LittleRibbie
Well-Known Member
This day is going to go down in the history books for me...things can only get better!
I stayed awake watching the barn cam all last night and this morning my husband said he would watch the cam when he returned from taking my GSD to the vet and I planned on napping for a couple of hours.. Quahog was having his stitches removed. About 10 days ago Quahog had emergency surgery and had his spleen removed...his spleen ruptured and his stomach was completely full of blood.Vet said prognosis did not look good prior to surgery but we went ahead.A couple days later lab reports came back......the spleen had cancerous tumors throughout and spreading. This particular cancer vet gave Ribs about 40 maybe 60 days as its very aggressive. This cant be happening....Quahog is only 6!! After weighing options we decided to opt for Chemo. This Chemo treatment is different than before when we went thru it several yrs. ago for another dog. Quahog starts treatment Mon. and its a 1/2 hr. transfusion type thing...in the past our other dog had a series of shots each week, he was supposed to have 6 but passed away after the 5th. Quahog will need 8 treatments ( 1 a week )and if all goes well we could have him w/us for several more years. We will take it 1 treatment at a time and go with an open mind...I have to keep telling myself that I cant be selfish and keep him alive b/c thats what I want! If these treatments are too much or painful for him we may look into plan B. Time will tell.
Anyway back to today. Hubby gets Quahog off to vet for staples removed and I go out to do stalls. Call my other GSD, Ribs....he is always right under my feet in the barn...he just about races me over there every day. Ribs tries to get off his bed and collapses...at first I made a joke..." Ribbie you silly...you still sound asleep sleepy head...come on " He attempts to get up again, his front feet are up but both his back legs just collapse..he's squatting almost trying to will himself up. His bed is almost like a baby mattress and very thick, I take him off that in hopes that he could stand on solid floor. He does better and sort of wobbles but his back legs are not completely "up" he was squatting and it was like his back was rubber. Told him there was no going to barn today and told him to stay. His "stay" command is usually perfect...not today. I head to barn and I hear a thump and yelp....he wanted to come and tried to go down porch steps....I didnt see him fall but he was laying on the brick path attempting to get up. Now I'm hysterical....call husband who is already at the vets and tell him he needs to get home to bring Ribbie in. I didnt want to leave as my mare is very close. In the mean time poor Heather from Mare Stare calls, she was ready to email me the info to log on and get set up w/Mare Stare. She too has had a busy week...Ive been attempting to do this for a couple weeks and things just keep getting screwed up...wrong equipment, need to order capture device...well finally she is back in town and sent me the info..now my dog is laying on the brick walkway, horses getting hungry. Perfect..as soon as I get a minute, later on in the day I will hook up to Mare Stare...well I didnt realize that it was time sensitive and I had to log on for support with in a certain time....by the time I got around to logging on time had expired. Heather is great but she had her hands full and was unable to assist me....o.k....well no problem I can wait another day. My husband leaves Quahog at vet and races home to get Ribs who is now not even attempting to try to stand. Doesnt appear Ribs is in pain...just sort of confused if that makes any sense. They say they need x rays and blood pulled from Ribs and will take a couple of hours so husband leaves him there and brings home Quahog. They couldnt remove all his staples b/c it was still draining alittle. Now I look out in the pasture and 1 of my mares has her butt right up to the electric fence winking and blinking at Nick. Poor Nick is being good but he doesnt need this especially right on the other side of the fence. So much for napping...I have got to go out and clear away some overgrown brush, branches and weeds that are not playing nice with the electric fence. Now its almost noon and about a gazzilion degrees. 45 minutes into my landscape work I look down and I have fire ants just crawling up my legs and now they are biting inside my boots. While in the house nursing the fire ant bites, phone rings. A very good client needs dinner for this evening....18 people, I explain to her that its really not going to be very cost effective for her....with only 18 people she would be better off taking her guests to her club....besides we really had to plan this breeding this year to coincide with when my husband and I could free up some time to actually be here....we booked no jobs for the month of June for just this reason. She was not taking no for an answer...I finally say yes but explain that b/c neither my husband nor myself could be there we had to send another chef and 2 servers....I quoted her an extremely high price in the hopes she would say "oh no, too much $...better call someone else"
NOT!!! Dinner is at 6:00!! &^*%^ !!!
