I couldn’t resist showing my appreciation for the interest and best wishes from so many of you regarding the removal of my polyp.
Jean and I arrived at Three Rivers Hospital locally in Grants Pass a little before 10am and were quickly admitted to the pre-op room. Once I had been connected to all the various devices it was but a short wait before Dr. Nelson came in to check that all was ready for the procedure.
Amazingly, I was then back in the pre-op room after the 45-minute procedure had been carried out by 11:40am. Dr. Nelson then briefed me that everything had gone well and passed me the photos below.
I couldn’t resist sharing the photographs showing the polyp before removal on the left-hand side and the ‘crater on the moon’, as Dr. Nelson described, on the right-hand side it where the polyp once was!
The photograph on the right was taken before it was sewn over to prevent any subsequent infection.
Once again, thanks for all your best wishes. As Marina and Sue and others implied it was a very straightforward operation.
Loving owners want so much to know when their pets may be in pain.
Our dear Pharaoh (born June, 2003) is getting very weak in his rear hip joints and Jean and I are very sensitive to understanding whether or not he is in pain. Any loving owner of a cat or a dog would be the same; and it doesn’t stop with our cats and dogs.
September is Animal Pain Awareness Month. My Lab, Sanchez, is 13-years-old. I still sometimes have a hard time identifying the difference between a behavior problem and a physical ailment. Our dogs are so adaptable and want to please us so much, it’s sometimes challenging to detect their pain.
These often subtle signs will help you determine when your pet may be showing signs of pain. Some require a veterinary visit, but other times there are simple things you can do to help. When Sanchez had a slipped neck disc at age 9, I thought he was in so much pain that he’d never recover. A few acupuncture sessions later, and he turned into a puppy!
1. Mouth Fluttering
It wasn’t until I made a video with Sanchez in it that I noticed he was making all sorts of mouth movements. (He starts the mouth movement at :28 seconds.) I knew he wasn’t stressed and his lip licking was not a calming signal. It sparked enough curiosity that I had my vet look at this mouth. Sure enough, he needed his molars pulled. As hesitant as I was to have this operation on a 13-year-old dog, he came through it just fine and started acting much younger post-surgery. I didn’t realize he was in pain for months.
Little dog maltese refusing eating his food from a bowl in home
2. Decreased Appetite
A change in desire to eat is not always a sign of illness. It sometimes can also be about mouth pain. If you give Fido or Fluffy hard food, try some soft food and see if they want to eat. Experiment with different textures. Decreased appetite is a good reason to visit your vet.
3. Reluctance to Get In The Car
While this might happen throughout a cat’s entire life, dogs may show hesitancy getting in a car when it causes them pain to jump up (or down). Try using a ramp so that they can easily get in and out without adding any pressure to their joints.
4. Difficulty Standing Up
Older pets tend to sleep a lot and they can be slow at getting up. Give them plenty of time to stretch as they know how to listen to their own bodies. But, if Fido or Fluffy is hesitant to stand up, they may be feeling pain. Personally with Sanchez, this is one of the areas where it’s hard to tell the difference between behavior and pain. But, I can usually find out the answer quickly when I entice him with a yummy treat.
5. Decreased Activity and Engagement
When pets are in pain, they often want to be left alone. Watch for any signs of social behavior changes. Is Fido engaging with his dog buddies? Is Fluffy getting in more cat fights? Senior pets have a taxed nervous system in general and aren’t as curious as their puppy or kitty playmates. But notice if there has been any drastic change in their activity level. It may be a reason for a vet call.
The International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management (IVAPM) also offers this downloadable chart that helps you determine when you’ll need to make a vet visit.
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That downloadable chart is a graphical version, as in a pdf, of this post. Nonetheless, IVAPM are to be congratulated on producing the chart and for highlighting the important indicators when trying to decide whether or not to take your loved pet to see a vet.
Huge numbers of you reacted so wonderfully to my post of last Tuesday, Afloat on a Sea of Kindness, in which I republished the account of the boat Alaska Quest saving the lives of four deer that were somehow cast into the water.
One of the many comments to that post was from Barb who writes the blog Passionate about Pets.
Barb left a comment to say that she had recently published an account of drowning kangaroos being saved and I thought all you good people would enjoy reading Barb’s post.
