Jack’s Walk

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It’s drizzly and gloomy today, but I don’t mind a bit because the sun is shining in my heart. Finally, after a difficult month, my sweet Bubba is able to walk again. Not far, but he can easily get to the end of the street and back with his tail wagging. His gait isn’t pretty to watch, and we go very, very slowly (think Tim Conway’s old man slow), but Jack is himself again. He wants to go out and explore all the smells and as of yesterday, he’s able to lift his leg again to leave behind a smell or two of his own. The past few weeks Jack has had to pee standing up and he couldn’t direct the stream, which he found frustrating. I found it frustrating, too, because he often peed all over his front legs, requiring a post pee sponge bath several times a day.

We’re very lucky to have a good vet whose clinic is nearby. She has started Jack on an injectible bone-building drug called Cartrophen in addition to an oral anti-inflammatory and Tramadol for pain and collectively they’ve set Jack back on track.  He’ll never have his light prancing gait again, and our future adventures will be smaller, but he’s happy and comfortable, and I can finally take a deep breath. I know we’re entering the difficult times in the life of a big dog, but for today the wind is at our backs and life is good.

 

 

Join Jack and voyager for a walk in the woods.

This is my first attempt at making a video, and it shows. The Pace is slow, it’s a bit rough in places and there’s some wind noise in the background that I couldn’t get rid of. It’s been a pretty steep learning curve for me, and I’ve barely scratched the surface. I had planned to add a bit of music, but I couldn’t find anything that I liked better than the sound of rustling leaves, so the soundtrack is just us walking with a bit of commentary from me. I had also hoped to end the video with Jack and I singing, but Jack’s been under the weather and hasn’t been in the mood to make music. He is slowly improving, though, so perhaps next month we’ll make another short movie full of raucous, rollicking fun.

I hope you can get a sense of how much both Jack and I enjoy walking in the woods.

 

 

Back at the Zoo 6: The Birds of Prey

Always one of my favourite parts. Sadly but understandably they don’t fly them for the visitors right now, but still some amazing creatures.

©Giliell, all rights reserved The bald headed eagles always look pissed, but so would you if you had become a synonym for the USA

©Giliell, all rights reserved this girl is on fire

©Giliell, all rights reserved Very pissed off eagle

©Giliell, all rights reserved A symphony in black and white

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©Giliell, all rights reserved all fluffed up

Jack’s Walk

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I’ve been struggling to write this post for 2 weeks, but I can’t keep putting it off, so here goes.

Jack and I haven’t had many adventures over the past month because Jack’s gone lame. The problem is mostly with his front end somewhere, but we can’t quite pin down the problem, and his walking is continuing to deteriorate. It may be due in part to the return of Larry the Lump (warning – the bottom photo is gory), who has taken up residence in Jack’s Rt. elbow, but his left shoulder is also inflamed. We see the Dr. again tomorrow, and hopefully, an x-ray will give the vet a better idea of cause, effect and treatment options. He has been started on pain pills, and they allow him to rest comfortably at home, but he isn’t himself.

There is some small good news, however. We have successfully weaned Jack off of his steroidal allergy tablets and onto a plain cetirizine (Reactine) tablet, which means he’ll soon be able to take an anti-inflammatory to help with his arthritic hips and knees. Right now, it’s one day at a time, and I’m letting Jack decide how much he wants to do. On a good day, he goes to the end of the street and back, but on a rainy day like today, Jack only wants to go out to the yard.

About a month ago, when things were better, I took Jack to the wee woods for a walk and did some videotaping while we were there. I’ve put together a small youtube movie of our walk, and I’ll be releasing it on Saturday, Dec. 5th, as part of our Winterfest celebration. It’s my first attempt at videography, and there was a pretty steep learning curve, but I’ve managed to put together about a 5-minute clip that I’ll be releasing on Sat. Dec. 5th as part of our Winterfest celebrations. It’s nothing special, but I’m damned proud of myself for learning a new skill, and some of you might even enjoy it. I had hoped to add singing to the end of the clip, but Jack isn’t in the mood to sing right now, so that will have to wait for our next video. In the meantime, I’m hovering over Jack and waiting on him hand and foot. I’m also struggling with the existential crisis of figuring out what happens to Jack’s Walk if Jack can’t walk.

Back at the Zoo 2: Squirrely

Pics NSFI (Not Safe For Iris)

Some versions of squirrels/rodents/chipmunks.

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©Giliell, all rights reserved The chill one

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©Giliell, all rights reserved NomNom

©Giliell, all rights reserved Who? What?

©Giliell, all rights reserved There?

©Giliell, all rights reserved Whoosh…

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©Giliell, all rights reserved See ya!

Back at the Zoo 1

On Friday both Mr and I had a day off. We cherish those days when we’re both at home and the kids are not, having some couple’s time. We usually try to get a few of them, a day or an evening, throughout the year, but you can imagine how that’s been going this year…

Now,usually we’d go to the spa or something, have a nice meal, too, but that’s crying over spilled milk right now, so we decided to go to the zoo, which is still open, and given that it was a foggy Friday morning, we pretty much had the whole thing to ourselves. The weather made taking pics difficult, since it was either grainy 6400 ISO pics or longish exposure, but some of them are still nice.