Husband now leaves to go back to the vet to bring home Ribs.....Ribbie is still alittle sleepy from the anesthesia he needed for X Rays. Ribbie was diagnosed with Degenerative Myelopathy which is a spinal cord disease...I had never heard of it but it is most common in GSDs and Pembroke and Cardigan Welsh Corgies.Its not hip dysp. Literature says weakness or complete paralysis of all 4 limbs may be evident with in one 1yr. of diagnosis.Well he was diagnosed today and already appears to be complety paralyzed in the back ( perfectly normal until this morning). Long term prognosis is poor. Now my husband has to go to work ( I guess we need to take ALL these catering jobs as this weeks vet bill is way beyond what I had tucked away for emergency vet care )!!I start my internet search on Ribbies disease, figure our options and decide our plan of attack and notice the sky is now getting pretty darn dark and scarey...well thats O.K. we really need the rain. Sure enough it starts pouring down and there is a huge big crack of thunder....power goes out...its still light out so not to bad.Horrible almost hurricane winds and rain. Fast forward to 9:00 now its dark out and still no power. Did manage to feed and get horses tucked in to bed early while it was at least light out. Decide the best place to hunker down would be in the new foaling barn's tack room b/c w/no camera I would have to keep going out to check and didnt want Ribs to try to follow me. Carried Ribs with Quahog and Daiquiri following and armed with flashlight went out to keep watch in the tack room. Peanut is really restless, me praying to God DO NOT LET THIS MARE FOAL TONIGHT>>>PLEASE!!NO WAY NO HOW!!In the mean time Im cussing myself for not having Mare Stare set up because then I could at least be in the house and give my friends my cell phone #. Each time Heather was ready I was unable to be here.Dang IT !!This day just ^&%$%. Now power back on and its 10:00 and hubby is just getting home...Phew, no baby...Thank you Lord. Husband is exhausted and heads to bed. I go out to the porch to have a cigarette and I look up in the trees and see a little bit of a glow...it appears to be up in the trees sort of on our property line but couldnt really tell...thought maybe its some sort of an emergency/generator light that the neighbors have and its just still on. Im sort of watching it and it was hard to tell but it seemed like it might be getting bigger....no its sort of moving like...its still alittle windy out and maybe the light is on a pole.. but now there is another little "glow" it too just looks bigger than it did just 2 seconds ago...its kind of moving in the trees.Now there is definatly 2 big glows with a pretty distinct center. Its still not registering to me what this is. I walk to the end of my porch and take a big whiff of the air thru the screen....dont smell smoke but can now hear some pretty distinct popping sounds and its then I notice the sparks flying out from these 2 what I can now see are balls of fire spitting sparks. Before you think how could she not know it is fire...I dont know why except that, that area is uncleared thick dense tall pines and palmetto palms and hard to see thru trees, its pitch black...it just didnt cross my mind. Scream to my husband who is sound asleep...scared dogs and now they are all barking,Im calling 911 while my husband is still in a daze wondering what the heck Im screaming about and asking me ???s while Im talking to the lady on 911. and to the fire dept dispatch....she's asking a ton of ???s and all I want to do is hang up, get dogs safely secured in the car and come back and deal with horses....lots of things racing thru my head. Husband jumps on the 4 wheeler and heads out to see and to unlock the gate for fire dept. Comes back and tells me to reset all water sprinklers and put them on high. Well when the power went out it messed up the sprinkler timing thingy and it took me a few minutes to figure it out and to get them all going again. Im thinking well at least the ground is wet from the hard rain we just had. Do I hook up horse trailer ( stallion,plus 6 horses including a very pregnant mare )? Do I let horses out of stalls, and let them in pasture, we have a golf course on the other side of our property that is completely fenced..do I somehow cut that fence and turn them out in there if this thing starts burning fast( Golf courses never really burn b/c there is not much brush we are told )We are way out of the way and closest dept is about 20 miles. Neighbor on the other side of us calls to tell us hes smelling smoke but cant tell if there is a fire around somewhere, I explain. His wife and son come over and then he comes with his big monster tractor, I assumed thinking if he needed to, he could push the fire back. I still had not gone to the actual fire site because I was busy doing things around the house. Finally 2 fire trucks and a big brush truck arrived. And that was when I was finally able to go see where it was burning. It appeared to start around our property line but was actually burning away from our property. I know it doesnt seem like alot but the fire guy said it was about 4 acres and it could have been alot worse if not for the heavy rain earlier in the day. No damage...just made it alittle easier to put in another little pasture over near there. It didnt take to long to put it out and they left a truck out back for a couple hrs in case of flare ups...the fire man actually came in to say he was leaving while I was starting this post.
Good Job Mr. Fireman!! I am now sitting here finishing off a quart of Mocha Chip ice cream...Im eatting it right out of the box....I think I deserve it after my day!!