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Drowning Kangaroos Hitch Boat Ride
This photo of kangaroos hitching a boat ride touched my heart, and I felt I had to share it with you guys.
The photo was sent to me from friends during the recent evacuation of Theodore, a small country town in Queensland, Australia, which felt the full brunt of the recent floods.
Animal losses were high during the floods with farmers losing livestock, and wild animals were no exception – many got swept away in the flood waters and drowned – but these guys got lucky.
Under normal circumstances a kangaroo would normally panic and take a swipe at a human, easily tearing him to pieces with his long, strong claws. The feet and tail are even more powerful and dangerous.
So you can imagine how hard it would be to get wild kangaroos into, and then sit, in a boat under normal circumstances . . . this is not a sight you will see often . . . but then, these were not normal circumstances.
These desperate and drowning kangaroos willingly accepted human help and were quite happy to hitch a ride to dry land. Better than the alternative.
I think even wild animals recognize when a human is trying to help them and the compassion this kind man showed to these kangaroos certainly restores my faith in human nature.
This is no sinecure – the future of mankind is at risk.
Very often I find a topic for Saturday that is easy on the mind. But I make no apologies for republishing, with Jennifer’s permission, a post that she published over on Transition Times yesterday. When you read it you will see clearly that promoting this today is right. For many readers may well be able to join thousands of others in showing their support for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
Thousands of Native Americans, members of a whole host of tribes, have gathered at Standing Rock, North Dakota, to protest the North Dakota Access Pipeline (#NoDAPL), which was sited by the Army Corps of Engineers to run dangerously close to the Missouri River and the Standing Rock Reservation.
If there is anyone to look back at this turbulent period in human history on Earth—now coming to be known as the Anthropocene—they will surely wonder at the suicidal tendency of human civilization in the 20th and early 21st centuries.
Why, they will ask, would such an intelligent species willingly—even enthusiastically—engage in the poisoning of its waterways and underground water resources; the destruction of its forests; the chemical contamination of its soils and oceans; the overheating of its precious atmosphere by relentless burning of fossil fuels? Why would humans put so much of their intelligence and technological prowess into developing ever more lethal weapons of mass destruction, used to bludgeon each other? Why would they preside blithely over the extinction of millions of other species, the vicious ripping of the great ecological web of life on Earth?
Why indeed?
I know it’s hard for any of us to escape the clutter of our everyday lives, with the constant pressures and worries that beset us on the personal level. But this is precisely what is being asked of us now.
The courageous defenders out at Standing Rock dropped their ordinary lives to be part of the historic encampment protesting the stranglehold of the oil companies on our waterways and our lands. They are fighting in the courts, through the media, and most importantly with their physical presence, standing up to the bulldozers, the attack dogs and the pepper spray.
Image source: Democracy Now!
This is what McKibben’s World War Three looks like—it’s already begun. It will be fought locally, as communities and individuals wake up to the implications of the destruction and decide that hell no, they won’t take it any more.
In my own corner of the world, we are under assault from General Electric, wanting to create toxic waste dumps right in the middle of our small rural towns. We have a gas pipeline being constructed, despite vehement protests, through a pristine old-growth state forest. We have oil tanker trains running constantly right through our communities. Despite a thriving organic and biodynamic farm renaissance, we still have far too many pesticides, herbicides and fungicides being used locally, and too many trees being cut down.
I have been thinking and writing for some time now about how important it is to align the personal, political and planetary in our own lives and in the way we relate to the world around us. On all three of these levels, 21st century American life is way out of balance.
It is time to focus, each one of us, on using our brief lifetimes to create balance and harmony on Earth. Sometimes the way to harmony leads through protest and discord, as is happening now in Standing Rock. Sometimes it can be as simple as choosing to support local, low-impact agriculture rather than industrial agriculture. Leaning on our political representatives to move faster on policy that will shift our society to renewable energy is key.
There are so many ways to get involved in this War for the Planet, many of them quite peaceful. The important thing is to get off the sidelines. Get involved. Feel the potential of this moment—it’s literally a make or break period for the future of humanity on Earth, and many other living beings too.
