thewayne | Entries tagged with doggies!

Tuesday last week I take Rupert in for a follow-up x-ray and exam. The blood workup is much worse, as we expected - his cancer is getting worse, pretty simple explanation. The x-ray is showing an improvement in his lungs, the antibiotics and steroids at least helped there, but we were fairly confident the cancer did not originate in his lungs - very rare for dogs to have lung cancer.

We expect a two to three day turnaround for the consulting radiologist to review and report back on the x-rays. Thursday at the earliest, should definitely be done by Friday. I stop by Friday and ask for the reports. They take my info - which is already on file - and promise they'll be emailed to me.

Later, I get a text saying that their x-ray machine is down and they can't email the DICAM files to me.

Fine, whatever.

I call Monday and ask them to email me the radiologist report. Information is again given. And again, nothing happens.

Yesterday, I'm sick as a proverbial dog. My immunologist tells me to get tested for flu/covid/strep, I go to urgent care as they can do all three in 15 minutes. All are negative, they're culturing my throat to see what can be learned and I'm on a week's worth of antibiotics pending the result. I was running a 100f fever briefly Monday night and feeling all sorts of crappy.

Today on the way home from work I stop by the vet. And a somewhat annoyed woman comes out of the back with something along the lines of 'We texted you saying that the machine is broken, it's being worked on right now.' I tell them that's fine, does that preclude you from printing out the radiologist report?

THEY. HAD. NOT. SENT. IT. TO. THE. RADIOLOGIST.

NINE FUCKING DAYS HAVE PASSED SINCE THOSE X-RAYS WERE TAKEN. NINE FUCKING DAYS.

AND NOW THE X-RAYS ARE BEING SENT TO THE RADIOLOGIST FOR REVIEW.

That, of course, assumes they can get the machine working!

If I'm lucky, I might have them by Friday. If not, early next week.

We have spent over $1,300 on trying to get Rupert cared for at this place. And we've never been able to get x-rays and radiologist reports promptly sent to us.

They're not going to see another dime from us. There's lots of veterinary clinics in this town, some we've used before with good results. And we've used this one before with good results, they saved Celete's life some 14 or 15 years ago. But we're never going to use them again.

I have been thinking for some time that I really want to make some rice pudding, just haven't gotten around to it. Then Rupert took sick, and I thought that maybe he might like it. So I made a batch.

It was interesting. I put it in his food bowl, and he wasn't interested. I scooped up two fingers worth, held it under his nose, and he lapped it up! THEN he went after what was in the bowl. That the difference was, I have no clue.

The rice pudding is now a regular part of his meals. And Charlie is also getting it, not that he needs the add'l calories. ;-) And on occasion Russet and I get some. Usually right after I finish making it.

Anyway, when I was searching for a recipe, I looked at several and discounted them for one reason or another. This one I settled on initially, and it's pretty darn good. I recommend it, as does Rupert.

Creamy Rice Pudding

Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 40 mins
Total Time: 50 mins
Servings: 4

Ingredients
1 ½ cups cold water (2 cups? See how your first batch does)
¾ cup uncooked white rice
2 cups milk, divided
⅓ cup white sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, beaten
⅔ cup golden raisins (optional)
1 tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1. After gathering all ingredients, pour water into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir in rice. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed, about 20 minutes. You may need to adjust heat to prevent boil-over.
2. Add 1 ½ cups milk, sugar, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until thick and creamy, about 15 minutes.
3. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk, beaten egg, and raisins; cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla until combined.
4. Let cool, but serve warm.  

Wayne Tip: microwave water for step 2 for two minutes before pouring it in the saucepan, it'll come to a boil much faster. You can assemble all the other ingredients while it's heating or while the rice is cooking.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/24059/creamy-rice-pudding/?print

Be careful doubling the recipe if you need to - I would definitely not double it on your first try! I don't think you want 2x the water for cooking the rice, it's too much. Maybe 1.9x or perhaps a little less. And it takes much longer to cook! This recipe takes about an hour to make, and you have to pay attention and do a lot of stirring as cooked rice likes to bubble up/foam and likes to spill over and mess up your cook top if you were to leave it unattended, not to mention the need to stir to keep the rice from sticking to the bottom of your pan. It might take a few attempts before you get your rice cooked past the al dente stage and make it really, really good. It still tastes okay with the rice a little chewy, but much better if it isn't chewy.

