Giddy-Up!

Katie has some new friends here at the Fallon, NV RV Park.

Next door to their huge off-leash dog park are some horses that have bonded with her.  When she comes into the pen, they wander over near the fence line next to it and wait for her to come running.

If she does not notice them there, they will start making noises and stirring up the dust to attract her attention. In the late afternoon they play a game of dogs and horses and she lunges at the fence between then and they take off whinnying and running in small circles on their side before retuning to the fence line for her to do it again.

There are also chickens over there, which completely ignore her though she seem to stand, sometimes for minutes, watching them. I think she is trying to figure out how they don’t fall over on only 2 legs.

A couple of dogs live over there, too, mixed with the chickens and horses and occasionally, they will come over to the fence when they see her out here, too.  They race the length of the common fence and back alongside Katie before they are all tuckered out and everybody loses interest. By then, a sizeable cloud of dust is floating up and away from all the fun.

She has had 2 more seizures within a week of each other. I am suspecting that these are related to some sort of allergy trigger as she has also been sneezing a lot during this period. There is an unbelievable amount of sage brush out here and it seems to be able to grow in places that even rocks have trouble surviving.  It has been in bright yellow bloom from South Dakota thru Wy, MT, Idaho and now, Nevada but the color is starting to fade and so is the sneezing.

I have given her a few half-doses of Benadryl during these times and that does seem to have stopped the sneezing spells and her eyes are not so bloodshot. No more seizures since I started doing that, either.

She is doing very well and loves this dog park. Usually, she is out there alone but it is big enough that she can run and run and run. Sometimes, this is the best medicine for her. It would be nice if there was grass but thank goodness there is no mud.

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Budd

A Bump in the Road..

Katie has had 2 seizures in less than 3 weeks. The first was at 68 days then 2 weeks later, she had another. Poor little girl. These just completely exhaust her but once she falls asleep it stops and when she wakes up, she is just fine, again.

Her awareness of what she needs to do is getting much better. She realizes that she must stay still as possible. If she is in my lap or next to me, she usually pushes up against me and tries to lay her head on me somewhere to stop her head bobbing.

Otherwise, she is well.  It turns out that since we gave her the Comfortis in May she has not had any fleas. We only gave her the one so I doubt that it has controlled them this long. But who knows?  Her metabolism is not normal.

Whatever the reason, it has been nice to not have to keep treating her for fleas monthly.

She is a love and a joy.

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Life’s a warm lap..

 

Katie is doing very well. She is on day 65 since her last seizure.

She is very much at home wherever we are and has handled the changes of campgrounds and environments with enthusiastic indifference.

What a really great Gal she is!

She was up to 35 pounds last year but has now trimmed down to just under 30lbs which seems to be pretty close to her ideal weight. My back can sure tell the difference.

 

 

She is still free feeding on Canidae Senior diet dog food but since she has taken to snacking on Sam’s Yams Bichon fries treats and powdered rawhide chews her overall trimness and attitude have been very stable.

The yam treats are crinkle cut like french fries so they are easy to break up into smaller treat sizes as needed. Also makes a bag last a lot longer.  We just keep them in a ziplock in the handiest pantry shelf.

 

What a delightful companion to have along in our lives.

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Budd

Katie is alive and well

She has a happy life, keeps our lives structured and returns to us all the love and contact she gets.

Of course, once a seizure dog always a seizure dog but they have stabilized and on Zonisamide they seem to run about once every 30 – 60 days. Longer spans in the summer, shorter over winter. We still don’t have a clue why that is but we certainly speculate about it a lot.

She had one this morning that lasted 2 1/2 hours which was really unusual since she had just had one  9 days ago. The previous one to that was 65 days before.

Her weight stabilized at 34 lbs which she has weighed for over 2 years so it must be her playing weight.  The older I get the heavier that seems to be when I have to pick her up or carry her.  It’s not a gym workout but it can strain muscles and leave them sore for a day or two.

As an RV companion, there are no complaints. She does not shed nor bark much (unless she thinks it is play time… which can get annoying). She does not smell like a dog (unless she has been out in the hot sun for a long time).

Her favorite treat is a rawhide chip (not real rawhide but the pulverized and reformed stuff).  Second to that and her usual reward for doing some exceptional (like taking care of business, going into her crate or generally being too cute) are Bichon Fries. These are dried sweet potatoes cut into crinkle fries. There are other brands but these are nice because the crinkle cut makes it much easier to break them into smaller pieces to better match the size of the kudo (and make them last longer.)

 

 

Happy Mother’s day!