The brave defenders at Standing Rock are reminding us that we are all “natives” of this Earth, and we all have a stake in protecting her. Which side are you on?
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Yes, we are all natives of this world and that includes our dear animals and our wonderful animal companions.
Make a promise to yourself to make a difference; even one small difference. With that in mind, if you want to find an event close to you then the Sierra Club have a page where you can look up which event you would like to attend.
Yesterday I used the phrase, “A number of domestic circumstances are taking priority at the moment …” and I wasn’t overplaying that. I can’t say anymore at this stage other than to say that a very close family member has been diagnosed with a terminal illness (and it’s not Jeannie, my son or my daughter.)
Naturally, it has been dominating my thoughts and emotions these last 72 hours but my ability to comprehend what has happened and to weep from time to time would have been impossible without the love of my sweet, dear Jeannie and the emotional sensitivity of our dogs.
For example, yesterday morning when I swung myself out of bed a little after 5:15am, the room still dark, and then sat on the side of the bed wondering what the diagnosis would be from the consultant in London, Brandy came up to me and just buried his head in between my slightly opened legs. With his head held down he pressed himself into my crutch and I then bent my own chest and head down and buried my face in the warm fur of Brandy’s neck just behind his ears.
So on to a short film that has been shown before here on Learning from Dogs but is still worth seeing again.
Published on Mar 27, 2015
Hey:)
Thanks for watching my film. I really hope you share and comment as we love your feedback also feel free to email your thoughts as well. www.ShawnWellingVisuals.com for more info and my email.
The Director
-Shawn Welling Full Synopsis:
A friend to share the ups and downs of life with him — and, soon, his family. “If I Could Talk” gives this dog the one chance he wants to share his thoughts.
Director: Shawn Welling AXI
Story: Mark Galvin / Shawn Welling
Screenplay: Shawn Welling
Starring:
Max Welling / The White Lab
Shawn Welling / Shawn Welling
Michelle Simmons / Michelle Welling
Grace Calabrese / Grace Welling
Kalyssa Lauer / Kalyssa Welling
Music:
Reuel
Composer:
Phillip Glass
Cinematographer
Shawn Welling
Art Giraldo
Scott Budge
Thinking of every one of you and what your dogs mean to you!
By chance a work colleague in my workplace in Sydney introduced me to an organization called Rostrum. They still exist today and as their ‘About’ page on their website explains:
The History of Rostrum
Rostrum Australia is an association of public speaking clubs, founded on 21 July 1930. The original Rostrum club (“The Rostrum”) was founded in Manchester, England, on 21 July 1923 and its first meeting was held under a yew tree at Greendale Farm near Manchester. The first meeting in Australia was held under an Angophora tree in 1930.
This makes Rostrum the longest-running public speaking organisation in the world.
General Information
Rostrum clubs aim to help their members improve their speaking and meeting skills. They do this primarily through regular club meetings and less frequent competitions. The main national competition for members is the Sidney Wicks Speaking Competition, held about every 6 years. State and territory competitions are held throughout the year.
It was a marvelous connection for me for later on in life I was required to give many public speeches.
Anyway, back to those days in Sydney. I still recall how one meeting was devoted to listening to and understanding one of the most eloquent and masterful speakers ever: Alistair Cooke. Listening to Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America on BBC radio was a passion for me until the day he died.
Alistair Cooke, KBE (20 November 1908 – 30 March 2004) was a British journalist, television personality and broadcaster.[1] Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke’s America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theatre from 1971 to 1992. After holding the job for 22 years, and having worked in television for 42 years, Cooke retired in 1992, although he continued to present Letter from America until shortly before his death. He was the father of author and folk singer John Byrne Cooke.
It was a great pleasure to discover that the BBC still holds archives of many of the broadcasts of Letter from America but, in addition, some of Alistair Cooke’s broadcasts are on YouTube.
Please settle down for 15 minutes and listen to one of best writers and speakers to have graced this world.
Broadcast on Fri 12 Dec 1980, BBC Radio
The shooting of John Lennon on the 8th December 1980 sparks a debate over the need for national gun control law in America.
Coping with an emergency includes looking after our dogs.
Most of us live our daily lives without paying too much attention to the likelihood of an emergency. But as Hurricane Hermine and the recent explosion of that SpaceX rocket show the unexpected does come along.
