elusivek: (Music Music Music!)
Today started quite well: the weather was amazing, no more rain, the dog walk was fine, everything was ok.

So I started to go on my way to work.

Half way, I see a dog walking in the middle of the street when it was the morning rush hour!
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I tried to approach the dog, and was able to see he wasn't really afraid of people, but he was wary. I tried to reach out to touch him and he jumped off when I made contact.
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So I followed him to see where he was going. I tried to call my Sis for help. She works in a shelter, and while I know for a fact her shelter was full and wouldn't take the dog, I was actually calling for help to either catch it or contact someone for it. No. She just go, "ah, try the municipal kennel"... I'm like, I don't have the time for that, I'm chasing after the dog!
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Whenever the dog tried to run into the street, I sped up my walk and blocked his way to the street, trying to keep him on the pavement. But still he managed to get to the middle of the street a couple times and I was chasing the dog in the middle of the street.

I came to the conclusion he might be partially blind, because as he walked, sometimes there were some very slim or thin barriers for plants and he totally didn't see those and hit his face on it and then he'd jump back.

Meanwhile, with all the gracious help from my Sis (read: none) I decided to contact the lady from a Chinese dog shelter group (knowing very well the shelter I volunteer for is also full and can't take it, besides, they don't have the team to go help catch the dog). This lady just said sorry can't help, go post on Facebook. WTF. Then I remembered about another dog shelter later and I contacted her, and this one contacted the kennel directly and in less than 5 minutes someone came over.

I saw them bring out the nets but it was obvious they wouldn't need that for the dog, so they took the leash-thing (but it looks more brutal than a regular leash) and I decided to not see anymore. Even though it's to help the dog, that I suspect the dog would struggle and I'd hate to see a struggling dog.

By the end of the day, the lady from the shelter that I volunteer at was questioning me like I did something wrong. And some people on Facebook were also asking why I let the Municiple Kennel get the dog and that it's just death row for the dog.

Right this moment I am very upset. If the dog has to die, I'd rather the dog die in the Kennel where at least it's controlled, rather than get hit by a car then slowly wile away. So I am not taking it kindly these judgemental questioning of my actions. I don't see people actually coming to bloody help me, and I walked with the dog for a whole hour and a half, late for work, all sweaty, and had to skip lunch to make up for my tardiness today.
elusivek: (peekaboo (Menina))
Sai Lup has started a course of acupuncture just yesterday. We're hoping this would help stimulate development of his muscles. We also have to exercise his legs a few times a day. He seems to enjoy being on his wheelchair, so we are trying to take him out for short outings with more frequency.

Just some videos of him on his trip to the beach. Historically, the Hac Sa Beach ("Black Sand" Beach) had darker sand as compared to the other beach, Cheok Van Beach (... dunno. "Bamboo Bay" Beach maybe). As my mom told me, the Cheok Van Beach that had lighter sand was more of a "colonial" beach, it was the place for the Portuguese, whereas Hac Sa Becah was more for the locals.  Obviously times have changed now. Both beaches have a swimming pool attached. Uncreatively called Cheok Van Pool and Hac Sa Pool as well LOL.

Anyway, nowadays people go to Hac Sa Beach to go for barbecue as there are a couple beachside grilling stores. So. Sai Lup went there for some BBQ chicken, pork, and sausages.



Obviously Sai Lup's wheelchair won't work on the sand but they've now built a nice pedestrian road along the beachline, so Sai Lup had a nice walk up and down it.


Vet Woes

Friday, 8 September 2023 17:44
elusivek: (SMILE (Peppie))
So, over the previous weekend, stuff happened.

During the typhoon Saola last week, the doggies got a very short walk, because of the inclement weather.

The following day, on Saturday morning, there was an incident. I was kneeling on the ground getting Max together for their walkies, when Frankie tried to squeeze between the wall and me. Suddenly he yelped and even had a bout of incontinence and pee-d himself.

He looked totally terrified, so for a moment I thought he had some kidney/bladder/urine track issue. However, thinking back, we did notice that he had been a little more quiet in the previous days recently.

Showed the vet a video of his walking with difficulty, and the vet diagnosed very quickly "It's IVDD, it's genetic, bring him in today, we are open."

Okay?

I've mentioned this a few times before, we trust this vet (Vet 1) completely because he is very knowledgeable. The only thing I personally would have a less-than-positive comment about him is, when we get overly friendly, he starts to get careless in aftercare.