Thanks for letting me rant and complain. If you dont mind, saying a little prayer for Ribbie and Quahog would be great too!!
Nighty Night....its already tomorrow and I feel better already
I stayed awake watching the barn cam all last night and this morning my husband said he would watch the cam when he returned from taking my GSD to the vet and I planned on napping for a couple of hours.. Quahog was having his stitches removed. About 10 days ago Quahog had emergency surgery and had his spleen removed...his spleen ruptured and his stomach was completely full of blood.Vet said prognosis did not look good prior to surgery but we went ahead.A couple days later lab reports came back......the spleen had cancerous tumors throughout and spreading. This particular cancer vet gave Ribs about 40 maybe 60 days as its very aggressive. This cant be happening....Quahog is only 6!! After weighing options we decided to opt for Chemo. This Chemo treatment is different than before when we went thru it several yrs. ago for another dog. Quahog starts treatment Mon. and its a 1/2 hr. transfusion type thing...in the past our other dog had a series of shots each week, he was supposed to have 6 but passed away after the 5th. Quahog will need 8 treatments ( 1 a week )and if all goes well we could have him w/us for several more years. We will take it 1 treatment at a time and go with an open mind...I have to keep telling myself that I cant be selfish and keep him alive b/c thats what I want! If these treatments are too much or painful for him we may look into plan B. Time will tell.
Anyway back to today. Hubby gets Quahog off to vet for staples removed and I go out to do stalls. Call my other GSD, Ribs....he is always right under my feet in the barn...he just about races me over there every day. Ribs tries to get off his bed and collapses...at first I made a joke..." Ribbie you silly...you still sound asleep sleepy head...come on " He attempts to get up again, his front feet are up but both his back legs just collapse..he's squatting almost trying to will himself up. His bed is almost like a baby mattress and very thick, I take him off that in hopes that he could stand on solid floor. He does better and sort of wobbles but his back legs are not completely "up" he was squatting and it was like his back was rubber. Told him there was no going to barn today and told him to stay. His "stay" command is usually perfect...not today. I head to barn and I hear a thump and yelp....he wanted to come and tried to go down porch steps....I didnt see him fall but he was laying on the brick path attempting to get up. Now I'm hysterical....call husband who is already at the vets and tell him he needs to get home to bring Ribbie in. I didnt want to leave as my mare is very close. In the mean time poor Heather from Mare Stare calls, she was ready to email me the info to log on and get set up w/Mare Stare. She too has had a busy week...Ive been attempting to do this for a couple weeks and things just keep getting screwed up...wrong equipment, need to order capture device...well finally she is back in town and sent me the info..now my dog is laying on the brick walkway, horses getting hungry. Perfect..as soon as I get a minute, later on in the day I will hook up to Mare Stare...well I didnt realize that it was time sensitive and I had to log on for support with in a certain time....by the time I got around to logging on time had expired. Heather is great but she had her hands full and was unable to assist me....o.k....well no problem I can wait another day. My husband leaves Quahog at vet and races home to get Ribs who is now not even attempting to try to stand. Doesnt appear Ribs is in pain...just sort of confused if that makes any sense. They say they need x rays and blood pulled from Ribs and will take a couple of hours so husband leaves him there and brings home Quahog. They couldnt remove all his staples b/c it was still draining alittle. Now I look out in the pasture and 1 of my mares has her butt right up to the electric fence winking and blinking at Nick. Poor Nick is being good but he doesnt need this especially right on the other side of the fence. So much for napping...I have got to go out and clear away some overgrown brush, branches and weeds that are not playing nice with the electric fence. Now its almost noon and about a gazzilion degrees. 45 minutes into my landscape work I look down and I have fire ants just crawling up my legs and now they are biting inside my boots. While in the house nursing the fire ant bites, phone rings. A very good client needs dinner for this evening....18 people, I explain to her that its really not going to be very cost effective for her....with only 18 people she would be better off taking her guests to her club....besides we really had to plan this breeding this year to coincide with when my husband and I could free up some time to actually be here....we booked no jobs for the month of June for just this reason. She was not taking no for an answer...I finally say yes but explain that b/c neither my husband nor myself could be there we had to send another chef and 2 servers....I quoted her an extremely high price in the hopes she would say "oh no, too much $...better call someone else"
NOT!!! Dinner is at 6:00!! &^*%^ !!!
