walkcoffecake

Pieter is so much better; looks brighter, bouncing around, eating well.  He does, though, have some pain.  We are not sure from where although I favour his neck and shoulders.  Tripawds are all out of kilter once they are on three legs and so discomfort is to be expected.  Or it may be a nerve pain, although we were told originally that that type of pain is rare.  So we went to the vets, ( I swear, i keep that practice going singlehandedly!), and will try some metacam and see if that helps or makes any difference.  Pieter yelps once in a while, sometimes he is moving his head and sometimes he is just sitting or laying down.  He never made a sound when he had his bad leg, and so i  think this is swift short pain that catches him out.  Any of you guys come across this before?

Meantime, Pieter is out and about enjoying life.  we haven’t taken him to the pub yet, but may do over the Easter weekend.  He will have forgottten his ‘setttle’ practise.  He is a fidgety dog, and took some time to settle whilst out socialising!  I guess he hadn’t been a cafe dog in his old home.  When he had been with us a couple of weeks I took him to the beach with a friend and her spaniel.  I don’t think Pieter had been to the sea before, and happily walked into the water with me and gazed amazed at the water swirling around his legs!  However, he has never set paw in water since!  We had lunch outside the cafe, and hooked his lead onto a hook; he spends his time hooking his leg over the lead and getting tangled.  Obviously a good game as he gets my attention!  So I thought I would let him alone, but then of course all the passers by who notice him because of his cuteness then tell me is tangled!  Anyway, he has learnt to settle better now, so our breaks are more restful!

It is two and half weeks since Pieter had his op. It has been a worrying time.  When we collected him after surgery he was so relieved to be home.  He was quite perky for three or four days, then started going very flat.  Pieter was fussy about food when we first took him, until we sussed he liked Weetabix or scambled eggs on toast for breakfast, but he never really got to love dog food!!  He would eat it at supper time, but never a huge amount.  So when he started going flat the first thing to go was eating his supper, although he carried on with breakfast for a couple of days.  Pieter wouldn’t move of his own accord, wouldn’t eat, barely drank. We put loads of puppy milk in hi sweetabix to get the fluid in.  However, if we got his lead out he would hop up and happily go out into the garden, and we wondered if there was a confidence loss.  We started hand feeding him his weetabix when he decided he didn’t want to eat it, and he would happily eat from our hands.

Then, the drain was to come out – the loacl vet couldn’t get it out!.  But as two days time we were going back to the specialists for staple removel, all sixty plus of them, we weren’t too worried.  After this, no more Tramodol – and he perked right up. We had read on the Tripawds site that several people thought that Tramodol was a bit of a flattener.  Now, he is bright and perky, eating reasonably well, and back to playing the’ get my collar on if you can’ game when it is time to go out.  Phew, a way to go yet, but so pleased for him.  Thinking of some kind of physio in th efuture for him.  Next week we see the chemo people, um,  not sure what to call them! oncologist i guess.

Pieter, eight and half years old, large and hairy. Pieter came to us in June of 2011; his owners had died one after the other in quick sucession, he had gone to a neighbours family, but that didn’t work out.  He came to us as his third home in just a short time.

Mr Grumpy, as he became known, gradually settled and relaxed and one day seemed to find his happy switch.  He is fairly elderly for a Bernes, but very fit.  Lots of walks, outings, came most places with us.  Rather fidgety, he gradually learned to settle in a cafe or  pub garden after a walk.

One day, after racing about in the remains of the snow (Bernese love the cold and the snow), he went badly lame.  An Xray showed bone cancer of the shoulder.  Excruciating pain for Pieter and total shock for us……….  Scans showed no evidence of spread, and he had his amputation on 6 March 2012.

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