So he diagnosed the dog with IVDD without any scans or X-rays, which, fair enough, if you are experienced enough to recognize that by sight, more power to you, man.

So with IVDD the treatment plan was to have laser treatment (daily to start with, then can set a regular schedules of 2-3 times per week), painkillers for the first week, and cartophren shots for life. His own nurses had commented that with IVDD it would be nice to pair the treatment with acupuncture. So, I contacted an acupuncture vet.

Went to the first consult yesterday. Maybe that doctor (Vet 2) is less experienced, maybe it was a money-grabbing opportunity, maybe it was a clinic SOP, but they asked to make an X-ray of the dog. Who am I to say no? So I okayed that.

So she saw an obvious less-space between his L3 and L4, so that's why he had that pain last week. Then on the upper body part she mentioned there looked to be some genetic deformity on 8 (but I did search online but neither C nor T would go up to 7-8, so I'm not sure which part she was on about). She also mentioned some degradation on his hips. And an enlarged heart, but the heartbeat's fine. Nothing so serious that he needs to be on medication, but she suggests to be on some supplements.

So today (just now) when Frankie went to the original vet (Vet 1) again for the laser treatment, I just mentioned to the vet about the acupuncture visit and the treatment plan there. The vet didn't look quite happy, but asked for the X-rays, I said I'll send them to him when they send them to me.

During the laser treatment, one of the nurses (that I vehemently dislike) started chatting and asking what's going on and why I went to another vet and why I didn't do the X-ray with them. I was like hey, your own nurses suggested acupuncture as a supplemental treatment and that vet asked for the X-ray. It's not like I'm jumping ship and changing vets. I'm not even undermining Vet 1's treatment. I'm still going to Vet 1 for the main treatment. I'm just going to Vet 2 for acupuncture. Though It did seem that Vet 1 threw a mini hissy fit upon my telling him of the X-ray and the diagnosis from Vet 2.

For a moment I thought I did do something wrong. But then coming to think of it, nah. It's good if Vet 1 thinks he's in hot water, let him. Maybe this way he'll take more care with Frankie's and Max's future treatments. With all that fiasco with Menina last month. Honestly I'm not being sour, but even objectively, part of the problem indeed was because of oversight in the aftercare. Let him stew.

WTF what did I just watch LOL. The TV's on and there's some kiddy show and there's this talking dog and he would swing his ears rotating like a helicopter so he flies up to a tree to look at baby blue birds LOL.
elusivek: (Default)
I've finally taken the plunge and ordered a wheelchair for Max

I guess I can only say it's lucky I was sort of into Legos and Nanoblocks and enjoyed a good IKEA puzzle. But since Max is now a bit weak even on the front legs, so he tends to tip his head forward, so I had to take some other unused harness and hoop it over the front, so it sort of catches him at the chest/neck.
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Just need a bit more of getting used to it and with a lot of treats LOL.



I'll probably bring this thing down to the carpenter or mechanic and ask if they'd be willing to saw off the 4 long bars from the wheels. It's part of the design and can set the whole thing higher, but Max won't be able to walk if he's hanging. He's now at a height where if he places his paws firmly on the ground then he can walk, but if he wants to he can just relax and will be hanging.

It's going to be a little better for him this way as his elbows and a part of his leg is starting to have bed sores and such, from always lying down.

For now we hang him up on the wheel for a bit in the morning, then I put him back on the ground for the duration of the day, then when I'm home, I'll put him in the wheelchair again and entice him to walk more. Down again during the human dinner. Then out for walkies (not confident enough to walk outside yet, we tried), back home, back on the wheels for another hour or so.

We'll try to prolong the wheel hours and get him to walk outside with the wheels too. Hope it all works out.

Coming home

Monday, 14 August 2023 14:36
elusivek: (Couch-nap)
We've brought Menina's ashes home. I'm a bit surprised there's so little ashes. Since my Sis works at a shelter she's got more experience seeing that, and she says this private crematorium has ground the ashes/bones a lot more thoroughly than the municipal pet crematorium. Indeed it's very fine. So fine and so little that I think i made a mistake choosing the larger urn. Argh. I have to arrange my shelves a bit and I should put Menina next to the mother Mary figure I have. Right now it's like she's amongst some toys.
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Under the cut was the set up from the company. Under a cut in case some are more sensitive about seeing a corpse. Some of the real flowers have dried out, but I think I can ignore that. They had her surrounded by plenty of toys, snacks, flowers, and covered her with... I think it's a Taoist cloth. I would automatically think Buddhist but apparently many of the cultural practices I thought was Buddhist are actually Taoist. I did not ask too much about that.
Read more... )
I didn't decide on any souvenirs just yet, but there's a key holder ball thing that looks like a snitch, and when you open it up it rolls out to 4 photos. They have kept some of her hair and will embed that hair in one compartment, and then I have to give them 4 photos. I have to get my computer out so that I can start going through the photos. I plan to choose photos from her different stages in life. She used to be very brown. Let's see if I can find something.