All of which is my preamble to a recent item over on the Mother Network Nature site that reviewed taking care of our beloved pets when an emergency does strike.
I have pleasure in sharing it with you.
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5 steps to ensure your pet is cared for in an emergency
Jaymi Heimbuch August 31, 2016
When an unexpected problem pops up, have a back-up plan for your pet. (Photo: Africa Studio/Shutterstock)
A car crash, an arrest, a natural disaster or a medical emergency. While no one wants to think about these awful possibilities, sometimes we should to protect and provide for those we love, in case one day we can’t make it home as planned. And those we love include our pets.
Imagine something happens to you and you can’t get home to your dogs, cats, birds or other critters. You need a way to not only alert others to the fact that you have pets at home, but also the information they need to care for your pets in your absence. Here are five ways you can ensure that your pets will be looked after.
Carry a card in your wallet
Create a card that you can carry in your wallet or purse. If you’re ever in a medical emergency, a rescue worker or paramedic looking through your wallet for identification will also know that there are animals at your home that need care.
The card can be as simple as a note that you have pets at home on one side, and on the other side lists contact information for friends or family members you’ve designated to care for them. Or it can be detailed, listing how many pets you have at home, their names and the kind of animal each pet is, your address, and emergency contact information for two people you trust to care for your pets. How much information you want to include is entirely up to you.
You can create your own card, download a free template online to print out, or buy cards online that you can fill in information with a pen.
Add a sign on your door or windows to save your pet
Another place to put an alert card is in your window or on the door to your home. An emergency pet alert sticker is ideal when you can’t get to your home but someone like a firefighter or rescue worker can.
Like a wallet card, a sticker should list how many pets are inside and what species they are, so any rescue worker would know if they’d found all the animals inside.
This is a small but potentially life-saving step in preparing for emergency situations such as after an earthquake, tornado, fire or flood, so that someone who is searching through homes can rescue your pet even if you can’t — or aren’t allowed — to get back to your home.
Ensure at least 2 separate people you trust have access to your home
Your emergency wallet card states contact information for people you trust to care for your pet if you’re in an emergency situation and can’t get home to them. The next step is ensuring they can get to your pet when needed.
Make sure each person listed as an emergency guardian has a set of keys, or that they know the secret hiding place for your spare set of keys. If you have an alarm system on your home, you’ll need to provide these friends with the access code.
Because these friends or family members not only have access to your home but also will take responsibility for your animal companion, you’ll need to put some thought into who you’ll have in place as a temporary caregiver or as a permanent caregiver.
When choosing a temporary caregiver, consider someone who lives close to your residence. He or she should be someone who is generally home during the day while you are at work or has easy access to your home. When selecting a permanent caregiver, you’ll need to consider other criteria. This is a person to whom you are entrusting the care of your pet in the event that something should happen to you. Be sure to discuss your expectations at length with a permanent caregiver, so he or she understands the responsibility of caring for your pet.
You may want to put down temporary caregiver contact information on your emergency cards, and ensure they know who is designated as the permanent caregiver should you not be able to return home to your pets for a long time, or at all.
An emergency kit with your pet’s medical information, extra food and other supplies will help rescuers. (Photo: rSnapshotPhotos/Shutterstock)
Create a kit for your pet
A disaster preparedness kit is a great idea both for you and your pet. This also benefits your pet not just for a natural disaster, but if you’re in an emergency and can’t get to them.
An emergency supply kit should include a document that a temporary caregiver or potential permanent guardian can use to understand your pet’s needs. This includes:
vet and vaccination records
pet insurance details
information about any medications your pet needs
an extra leash and collar
a carrier if you have a smaller pet
information on any behavior problems, quirks or habits that a caregiver should know about
Be sure to tell your emergency contacts and temporary caregivers where this information is located in your home, so they can access it should they need it.
Make formal long-term arrangements for your pet
We briefly discussed designating someone as a permanent caregiver for your pet should you not be able to return to them. You may want to consider setting up a formal arrangement for this to ensure that your pet definitely goes to the person you’ve designated and receives the care they need.