Let’s start with these amazing birds whose names I’ve forgotten. I remember they’re from India, though…

©Giliell, all rights reserved Enjoy your meal, little fellow

 

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Degupdate: Lady Grace of the Lost Toes

You know that we’ve been having lots of worries with our newest degu, Gracie. A new degu needs to be integrated into a group carefully, as they are very territorial. If you just put a new degu into a habitat, the result will often be a dead degu, so we separated Candy and Estelle from Gracie by means of a fence between their part of the habitat and Gracie’s. That way they can see, smell and hear each other and get used to each other.

A couple of days after Grace moved in, I found her foot bleeding with what we thought was a torn claw. Our breeder assured us that this was a common injury acquired while playing and no need for worries. A few days later another foot was hurt and I thought “hmmm, maybe the fence has an unsafe place?” and yes, since everything there is made from leftover material, the new fence wasn’t sitting plain, which created a narrowing gap where she could get stuck with her feet. I fixed that by adding another piece of wood in front, and it looked like it worked, but then came another injury. I was both worried as well as puzzled. Was there yet another gap where she could injure herself? Did she maybe hurt herself because she was still not integrated into the group, like we may bite nails? I contacted our breeder again and she didn’t have any more ideas either. I was about to go out and buy another cage and possibly another degu to start a second group for poor Gracie when I finally found out what happened: Whenever her feet had mostly healed, Grace would go to the fence that separates them and climb there. Then Candy would come and bite her feet, and because those incisors are sharp as hell, she’d take off the first knuckle. That way poor Gracie lost several toes. But at least now we knew what was happening and I put up another fence on the other side so Candy cannot reach Grace at all. Whenever Candy and Estelle are out, we have to put a piece of wood in front of Gracie’s door so Candy cannot reach her there.

It looks like Grace is finally healing, and I still love Candy to death (can’t blame a degu for being a degu), but I really could do with some good developments here. I’m still keeping them separated until Grace has fully healed and then we’ll have to see. Currently there seem to be two possibilities: Either they do finally get used to each other, or I’ll have to start a second group. I will also probably have to make the habitat more accessible for Gracie, because I don’t think she’ll be able to climb as well as the others with basically half a front paw missing. I feel bad about her having lost those toes while under our care, but I swear to the Great Degu, I always did my best. Anyway, she’s cute, and active, and curious. She grows and her fur is shiny and sleek, so I think she will grow up a strong degu.

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Gracie, being sneaky

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©Giliell, all rights reserved She’s pretty trusting with us, but the pea chips were not enough to lure her closer

©Giliell, all rights reserved But she found a nut. You can see the missing toe on the hind paw pretty well here. She can still use her front paws to hold food, obviously, and doesn’t seem very bothered by her injuries.

 

Estelle, btw, is an absolutely chill degu by now. I think she has realised that she has a warm, safe home, always enough food, and doesn’t care at all about her place in the pecking order. Here’s her and Candy running in the running wheel.

Degupdate: Emotionally Overwhelmed Pet Owner

Ok, I’ll admit it: I’m very, very stressed out right now. The USA at the brink of a coup, Covid still raging, and the ministry of education deciding to throw us collectively under the bus (the latest brainfart: if there’s a case in a class, they don’t want to quarantine the whole class, but only “immediate contacts”, because as we all know, 10 years old kids are great at never getting close to each other and staying in their seats for 6 times 45 minutes. It is also absolutely no additional work to teach half the class in school and half the class at home, no sir).

With this as my general anxiety level, and the loss of sweet Katja, I’m basically a helicopter pet mum, but to be honest, Gracie really does her best to freak me out. That’s a degu with a sense for Halloween.

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She’s lucky she’s cute!

After she developed soft stool from the stress of being rehomed, I came up there on Sunday to find her whole side caked with blood. I couldn’t even imagine how that had happened, the degus hadn’t been together, and the cage is safe. I caught her and examined her. The little sweetheart apparently tore a claw, which happens, but is no great injury. But of course it bleeds, and since she sits on her hunches, the blood caked the side of her belly. When I returned an hour later, she’d cleaned herself up again and nothing was seen.

On Monday, the little one came down from feeding them and said that Gracie’s toe had apparently bled again, because there was blood in the water. And I was like “I’ll see to it”, because a droplet of blood should be right invisible in a waterdish. I came up and the whole dish was red. There shouldn’t have been any blood left in the degu to turn the water that colour.

But Gracie appeared to be fine. I got closer, took out the dish and inspected it in better light. Now the orange brown colour of blood turned a more scarlet variety and I found a formerly dried beetroot chip in the dish. She’s been repeating that game. Either she hates beetroot, or she likes her water to be flavoured.

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I now moved the water away form the food. Let’s see if it was an accident or mischief.

On the good news, the running wheel finally arrived. Unfortunately the place we want to put it is currently occupied by Gracie, so they can only use it when out, but they very much like it. It was expensive as fuck, but it will sure last a long time.

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Sorry, no better pic possible at that speed.