order to remind me who is the alpha male of "HIS PACK".
However he never does, when we are out walking together. Everywhere, but in the house, I am the thoughest one of us two, walking in front and leading the pack by barking shrilly and inciting.
That is except for when Iīm catching sight of some strange and dangerous tuft of grass or perhaps a dust bag. Then it is Löken who has to defend us.
But of course we are assisting her by growling dull and treathening, to make it perfectly clear to everyone else we are a team.
|
|
The first time I had surgery was in my very early youth. I got a suspicious lump in my neck.
Löken found it and pointed it out to my mistress - and she was extremely worried and took me to the vet, to ask him what to do about it. The vet was cool as a cucumber. Obviously it was a kind of tumour in the connective tissue, which was rather common, particularly among young dogs like me. It was totally benign, but still I had my skin cut up and the confounded lump removed.
 Afterwards I was shaved and ugly, having a long wound with stitches in the back of my neck, but as soon as my hair grew back again I was looking exactly the same as before.
This was a month prior to the celebration my first birthday. The tumour never re-appereared, so I suppose the vet was telling the truth when he said it was nothing to worry about. And on top of it all my mistress learned how to remove the sutures.
Löken learned the same thing last year, when I was deprived of a small triangular piece of my eyelid.
Both Sniff and I had developed warts (of the kind that we well-grown-up dogs often get, especially on the spots of our skin frequently bitten by ticks - or scared by each otherīs punishing teeth.)
At first the vet tried to cauterize them - Sniffīs disappeared, but mine did not, so by the end of the summer they were sedating me and making a deep cut, in order to get rid of the "roots". The wart had already ulcered my cornea, so it was urgent to take care of it at once.
|
 Late in spring the same year as I moved in with Löken, my previous mistress discovered a pink spot between my nostrils. That spot grew larger and larger, but nobody seemed to know what it was.
It looked like the black pigment on my muzzle was starting to fade.
And I didnīt just lose it in my face, but all over my body, so at the same time they had me sedated to operate on my eyelid they also were making a cytological test on some cells from my muzzle and the corner of my mouth.
The laboratory report declaired I suffered from a rare disease called discoid lupus erythematosus, which in a few simple words would be explained as me being allergic to myself.
To cure me they were giving me cortison with my food - to start with two tablets daily, later one half every morning and night and finally only one half, mixed with my breakfast.
They did not agree very well with me, at least not during the first week of the treatment. I got exceptionally hungry and thirsty and even more tense than before. In addition I was in a constant need to run out and relieve my bladder, due to all the extra water I was drinking to quench my thirst. Sometimes no one was understanding how urgent it was to open the door. Then I was wetting the floor like a pup - I am embarrassed to tell you. But lucky for me I felt better when the cortison dosage was phased out.
When the treatment was over we made a break for a couple of months. The vet wanted to determine whether the illness was cured or not. During that period Löken had to spread lotion with a very high sun factor on my nose.
For a while I was fine, then I got worse and started to scratch again - so clearly I need to use cortison, of some kind, for the rest of my life. But itīs not as horrible as it sounds. Rather this than not feeling good.
After my first treatment my coat was thin and looked dull, but soon enough Löken was learning how to complete my usual food with wheat-germ-oil and Vitamin E. These capsules are easy to swallow, unlike the cortison tablets which only are to be purchased in the shape of tiny, hard little "seeds" - although I donīt mind them either, if given to me well-crushed and thoroughly mixed with a splash of sour milk. My favourite food of all kinds is ice-cream and sour milk, you see.
NEXT PAGE
PREVIOUS PAGE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
-
14
15
|
|