Let's not just post about Menina. I have LIVING DOGS and here is Max with his hilarious snout flap. He was being fussy so I was giving him petsies and massage and rubbing his ears.
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The other day while walking Frankie, it started to pour. Since we were almost home, so we just made a mad dash for home. Got him all wrapped up in towel to try to dry him out.
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I went for another soap class and this time it was a hot process soap making. It wasn't the traditional hot process where you cook up the mixture. It relied on chemical reaction theory and it would "soft explode" and you'd get really scared as it rises LOL. Anyway, we did 2 sessions of this "new way" and then most recently we did it the traditional way where you cook it up in a steamer. The traditional way was a lot more calming. We had to stamp on some soaps to submit for the certificate issuing process. Yeah. Another thing is, I did not realize this was a certificate course.
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Menina

Friday, 4 August 2023 09:58
elusivek: (peekaboo (Menina))

In the end we couldn't wait until Sunday.

She was under observation for roughly 24 hours and every time they tried to ween her off the anti-seizure drip she would seize again, so it was simply kinder to let her sleep on. We asked the clinic to wait some 20 minutes so that we could go there for her.

She was already sleeping so she didn't even know we were there in the end. This is what is killing me right now. She didn't know we were there.

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Menina (official name "Lizzie")
a.k.a. Mädchen, Mui Mui 妹妹
6-December-2005 - 3-August-2023


On 6 December 2005, it was the coldest day of the year as yet. I was walking our other dog, Peppie in the evening. While I was waiting for him to do his business, this little small black dog jumped up and sat on my lap, out of nowhere. "Ha? What are you doing here?" I asked her. A man walked past and she jumped off my lap to follow the man. So I thought "that's funny that he'd let his dog jump to any stranger's lap."

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After a while, I was across the street and again waiting for Peppie to do his thing (male dogs, let them sniff) and I turn around and I see this little dog again. "Oh, so that guy isn't your owner?" And as I walked away, she followed me, until crossing a street and she was hesitant to follow me. A bus was approaching, and she was standing in the middle of the street. So I told her to "come on, come with me!" And that's how she came with me home.

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Facebook and other social media were pretty new back then. I did try to make a post to look for an owner, but no bites. Our neighbor then said she thinks she saw some school kids terrorizing this dog. As with all strays that comes across our home, it's their forever home, pronto.

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We got her neutered and had her registered. Her license name is official Lizzie but no one has ever called her that. We just keep calling her "Menina" (girl) and dad calls her Mädchen (also girl) and in Chinese Mui Mui 妹妹 (also girl).

 

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I'm really gutted. As I said to the vet, it should come as no surprise, given her age. But the damn timing of it all it really haunting me. I shouldn't have let her have that eye surgery. But I know it had nothing to do with that.

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Menina will be dearly missed.

elusivek: (Default)
I'm probably not in my best mindset right now.
After all that thing with Menina's eye and the surgery, and the collar/cone and ulcers, Menina is now on the road to dying.

Objectively I know this issue now has nothing to do with the eye. But the timing of it is indeed pretty bad and I cannot divorce from the thought that the surgery and eye ulcer thing somehow exacerbated this issue.

So before the issue with the eye, before the surgery, really, just before the issue with the eye, Menina had a seizure. That was concluded to be because of her low blood sugar levels. But other than that, she had a pretty good full panel blood test result.

Tuesday night overnight she was totally not herself. She was obviously tired but refused to sleep, walking around and around in the apartment. She would hit a wall and then just stand there like a broken robot, and then start screaming because she can't proceed through the wall. Then she seized at around 5am Wednesday morning, and we rushed her to the vet.

She's since had 4 more seizures and now is constantly seizing when off the calming drip, I point blank asked the vet if it would be better to just let her sleep and he agreed.