Husband now leaves to go back to the vet to bring home Ribs.....Ribbie is still alittle sleepy from the anesthesia he needed for X Rays. Ribbie was diagnosed with Degenerative Myelopathy which is a spinal cord disease...I had never heard of it but it is most common in GSDs and Pembroke and Cardigan Welsh Corgies.Its not hip dysp. Literature says weakness or complete paralysis of all 4 limbs may be evident with in one 1yr. of diagnosis.Well he was diagnosed today and already appears to be complety paralyzed in the back ( perfectly normal until this morning). Long term prognosis is poor. Now my husband has to go to work ( I guess we need to take ALL these catering jobs as this weeks vet bill is way beyond what I had tucked away for emergency vet care )!!I start my internet search on Ribbies disease, figure our options and decide our plan of attack and notice the sky is now getting pretty darn dark and scarey...well thats O.K. we really need the rain. Sure enough it starts pouring down and there is a huge big crack of thunder....power goes out...its still light out so not to bad.Horrible almost hurricane winds and rain. Fast forward to 9:00 now its dark out and still no power. Did manage to feed and get horses tucked in to bed early while it was at least light out. Decide the best place to hunker down would be in the new foaling barn's tack room b/c w/no camera I would have to keep going out to check and didnt want Ribs to try to follow me. Carried Ribs with Quahog and Daiquiri following and armed with flashlight went out to keep watch in the tack room. Peanut is really restless, me praying to God DO NOT LET THIS MARE FOAL TONIGHT>>>PLEASE!!NO WAY NO HOW!!In the mean time Im cussing myself for not having Mare Stare set up because then I could at least be in the house and give my friends my cell phone #. Each time Heather was ready I was unable to be here.Dang IT !!This day just ^&%$%. Now power back on and its 10:00 and hubby is just getting home...Phew, no baby...Thank you Lord. Husband is exhausted and heads to bed. I go out to the porch to have a cigarette and I look up in the trees and see a little bit of a glow...it appears to be up in the trees sort of on our property line but couldnt really tell...thought maybe its some sort of an emergency/generator light that the neighbors have and its just still on. Im sort of watching it and it was hard to tell but it seemed like it might be getting bigger....no its sort of moving like...its still alittle windy out and maybe the light is on a pole.. but now there is another little "glow" it too just looks bigger than it did just 2 seconds ago...its kind of moving in the trees.Now there is definatly 2 big glows with a pretty distinct center. Its still not registering to me what this is. I walk to the end of my porch and take a big whiff of the air thru the screen....dont smell smoke but can now hear some pretty distinct popping sounds and its then I notice the sparks flying out from these 2 what I can now see are balls of fire spitting sparks. Before you think how could she not know it is fire...I dont know why except that, that area is uncleared thick dense tall pines and palmetto palms and hard to see thru trees, its pitch black...it just didnt cross my mind. Scream to my husband who is sound asleep...scared dogs and now they are all barking,Im calling 911 while my husband is still in a daze wondering what the heck Im screaming about and asking me ???s while Im talking to the lady on 911. and to the fire dept dispatch....she's asking a ton of ???s and all I want to do is hang up, get dogs safely secured in the car and come back and deal with horses....lots of things racing thru my head. Husband jumps on the 4 wheeler and heads out to see and to unlock the gate for fire dept. Comes back and tells me to reset all water sprinklers and put them on high. Well when the power went out it messed up the sprinkler timing thingy and it took me a few minutes to figure it out and to get them all going again. Im thinking well at least the ground is wet from the hard rain we just had. Do I hook up horse trailer ( stallion,plus 6 horses including a very pregnant mare )? Do I let horses out of stalls, and let them in pasture, we have a golf course on the other side of our property that is completely fenced..do I somehow cut that fence and turn them out in there if this thing starts burning fast( Golf courses never really burn b/c there is not much brush we are told )We are way out of the way and closest dept is about 20 miles. Neighbor on the other side of us calls to tell us hes smelling smoke but cant tell if there is a fire around somewhere, I explain. His wife and son come over and then he comes with his big monster tractor, I assumed thinking if he needed to, he could push the fire back. I still had not gone to the actual fire site because I was busy doing things around the house. Finally 2 fire trucks and a big brush truck arrived. And that was when I was finally able to go see where it was burning. It appeared to start around our property line but was actually burning away from our property. I know it doesnt seem like alot but the fire guy said it was about 4 acres and it could have been alot worse if not for the heavy rain earlier in the day. No damage...just made it alittle easier to put in another little pasture over near there. It didnt take to long to put it out and they left a truck out back for a couple hrs in case of flare ups...the fire man actually came in to say he was leaving while I was starting this post.
Thanks for letting me rant and complain. If you dont mind, saying a little prayer for Ribbie and Quahog would be great too!!
Nighty Night....its already tomorrow and I feel better already