This could be a formal written arrangement with a permanent caregiver or it may be part of your will. You might also consider creating a trust or other financial arrangement to ensure your pet is cared for if you’re incapacitated. However, Petfinder notes:
Before making formal arrangements to provide for the long-term care of your pet, seek help from professionals who can guide you in preparing legal documents that can protect your interests and those of your pet. However, you must keep in mind the critical importance of making advance personal arrangements to ensure that your pet is cared for immediately if you die or become incapacitated. The formalities of a will or trust may not take over for some time.
Such a document may at first seem like a lot to handle for a “what if” situation, but by taking the appropriate precautions ahead of time, you can be sure that your pets are immediately cared for should something occur that prevents you from returning home to them.
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This all seems like very sound advice and, believe me, advice that Jeannie and I will review and adopt wherever we can.
Please, good people, do take care of yourselves including all your pets.
(The second part of Peter and Leslie Sonne’s guest post. Do read the first part before today’s post.)
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It was December 2010. We didn’t need another dog. We had four at the time, one of whom had just started chemotherapy.
A staff member at our specialty vet knew of a rescue that reminded her of our beloved cattle dog, who we had lost the year before, and pushed us to contact the foster mom. Peter had really been missing his truck buddy and none of the other dogs had worked as his constant companion.
The photos melted our hearts and we contacted the foster mom, Jenn. The little girl was called Hedgehog, as she had lost much of her hair due to neglect and as it was growing back in, everyone thought she looked like a hedgehog. It was love at first sight, but Jenn diligently ensured that “Hedgy” got along with the rest of the ranch hands before approving the adoption. Peter teaching her to roll over within 5 minutes of meeting her helped seal the deal. The adoption led to an immediate name change and our Peggy Sue joined the pack. We thank Jenn for giving us the thumbs up and allowing us to share the second half of Peggy’s life.
Peggy acclimated to the pack quickly, although she was a loner. Fiercely independent, she would often be in her rocker in the great room, keeping an eye on the scary ceiling fan, while the rest of the gang was in the office or kitchen with us. She sort of just tolerated the others, although on rare occasion her nub would go up and she would play with someone for about 30 seconds – almost like she figured it was expected of her now and then.
One of Peggy’s favorites things was to go for rides in the truck. She preferred to be alone, but would grudgingly share her backseat with one or more siblings if necessary. We think she actually preferred to be with only one of us so that she could ride shotgun, resting her head on the console and gazing at us with eyes full of love. The ear massages as we meandered down the road helped!
We discovered right away that she was a foodie. While she never really begged, actually feigning a look of boredom at the human meal process, she moved with lightning speed to get any morsel that fell to the ground and the others quickly learned to not even try to out maneuver her.
Peggy was not overtly affectionate, did not like to cuddle and really did not give kisses. However, it was certainly OK for some humans to give her belly rubs, neck massages and her favorite, massages to her ears. Peggy had a signature gait where as she trotted along every few steps her back legs would do a little hop, which would propel her back end forward, causing her to look like the letter “J.” I loved to watch, as she would trot down the hall each morning beside Peter.
Last August, we found a small lump on her neck and she was diagnosed with lymphoma. She breezed through the chemotherapy and was in remission when a different lymphoma was discovered. She breezed through that treatment and all was good. She was in remission from both when she started having GI problems and unspecified infections. Initially, she was able to respond and rebound but a couple of days ago she got sick again. Hoping for the best, we treated her, but when our little foodie stopped eating, not even tempted with the tastiest morsel, we felt that she was giving us a sign.
Last night, we spent a couple of hours with her as she relaxed on the lawn. Her nose was often raised in the air as if taking in all the smells of the ranch that she loved so much. This morning, Mille, Samantha and Jake all said their goodbyes, and she accepted their kisses, which was another sign to us that she was ready to go.
As we sat with her this morning we knew that she was dancing across the Rainbow Bridge, with her signature hop, as she went to join all of our other ranch hands that have gone before. We pictured Bucky and Spencer playing in the river with Lexy and Minnie, Sundance egging Jack and Gus into a game of tag and Queenie impatiently waiting for Peggy to brief her on the ins and outs of her new pack. Big Jake happily grazes nearby and looks forward to a nap in the sun while the others watch his back.