Again, I know what is rational thinking and what is not, but I can't help but be irrational right this moment. HE PROMISED ME 2 MORE YEARS. I now just can't stop blaming myself, if I said no to removing the tumor 3 weeks ago, then we wouldn't be here today.

I'm now hoping to keep her on the drip at least until Sunday when the parents are back, so at least if we do have to let her go, everyone can see her one last time. I'm visiting her once a day every day, and twice if I can make it during lunch as well, but it's bad. She's just constantly on the calming drip so she doesn't know I'm there.

I know that since she's 20 that the end would come sooner or later but I just can't stop the tears, damn it!
elusivek: (peekaboo (Menina))
The week was eventful.

So over the week, before typhoon and then after, my left wrist was acting up again, up until on Thursday I couldn't even drive easily. So on Friday, after work, I decided to go see the Chinese medicine doctor (also a chiropractor). For some reason I've got an inflamed joint and so he did some suction cups and wrapped my wrist in some medicine paste. It felt heaps better, my wrist was not so stiff.
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Menina had her appointment to remove that tumor or growth in her eyelid today. The vet was very chill, seemed to be not worried about anything. I guess that was somewhat a good sign? So Menina was dropped off, then I went to hunt for some lunch, and figured I might as well go pick up my ferry tickets to Shekou/Shenzhen tomorrow. Yes. I’m doing it. I’m actually nervous and freaking out as this is my first time going to China-other-than-Zhuhai-Gongbei ALONE.

Once I got home, there was nothing really much to do, so I changed out my nails. I now do sticker nails. Sticker base, and then a gel on top so the sticker stays longer.
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Prepared the dogs’ dinner, and received a call from the vet around 4pm saying everything’s done, but that to leave Menina on the drip a little longer, so they asked me to go back around 6. During the phone call I could hear Menina doing her usual complaining. Bark bark bark (because she wants to get out of the enclosure). For an almost 20-year old dog, she has some fire. Keep up with the attitude, my girl, we love you for it!

Went down to the market to do some random shopping and kill time till 6pm and then went to the vet to pick Menina up.
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The growth on the eyelid was cut off, she had a tumor in her neck/throat and that got cut out too. Apparently that was a potential malignant thing as it was attached to an artery or vein (the nurse gave me a diagnosis in Chinese). The vet also decided to drain out a fatty lump node in her chest. He left the fatty lump on her hind leg, it’s not going to affect her much, so I didn’t care too much.

I had a surprise on paying. The nurses do try to look out for us. So Menina was only on a “care plan” (pay an annual fee and throughout the year consultation fee is free of charge, only pay for medication and surgery, and frontline/flea treatment and de-worm pills included). She was not on the dental plan, so I was expecting to pay for the teeth cleaning as well. But the nurses said, since the dental plan includes a full panel blood test, and Menina did a blood test last week, they only charged the difference of the blood test, and the dental plan. So this way, it was like I bought the dental plan for Menina. The final bill came out cheaper than I was imagining, so that’s a win.

In the morning when I drove Menina out, I wrapped my wrist in a support wrap thing. It helped restrict the movement of my wrist so although it was a bit tough to drive, my wrist was feeling good. In the afternoon when I went to pick up Menina, I thought I could forget that thing and it's now the biggest regret I have haha. After the drive now my wrist is starting to feel pulled up and stiff again argh..........

Menina

Saturday, 15 July 2023 13:43
elusivek: (peekaboo (Menina))
hoooo boy, this was an eventful week.
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A couple days ago, I noticed Menina had this constant teary left eye. I was wondering if it was related to her ear that's chronically with an infection or something. Coz you know, the eyes, ears, throat, are all inter-connected. See her very clean and dry right eye but a very wet left eye. We didn't get the usual South African vet, but got one of his newer hires.
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Took her to the vet, and apparently, she's got this tiny tumor thing in her eyelid. We got some eye drops to see if it can be controlled, and were just thinking to go back on a Sunday or something for a follow up check.
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And then yesterday morning, out of the blue, she suffered a seizure episode. Peed my bed, drooled a pool, and all that. It was a real seizure, not the imbalance shaking that Max had before. So we had to take her to the vet again. This time we got the South African guy and he was adamant that we need to take that eyelid tumor out. It's just going to grow larger, make it uncomfortable, and if the cornea is affected, then there would be infection and will have to remove the whole eye.