Rupert is doing fairly well. He had two x-rays taken last week Wednesday. I finally got a copy of the radiology report yesterday, and it confirmed cancer, with a bit more information. This morning I FINALLY! talked to someone who knew how the x-ray machine's software worked and was able to email me the DICOM files so we could look at them ourselves. While I couldn't duplicate the view last Wednesday that the doctor showed me that showed several spots that appeared to be cancer, the files were useful today when we saw our veterinarian up here on top of the mountain.

The vet said that it is extremely rare for a dog to have lung cancer, and that what appeared on the x-rays is probably metastasis from somewhere else. We're going to extend his steroid regimen and he'll be finishing up the antibiotics early next week. He's happy to go on walks at night and for rides in the car, so we think he has some time in him left. We're, well, I won't say eager, but kind of looking forward to seeing what the radiologist says about the second x-ray, which will be taken Tuesday afternoon along with add'l blood work.

So until things get significantly worse, or there's an abrupt change in his condition, Rupert is still with us.

And we're very happy for that.

Thank you all for your kindness with my last post, I just didn't have the wherewithal to respond to most of the messages. But know they were appreciated.

A few weeks ago, our oldest poodle, Dante, had a stroke.

He was 13 or 14 years old. He was doing okay, but it was obvious he was losing strength, and he was beginning to trap himself behind doors and in corners and couldn't figure out how to get out of them.

Last week Monday we took him to the vet and he crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

Thus we went from a family of three doggies to a family of two doggies.

And that may drop to one soon.

Also a few weeks ago, our youngest, our blue tick hound Rupert, developed a cough. We left him at the vet for most of the day Monday (this week) for observation, the vet suspected it might be a dental abscess that was draining and triggering the cough, he was going to go in for a formal appointment on Friday. His appetite has been a bit off, which could be consistent with an abscess.

Last night Russet took Rupert and Charlie, our other poodle, for a late-night walk. When they got back, Rupert had a coughing bout. And coughed up some blood.

Russet had spotted a small spot of blood on the carpet a couple of weeks ago and thought it might have been something that Dante coughed up, now we think it was more likely to have been produced by Rupert.

This morning Russet calls our vet. She wants Rupert to have a heart x-ray to see if he might have worms. I call two clinics in Alamo as our vet doesn't have a machine, I'm able to get an appointment for this afternoon. I take the dogs by myself as Russet is totally zapped from getting no sleep last night and having to do some pretty terrible phone work this morning in addition to dealing with the vet.

I take Charlie as he'll need testing if Rupert has worms or certain other problems.

X-ray and blood work show no worms, which is good. Charlie has nothing other than his weight taken.

X-ray does show Rupert has cancer.

A couple spots on his heart, spots on his spine, and it's possible that one lobe of his lung is completely occluded.

Images will be sent off to a specialist for further study, Russet will talk to our vet about palliative care.

As far as we can tell, Rupert is in no pain, but he was definitely a little hesitant jumping into the car this afternoon, where even last Monday he just leapt in. He may be feeling it.

We don't consider treatment to be much of an option. He's a large dog, twelve years old, and treatment would not add years and vigor to his life. Personally, having seen first-hand what my dad and others went through with chemo and radiation treatment, with Rupert's cancer having already spread so much I just think it would be cruelty to subject him to it.

So it's likely we'll become a one-dog family in the not distant future, which is going to crush me yet again.

I called Terry, a long-time friend who gave us Rupert about seven years ago. Terry and his wife rescued Rupert when he lived in Omaha. They literally stole him from the garage of a man who kept him chained in a hot, unventilated garage with no water. His wife absolutely loved Rupert, and then a few years ago, quite out of the blue, she passed away in the middle of the night. We kept Rupert for a little while when Terry was relocating to the Phoenix area, he was staying with his sister who had cats. Terry was able to rehome Rupert with his brother who lived on the other side of town. And then his brother died rather unexpectedly. We became Rupert's permanent home at that point. He got along fabulously well with Dante during his initial stay with us, we acquired Charlie while Rupert was with Terry's brother. There was never much friction between our boys.