From the bottom of our hearts we thank Dr. Merrianne Burtch from Pacific Veterinary Specialists for her initial treatment and Dr. Theresa Arteaga from Animal Cancer Center for her loving extended treatment (and both of them for their friendship). Dr. Arteaga and her fantastic staff (Jodi, Linda, Nicole and Elizabeth) always made Peggy’s treatments as relaxing as possible and this morning was no exception.
To know us is to know our dogs. To know us is to know our heartache.
Peter and Leslie
PS- Miss Peggy Sue most certainly did become Peter’s truck buddy and constant companion!
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When I was working on this post yesterday afternoon, I didn’t have a clue as to how to close it off. This from someone who is not normally lost for words.
But I wanted some words that would leave the most glorious echo or afterglow of Peggy, and of every other dog that brings out the best of love in us.
One of the followers of this place is Susan Leighton. This is her blog: Woman on the Ledge.
I will close with Susan’s words:
I guess one of the reasons I am enamored with dogs is because they give to us unconditional love. They don’t care what we look like, if we are rich or poor, they are attracted to our souls.
That sub-heading was inspired by a comment left by Barb, author of the blog Passionate About Pets, in response to Maria Matthews’ story on Monday. This is what Barb wrote (my emphasis):
I loved Maria’s story, very uplifting and special. I can’t imagine my life without a dog, they give us so much and ask for little in return, just to be loved and cared for.
Yesterday, I mentioned that as well as Maria’s guest post there would be another today. In fact, the guest post will be in two parts. That guest is Peter Sonne.
Today, I am going to focus on the email that Peter sent to me and then on Thursday I will publish the article that accompanied Peter’s email. Peter also included pictures of Peggy that will be shared with you both today and tomorrow. So here’s Peter’s email:
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Hello Paul, I hope you all have been well.
I wanted to send you this little write-up and photos that Leslie put together for our little cattle dog, Peggy.
We had to let her go about a week ago. We had sent this out to all our animal friends and I thought of you as I have started to read your book. It is giving me a good deal of comfort, for I can relate to most everything. This one has been particularly hard on me.
Peggy was with me most everyday, and went just about everywhere with us. I think what stands out in my thoughts is that we know the first half of her life was pretty much a nightmare all around. When she was rescued, most of her hair was gone, her skin was in terrible shape, her teeth the same, etc. We quickly found that loud noises would send her running and she was a grubber for sure; food was her top priority, even up to the end.
I could see in her eyes when we first met her that she still had a spark, a desire if you will, to be a ‘good’ part of something; a pack.
She took to us, and to me right off she sensed a good change for her. Up until the end, however, when I would reach over to her to put my hand on her, she would always, always have a slight flinch – but followed through the connection.
I would catch her just staring at me many times while in the truck or in the house, just relaxing. You know, as I have mentioned to people before, if its dogs, cats, horses or what ever, if one takes that extra second to pay attention, to look at what’s happening when these beings see you each time, it’s really amazing. They do recognize you, and if one always tries to make that connection a positive one, that reward of seeing the reaction between that animal and you, time after time, can be extremely fulfilling for both, and that bond grows.
I think I felt more protective over her than all the others. That alone is a strong statement from me, as I have loved all those so dearly that have blessed us, by allowing us to be a part of their pack. Leslie was speaking with our cancer vet, whom we have worked with many times before, and mentioned this never gets easier only harder it seems.
Our vet said that is true and more so for us as we always have 3 to 5 dogs, and the odds of dealing with this loss are much, much higher for us. Most families have maybe 1 dog for 10 or so years and then something happens, and it’s time to let them go.
So with us, and others who always have multiple dogs, the need to deal with sickness and that final decision to let them go is greatly increased. It makes sense, but it is still very hard to deal with.
Didn’t mean to ramble, but it seems to help a little. Thanks again for writing that book! It helps as well.
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All dogs respond to our love and affection as does almost every species of warm-blooded animal, and a fair few humans as well!
But those dogs that are rescued truly appear to find a joyfulness, call it an inner happiness, that is just a tad richer than with dogs that were born straight into loving families.
The photograph on the right was taken before it was sewn over to prevent any subsequent infection.
Learning from Dogs 