But we were worried because of her age. This Grandma is almost 20 years old!! The vet was confident that she has at least 2 years more, and she's going to outlive the tumor, meaning, if we let the tumor grow, it's just going to grow larger and then affect her quality of life.

But anyway, because there are many things that can cause the seirzure, we went for a full blood test to rule out anything, as well as to check out how healthy she is for a surgery.

Apparently, Grandma here is low on glucose. We haven't been starving her, but we've cut off all the snacks that Dad used to give her. When Dad gave her snacks, she would skip regular meals, so we cut out all the snacks, and she ate her regular meals and cleaned out the plate. But apparently, we weren't feeding her enough.

"So we have to give her ice cream now?" I joked. "Yeah something like that, feed her more," vet says.

Clean bill of health, red blood cells count a bit low, needs to go on iron pills. White blood cells a bit high, but possibly because of her chronic ear infection.

So. Snacks are back on the menu.

Bido

Monday, 3 July 2023 15:33
elusivek: (all warm and fuzzy <3)
When Bido passed away 2 years ago, we cremated him pretty much immediately and kept his ashes in a plain urn.

Around the same time, I started seeing doll-making videos. I'm not sure what that technique is called, only that it's poking with a needle? It was amazing seeing the artist making an identical doll.

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I managed to track one artist down and her portfolio was really impressive. Her dolls looked really like the animal as shown on the photo.

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In all actuality, I stalked her online shop for a couple of months, to wait and see new pieces. Finally, I decided to take the jump and ask her. She said her waiting period was 2 years, and finally in June she said she's going to work on Bido.

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She does a few kinds of dolls. I really liked that portrait walking out of frames concept, so it's like those... hunter displays of animal heads? But it's 100% doll only. I thought it would look cool to have all our dogs on the wall that way.
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She also does entire "free-standing" dolls, not mounted on a frame or anything. Those were impressive too.

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But I'm not sure if it's because it's other people's dogs, so I don't know every single angle of the other dogs, so I found them really identical.

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However, she has sent me a photo of Bido now, and... well, I can see it's Bido, but there's something not quite right that I can't place my finger on it. It's probably the eyes. Bido had somewhat advanced cataracts and I had asked for the eyes to be made cataract-free, in hopes of seeing Bido a bit younger. But. I don't know. Something just doesn't sit right.

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I'm definitely not going to pull a Karen and say it's not good. But hm.... I still can't point out where the problem is.
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I asked her the other day if she's taking any new orders and what her new prices are (it's been 2 years) and she says she's not taking any more new orders as her waiting time is now until 2026 (!!!!) Wow, that's a lot of orders. I looked around to see other artists and it seems now, 2 years later, the general prices are somewhat double of what I had paid. So, ooooooohhhhhh, good business. But a lot of work too!
elusivek: (peekaboo (Menina))
So one of the minor arguments we have at home with Dad is when he lets the dog free.

He has a habit of letting the dog free in the elevator when coming back home. I've warned him many times, "what if someone presses for the elevator on the way up?" (There are geniuses here who actually want to go down, but press the up arrow for the elevator).

He keeps saying it's no problem, the off chance is so small and off it'll never happen.

Well.

Today, the stars have aligned.

He took the dog out for a while. Then coming back home, he let the dog totally free while still in the elevator coming up. We had some electricians come by this morning to work on the issue we had. They're not done, but it wasn't raining today, so they had to go to another job that needed a non-raining day. As they left, our next door neighbor saw them and opened her door to talk to them.

She's somewhat of a germaphobe and needs people to take off their shoes and be squeaky clean going into her home. So, by this way of thought, dogs are not welcomed.

So with the door opened and the men talking to her inside, wouldn't it be at this moment that the elevator door opens, the dog sees "Wow! A door I'm usually not allowed to go through!" And dashes into said neighbor's apartment? I had to take off my shoes to go in and fetch the dog. He had already explored 2 rooms in those 1.5 seconds.

When I left in the elevator, I heard the beginnings of yet another Mom and Dad fight *rolls eyes*. I don't even want to know. I'll just head off to work.

Random Photos

Tuesday, 11 April 2023 22:56
elusivek: (Bike)
On my daily dog walk with Frankie this morning, he took me (yes, he decides the route) up the Penha Hill and we walked past a fancy rich people housing estate. He wanted to walk into the non-gated part of it. I tried to liaise with him, explaining that it's just a dead end and we'd have to u-turn and walk back all the way up.

