We Try To Avoid Stress but.......

Yes, my friends, we do try to avoid stress, particularly myself because I am repeatedly told by the doctors that stress is bad for me and my problems.  So, when I left the surgery on Tuesday afternoon feeling more relaxed about myself I was determined to be positive and look forward to a pleasant Easter.

Alas, fate had other plans.  On Tuesday night, our beautiful Border Collie, Pip, suddenly had trouble getting up after lying down sleeping.  We thought he had pulled a muscle or something.  For the rest of the evening he walked in circles, very restless and could not seem to lie down again.  We got worried.

We rang the vet first thing yesterday morning for an appointment but he could not be seen until 4.15p.m. yesterday.  We used our regular vet but they had a new person there, maybe efficient but very cold and formal.  She started totting up the bill before Mike could get a word in edgewise. She wanted Pip to have an x-ray and a blood test. Informed him that they have no x-ray machine there (they do) and that we would have to pay for him to be transported to their other surgery about seven miles away.  They wanted, just for the tests alone £313!!!!  No, we do not have insurance.  We took it out for animals in the past but never had to claim and the things that were needed regularly like annual boosters are not covered on pet insurance anyway.

Mike came home and discussed it with me.  I told him to get a second opinion so Mike took Pip to the other vet in our area, a one-man organisation.  He recommended the same thing, X-ray and blood test (yes, he did have an x-ray machine).  He proposed to charge less than half what the first vet quoted so we decided to go with him.

Pip was duly booked in for today.  On the way home Mike decided to get our occasional treat of fish and chips from the local shop.  He left Pip in the car and went into the establishment leaving his car keys in the ignition!!!!!!!!!  Pip leant against the lock button and Mike was left shut out of the car with no way of getting back in.  Yes, it sounds hilarious and if nothing else serious had been going on, it would have been, like a comedy film.  Mike appears home minus car and dog to get his spare set of keys and walked the fifteen minutes back to get the car.  I get a phone call, his spare set of keys do not work because they have not been programmed.  Could I phone Dean and get him to meet Mike at the fish shop.  By this time I was going spare and my blood pressure must have been sky high.  It was 8 p.m. and neither of us had eaten.  Eventually, around 8.35p.m. Mike arrives home with dog and car but minus a window which they had to remove in order to re-activate the car.  I was so pent up by then that Mike got a right ear bashing for leaving the keys in the car in the first place which, he calmly announced he has done on several occasions.  What is he like!!

Well, Pip was taken to the vet at 8.30a.m. today.  He had to be sedated for the x-ray and a blood test was duly taken.  The day seemed to drag by waiting until 2 p.m. when we could phone for news.  When we phoned the vet was not in and we were told that Mike could go there at 3p.m.

I waited, a bag of nerves, not knowing what to imagine.  Then the vet called me personally.  He said I have some good news and some bad news.  The good news he said was that the arthritis he suspected in Pip's hips was not as bad as he had feared.  Now, Pip is only nine so relatively still a young dog even for arthritis. All other dogs we have owned have lived for fifteen or sixteen years and only got sick in the last few months of their lives. Then I got the bad news, the x-ray showed that a large part of Pip's spine is fused together (Spondylitis).  Mr. D. explained it was nothing we had done, this is a hereditary condition and could not have been avoided.  I questioned why it had come on so suddenly and was told that it had been coming on for years but only now was it starting to affect the nerves in his spine.

I was told that it could be treated with Steroids IF the blood tests results come back showing no liver impairment but because it is Easter, the outcome of the tests will not be known until Tuesday or Wednesday.  If liver impairment is found then Steroids cannot be used and there is nothing that can be done to help Pip and this time next week, we might not have him.

I asked for aprognosis if Steroids are possible and was heartbroken to hear that, at most, Pip will have a year to eighteen months at the outside before his back legs fail and he is paralysed. The vet said that when that happens and there is no doubt that it eventually will, there is no option but to have him put to sleep. So, dear readers, either way, a sentence has been passed on him.

I cannot begin to tell you how Mike and I feel about this.  Pip is a dog in a million, a gentle giant without a fault.  He loves everyone, is wonderful with Nathan, loyal, intelligent.  Well, the list is endless.  We have to give him two painkillers per day until the blood tests are in.

This is going to be hanging over our heads now all over the Easter holiday.  Part of us will be hoping and praying, part of us will be dreading. We both feel like we have been punched.

I have mentioned before that this has been a dreadful year for us so far in several ways and with this latest blow it looks as if things are never going to improve.  I just pray that he can have treatment and we have at least one wonderful year left with him and we can make it the best for him and for us.

Those of you who are pet owners will understand what we are going through and how we feel right now.  Please spare a thought for Pip and wish him well.

We can but soldier on as we seem to reel from one crisis to another and keep praying.

Mike and I wish all of you a happy and blessed Easter.