The Last Furlong

Comments on the race of life.


7 Comments

Oh dear

Whatever day I wrote “Slough of despair” on, when the vet proclaimed Bass, the dog ILL, our lives have turned upside down.

The dog was not just sick, but life threateningly sick. The vet discovered a massive bleed from the huge tumour on his spleen. We had a choice, of removing the spleen and tumour, and if we were lucky, the tumour would test benign. Dogs can live without a spleen if the tumour tests benign. But the kind of cancer that likes spleens, is usually frightfully aggressive and life expectancy after removal, is three to six months.

The vet offered to put him to sleep either immediately or if the tests were cancerous.

We have decided to gamble. Maybe we’ll get lucky. The tumour has been sent for testing. We’ll know in a few days.

So far, Bass has been a model patient since he came out of hospital.

He may not bark, walk, jump, go up or down stairs, get excited, be stressed, and a hundred other things I have forgotten for two weeks.

So far, he has been VERY good boy!

His owners on the other hand are pretty distraught.


5 Comments

Sickness from Ivy

The posts on my blog that have had the most traffic and even appeared on other people’s blogs, are the ones about becoming sick when working with Ivy.

So I am summarising them here – by date order in the hope they will continue to be useful.

Sore throat and ENGLISH Ivy pruning

English Ivy – bit amazing really

English Ivy allergy – burning throat

Am I right or am I wrong – burning throat ivy?

Ivy science – burning throat after pruning English Ivy

Taking down ivy