Rocket loved to ride the electric cart.
Rocket walking toward me
Rocket just retrieved his favorite toy ball
- Rocket watching for something to bark about
- Rocket waiting for the driver.
As I have written in an earlier post, I mentioned that my beloved Border Collie is in renal failure. Keeping my dog around longer requires a certain amount of nursing care/treatments each day. I try to make his food appealing so this is what I feed him: a very small amount of bits of chicken breast, canned Purina NF, and left over roasted chicken juice that I have concocted to pour over the his food mixture. Renal failure animals are SUPPOSED TO EAT A LOW PROTEIN DIET and that is one of the problems to get your pet to eat. The left juice of the cooked roasted chicken improves the flavor or so it seems. Often times the sicker or more debilitated the animal becomes the finickier the appetite. Then add to all of that the propect that he might or might now eat depending on how worried he is about something going on outside that he deems his duty to watch over.
I give him 250ml of Ringer’s lactate twice a day (that is BID in medical/nursing speak), 2 injections of Reglan about 10-12 hours apart and Pepcid 7.5mg po (by mouth) BID, and last but not least to keep him on his feet, he gets 1/2 tablet of Tramadol )for pain. I must say that the Tramadol makes a huge difference. He runs almost as fast as he did as a young dog for the Tramadol keeps the pain, in his arthritic legs, at a level that enables him to function as a pretty happy dog. Oh, I forgot, every third day he gets 1 and 1/2 ml of vitamin B12 and 1 and 1/2 ml of vitamin B complex. B12 helps keep his RBC (red blood count) up,which keeps him from becoming totally anemic. B complex stimulates the appetite and aids the kidneys in some sort of way- I’m not sure just how that works but there is a new product on the market which is advertised as an aid to the kidneys. When I have time to look that up I’ll let you guys know what I learned (hopefully something) Ha-ha!!!!
I loaned my truck to Dr. D’s once in while, part time week-end tech. She could get the brakes fixed in our little town a lot cheaper and worry free. So while “J” was here she drew blood on 3 animals one of which was Rocket. His BUN is pretty high and by that I really mean it is not pretty when it is 114. BUN stands for Bilirubin, Urea, Nitrogen. This is test that shows the level at which the kidneys are working or to put this in plain English, (how well the kidneys are clearing the waste (toxins) from the body. Once the kidneys stop working- that is all “she wrote” for no amount of sub cu fluids will help. The body just shuts down from toxicity which includes damage the heart and other vital organs.
I dread the day when Rocket can no longer get up from his bed or when he completely stops eating. Euthanasia of my animals does not get easier- in fact I think it has gotten harder the more I age.
Rocket still loves to ride on the electric cart and to retrieve a ball that I gently roll toward him so that he does not run after it in typical Border Collie fashion. As I write this I hear him barking as he is running around the house as Duke (my helper with the animals) goes about his chores.
The top two pix were taken within the past 2 weeks. The botom pic was taken about November, I think. I the exact date that it was taken was on the [ic but I failed to get the date before I uploaded.
Post and photographs Yvonne Daniel
Pets, People and, Life 