Frankie is a dog (frenchie at that) and doesn't understand any sort of negotiation, so, yeah, we walked down that road and had to u-turn back up. The bastard.

Then we went up the Penha Hill and walked the main road down the other way. We walked past this building that only now I noticed had the words SKYLINE on it. Did a quick internet search and found only one reference.
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In the evening I asked Dad and he said it's who-and-who's home and that back then when he drove Father (didn't catch the name) he would drive him to this house (and another one of a local tycoon). He said it's just a residencial house, and that it's huge.

Here's a random old 1976 photo of the Vienna Hilton opening team soon after it opened. A friend of my Dad's on Facebook posted it, Dad isn't tagged but he's an easy find LOL. I just thought I'd archive it myself as well.
1976 Vienna Hilton

When Frankie the Frenchie is bored, he'll find whatever trouble to vex us all. Yesterday morning, a piece of cleaning cloth. And then it's a wrestling match
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Random photos of food... Dad sometimes takes the shortcut and just gets IKEA cinnamon rolls. Though, he doesn't follow the instructions on the packaging. The packaging says to just take out and bake it without defrosting. The rolls come out hard when you do it this way. Dad lets the frozen rolls defrost first, then bakes them, and they get all soft and nice and DELICIOUS. Kitty (yes, the cat's name, seriously) was curious. And the other dish with the beautiful sunny side up is the minchi, famous Macanese dish of minced meat and fried cubed potatoes. Usually served with white rice, but I have to minimize the carbs. But the deep fried cubed potatoes were just toooooooo gooooooooood.

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La-di-da! I started a tag for Frankie on IG. Since he's the one that decides his dog walking route, I sometimes take some photos of him at certain locations and post it on the dogs' IG, sort of introducing Macau as well, LOL.
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On this one he is sitting in front of the A-Ma Temple. Legend has it that when the Portuguese first arrived, they arrived at this "Inner Harbour" and this is where the first conversations of the Portuguese and Chinese was had. The Maritime Museum is also situated here, just across the plaza. Wiki Link because I'm lazy.
elusivek: (SMILE (Peppie))
 I guess I was over-worrying on Saturday when Sai Lup just arrived. After "getting to know" him again, things are going smoother now.

That first night was a pain, he was constantly crying. I even set up my bed on the ground to sleep next to him... but apparently, he was crying BECAUSE I was on the ground next to him, taking up his space (what a princess). I took my temp bed away and he was able to spread out and he shut right up and slept through the night. He's sort of developed a kind of sleeping where is butt is on the bed but his torso and head are on the ground.

Anyway, he's basically pretty chill and gung-ho throughout the day, as long as: we sporadically interact with him, we move him around the apartment every few hours (like, when the humans have dinner, then move him to the dining room, when Dad is watching TV then move him to the living room with Dad, etc. He wants people with him), we maintain the food schedule. When he's whining and crying, it's when he wants the toilet, and he is simply so stubborn he will not pee/poop in the bed. We will either move him out to the verandah/balcony, place a diaper sheet down, then place him on the diaper sheet, this way when he pees it doesn't soak up his fur so much.

We were not at home over lunch yesterday and he scooted himself OFF the dog bed (with diaper sheet) and peed all over the floor in the living room. So now we know. If we are going out for any length of time, it's diaper sheets around the dog bed, not on the dog bed.

I've got a schedule now where I'll massage and move his legs in the morning and evening. I also have a laser therapy gun thingamajig that I use on him now (had it but never remembered... now I have to make myself follow a schedule!!!!).

The physiotherapy place has closed down, so no more professional physio for him. I will spend some time looking up dog physio videos and see what I can do with him. For now I'm doing those... imagine something like when a dog rides a bicycle? So I move his back legs in circle slowly. I have to see how to build up his muscles on his upper body.

The head tilt is still there, but it's obvious from his eyes that his balance is better. So, keeping up with his medication and being serious with his food is what we have to focus on.

I've also ordered a pet camera or cctv camera that we will set up and place in the living room, for in the occasion no one is at home then we can check the camera periodically to see how he is. So say, if he's scooted out of the bed then we know to rush back home to clean him up and change up the diaper sheets.
elusivek: (peekaboo (Menina))
So... Sai Lup's back at home.