Terry was saddened, but deserved to know as he has close ties to Rupert and would often come and see him when we brought him to town, and I'll be keeping him informed as we get more information. I'm needing to get a repair done to my car that I'll probably have done in Phoenix, I'll see about moving up the timetable on that as soon as we get the report back from the specialist on the x-rays and give Terry a last visit with Ru.

*sigh*

Thanks to Jon for sharing!

Watch on YouTube

This actually happened last November, I don't know why it's hitting my news feed now.

The plane had problems and crash-landed outside of Milwaukee, sliding across three holes on the golf course, snapping off its wings and spilling 300 gallons of aviation fuel into a marsh. The three people on-board and some of the dogs had minor injuries.

And the dogs started getting adopted out pretty much on the spot. A fund-raiser for the dogs' increased expenses rapidly blew past its $5,000 initial goal and is now sitting at $11,000.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/18/rescue-dog-airplane-crash/

The rescue fund-raiser:
https://www.facebook.com/donate/481066557425511/501833568642687/

A drone saves a man's life in Switzerland by delivering an automatic defibrillator!

71 year old man was shoveling snow when he had a heart attack and went into full cardiac arrest. A doctor just happened to be driving by and saw him collapse. He stops and starts performing CPR, calls to someone else to call the emergency number. Three minutes later, before an ambulance could get there, a drone flies overhead and drops off an AED!

The article from January 6 doesn't go into detail if the man recovered fully, but he certainly got lucky and sounds like his chances were good.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59885656

A dog was rescued by a drone carrying sausages!

The dog slipped her collar and ran off on January 13. She had been stuck out in tidal mud flats for two days and the tide was coming in. The flats were too tricky for people to come in and catch the dog, plus the dog was far too manouverable to be caught. Someone came up with the bright idea of cooking up a bunch of sausages, tying them on a line, then tying them to a bunch of drones!

They flew them near the dog and she started sniffing at them and chasing the drones and they lured her out of the mud flats. However, they still weren't able to catch her! She escaped and remained at large for another couple of days before she was caught on the 17th and reunited with her owner.

The pictures in the article are pretty cool.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/21/world/dog-sausage-drone-rescue-scli-intl-gbr/index.html

Crossposts: https://thewayne.livejournal.com/1247867.html

I was discussing low light photography with

motodraconis and mentioned that I had purchased a pair of iPhone 13 Minis for my wife and I over the holidays. Here is an example that I took with said phone about five minutes ago.

(clicken to embiggen)

The white poodle is the geezer of the family, Dante. He's 12 or 13 years old. Charlie is the black poodle in the middle, and Rupert is the Blue Tick Coon Hound. As you can see, they lead a tough life.

This was taken by the phone's "wide camera": 26mm f1.6 at 1/11th of a second ISO 640, no flash and no lights turned on - completely available light. It's a 12 megapixel image with zero post-processing outside of the camera.

Because of the camera's internal post-processing, that image appears a minimum of 1-2 stops brighter than it actually appears in the bedroom.

I REALLY want to take this phone out and do some night shots and see what it does!

Crossposts: https://thewayne.livejournal.com/1245915.html

As always, clicken to embiggen.

This one is titled "Da Schnoz".

As described in a previous post, Rupert was rescued from a very disturbed past by my friends Terry & Deb. I texted this photo to Terry, the bat rastard has an iPhone X so he can see this photo pretty darn well, he replied "Deb and I used to joke that his body is a life support system for a nose."

Two more under the cut.
( Read more... )
The funniest thing happened the other night. We have two water bowls on a raised stand just outside the kitchen doorway, and if one of them is drinking from the bowl on the right, the doorway is pretty well blocked. The dogs are very close in height to one another. Well, Rupert the hound was taking his time drinking, Charlie was in the kitchen and got impatient, or maybe there was a noise in the house that demanded immediate attention. He ran UNDER Rupert! Rupert looked up and around like "What the heck just happened?!" It was the funniest thing that I've seen the dogs do in ages!