But this is exactly what I was worried about. Are we just extending his miserable life? He likes to walk - he can't now; he likes to eat - because he can't walk so can't stand up to sh*t, we can't give him food that would make his stool overly liquid, then he'll dirty himself and everything else. He'll cry and whimper if he wants anything (peed sheets, food, hungry, want to turn around, etc). I don't mind about the extra work and money, but I'm honestly concerned about my quality of sleep in the long term if he has any such emergencies over the night.
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The head tilt is going to be semi-permanent. He’s whining non-stop. He wants something but I can’t decipher what. But he has just quiet down now, maybe he's fallen asleep.
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I have the room set up with one dog bed wrapped in diaper sheets, one on the side without. I had this floor-chair thing before that I placed at the extended part of my bed, now I have it on the ground so I can sit next to him. The bed without the diaper sheets is just a transfer bed. When he pees the bed, then I have to scoot him over to the transfer bed, change the diaper sheets as needed, then scoot him back to the bed with the fresh diaper sheets.

For his 6-day stint at the clinic I paid over MOP$30,000 (some USD $3,720). The clinic suggests to start him on acupuncture for the legs, and preferably acupuncture-vets that would do house calls, because taking him out would not be easy. Since he already had his ACL, and he's a tad on the overweight side, he's not gonna be able to walk. And he must go on physio and acupuncture so his legs do not atrophy.

Frankie seems to be traumatized by how Sai Lup is. Frankie would usually come to me in my room but since Sai Lup came back, Frankie hasn't step foot in my room. He actually just sat at the door looking in. I have no baby gate and I always let any and all dogs in my room. No idea why.

I'm going to take the chance that he's quiet now and catch some shut-eye.
elusivek: (peekaboo (Menina))
I'm sorry, I haven't been up for any socializing and catch up.

I'm feeling really poorly about Sai Lup. I guess I got a shock yesterday; I had visited him the day before and he was improving a bit, but then yesterday he looked really bad and was forcefully put to sleep (erm.. the real sleeping kind, not the euth kind)... had a catheter on and had blood in his urine.

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I guess the blood in the urine was simply because of the catheter, and they had to put him to sleep because he was struggling so much that his IV the catheter could have come off. The parents sort of were shocked that I was so depressed yesterday that after my ceramics class, I went home, showered and went straight to bed.

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But the thing was, they were also making it difficult for me. “What do you intend to do? Is it not too expensive?” Well, I don’t know what I want to do. I know that it’s expensive. I want my dog to come home. I also don’t want my dog to suffer unnecessary pain. I don’t want to be the person that condemns my dog to a life of pain just because I don’t want to let him go, and I also don’t want to be the person to just put the dog down because it’s a bit of a extra work and money to maintain him.

With his condition (back legs ACL) and this imbalance in his ear fluids, it’s likely he’s not ever going to be able to walk, and he’s the type of guy who loves to go out. I’m just thinking his quality of life will be severely affected if he can’t walk at all.

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Today I went to visit again and it seems he’s doing better again. Apparently, Dad went to visit him earlier as well and the nurse also said that he can go home soon, they tried to make him walk this morning. The vet’s not in today, but will be tomorrow, so we will go see him tomorrow and find out if indeed Sai Lup can come home.

He's hell of a photogenic dog, seriously!
elusivek: (Default)
Sai Lup is at the vet's. Ugh! I miss him!

Hindsight's 20/20, I understand that, but it doesn't keep me from not feeling guilty.

Sai Lup has an ear infection that has caused an... imbalance of the fluids in his ears... it was such a scary thing to see, him rolling his eyes and his head just waving left and right. And then because he was trying to get himself straight so he struggled, so it was as if he was having a seizure. It was horrible!

The vet decided to have him stay at the clinic... he's been there for 2 nights already. He still can't straighten his head. The vet seems confident that it's an easily treatable matter. He's half-blaming my Sis because when she noticed Sai Lup with his head tilt, she cleaned his ears, and the cleaning liquid actually made the infection worse. It did seemed like it, because his woozy shaking started after she cleaned the ears.

Before we took him to the vet a second time on Sunday night, we came to an agreement if it's something severe and untreatable, then we'd rather him NOT suffering. In a casual chat, the vet also mentioned about Sai Lup's age, but when I brought up the family decision, he said it's not really such a severe thing. He's confident that Sai Lup can come back home.

Okay, we'll trust the vet. This vet is well known to be very expensive. There's a lot of badmouthing about him, people saying he's expensive and no use, but well... BECAUSE he is expensive, people don't want to spend the money at his clinic, but by the time all the other vets can't help their pets, they go to this vet for their "second opinion" or last resort, but he's also just a vet and not a miracle worker, so he can't always save the real critical and severe cases. I understand that. And anyway, Dad likes this guy (both "foreigners that are not-Portuguese in Macau").

I'm feeling somewhat guilty because Sai Lup had been humming and ermming the past few nights, trying to scratch his ear. On Facebook (or maybe it was IG), a video of a lady asking if her dog was giving her signs that the dog had an ear infection (dog was scratching the ear and also humming and ermming). I mean, I was given enough HINTS that my dog was not well, and I did not take the hint.

Okay, get ready to pay an arm and a leg for the dog. Time to go out and collect the debts owed to me.
elusivek: (plane rainbow)
I wrote that subject but now I'm reviewing my photos and I don't really have much to show.... but!

Since my friend gave us her dog's wagon (bless her dog, passed at the ripe old age of 17) I've been meaning to put Sai Lup in it so he can get around looking at stuff. Frankie went to the Food Festival last year, so I figured I'd take Sai Lup this year.

He started rather sad and dejected, perhaps because he prefers to walk... but with his CrCL (same as ACL in humans) it would really be unfeasable for him to walk so far out to the food fair. My friend and her sister gave us a lift and perhaps he was nervous about getting in a foreign car.

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Donki joins the fray. But Donki's generally more expensive so we just skipped them.

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After the first walk around, my friends started to hunt for their dinner in earnest. Since we were standing around in front of food stalls and the smell of food was wafting in the air, I figured I'd get Sai Lup something to snack on. See how he perks up!

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Then my friend had to rearrange her takeout boxes in the shopping bag, and see how Sai Lup is only LOOKING AT THE BOXES! Thinking he is getting something more, LOL.

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And he ended with a happy face before we left LOL.

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I'm not really eager for the food fair as I think the food is generally overpriced and there's really no water source in those stalls, and no water drainage so... i kind of get the impression that it's not the most hygienic of events, but one of our previous dogs, Peppie, he loved people watching at the food fair because he got food bites while Dad used to go for a beer. Frankie went last year, and since we have a wagon now, I thought Sai Lup would appreciate as he's half a foodie. But yeah.

The only thing is after this photo, I left on food pushing his wagon, let him out somewhere on the grass, he did his business, then I put him back in the wagon, and continued the way home... and then it rained! So I'm recuperating today! There's an art fair thingamajig in another town square but I'm taking it easy today. Might go on the treadmill for a run later.

(no subject)

Wednesday, 19 October 2022 16:31
elusivek: (yay! (Trucey))
The answer is dogs.

The first Shopping Mall in town to allow dogs to go in. Yes, granted, only allowed on a wagon (not allowed to step on the ground indoors) but still... it's a step towards being a pet-friendly place. (Pssssst it’s the side-project)

Yes, Frankie can be cute, but he's a terror on a wagon. He attempted, and actually managed, to jump ship a few times. It was tiring just holding onto him, LOL.

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Sai Lup, on the other hand, since he's having trouble with actual walking, seemed to enjoy his wagon ride. In fact, it felt like he thinks that's a war tank and he's up there barking at others (when they get too near) and he actually enjoys riding around. It's made us consider actually buying a wagon for him.

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We actually had to wait for a wagon (we can loan one with a deposit) because it was a Sunday and they didn't have enough wagons to go around... So for a while I had to carry him everywhere. It's like... if what I've seen on FB is right, it's like the New York subway. As long as the dog isn't on the ground (indoors), then the dog can go on the train, or something like that.

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Autumn is FINALLY here, though I'm not sure for how long we can enjoy this fresh-but-not-bitingly-cold time of the year. It's been very nice for running. Yesterday we had a typhoon day, despite the typhoon being very far away, it brought some rain, and then today, it's chilly. Yay.

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elusivek: (peekaboo (Menina))
Feisty Menina! She is the same dog as in the icon. Her color's fading like a printer running out of ink... she IS 17 years old. But we're happy she has these bouts of craziness at night.
I speak mostly in cantonese, you can hear my Dad commenting in German. My Sis says one word in Portuguese (Cala: shut up) Oh, and yeah, there's feet in flip-flops in the video, I hear some people fear seeing feet.

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Agueda Umbrella
kat (DW: elusivek | LJ: notte0)
❤︎ loves dogs, dark chocolate, and books.
★ doesn’t exactly hate cats.
◆ hates white chocolate.
more?
I read books :-)

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