Wanting to make sure that this is the right time is not an easy decision. Does Shreddy still like going outside? Is he still contentedly purring? My Best Thoughts and Wishes for all three of you.
Our pets
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Hasn't been purring for quite a while. He still wants to go outside and does go, several times a day. He was out in the rain yesterday. He came back to where it wasn't raining and decided he really did want to be out there, even if it was wet.
Dawgluver
Chef Extraordinaire
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I would say as long as Shreddy is not hurting or miserable, just hold off. He is still showing interest and curiosity AND still eating.
monkey was out in tje yard on her leash all morning chasing bugs and going from sun to shade. I brought her in about 1 and never saw her again. I worried she had gotten out again until I found her in her "cave" at the bottom of her play tower fast asleep. play hard, rest hard!
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I'm relieved to read that Monkey wasn't lost.
A friend's cat went missing 31 May. Then a couple of days later, when she opened the door to call the cat, the other cat ran out onto the street and got run over. He died in the 5 minutes it took to drive him to the vet.
A friend's cat went missing 31 May. Then a couple of days later, when she opened the door to call the cat, the other cat ran out onto the street and got run over. He died in the 5 minutes it took to drive him to the vet.
I am so sorry about your friend's cats, Taxy. That is so tragic.I'm relieved to read that Monkey wasn't lost.
A friend's cat went missing 31 May. Then a couple of days later, when she opened the door to call the cat, the other cat ran out onto the street and got run over. He died in the 5 minutes it took to drive him to the vet.
Yes, I was relieved about Monkey too. She seems to be submitting to the fact that if she wants to stay outside she stays on the lead and is just out of reach of the fences. I am happy this seems to be a compromise we can all live with.
Violet actually seems to be the only one with a problem with the new arrangement. She will come and get me and I will think Monkey has tried to escape and she will be happily chasing a butterfly or something. Violet takes her role as big sister a little too seriously sometimes I think.
Mad Cook
Master Chef
Is there room in the DC Animal Hospital for Horse? This morning he was diagnosed with an early stage cataract in his left eye. He's always been a very sensible and level headed boy and in all the years I've known him (17 years and owned him for 14) I have never know him to shy at anything but twice last week he spooked at nothing in places where he goes every day. Decided to call the vet in, as out of character behaviour has to have a cause.
I was really quite relieved that it was a cataract as I had the spectre of brain damage/tumours, etc., at the back of my mind.
The vet needs to know whether it has been a long time coming or if it has developed quickly so he's going to do a progress check in 8 weeks but he ran through the alternatives with me. They ran from do nothing, through to a cataract removal operation at Liverpool University Vet Hospital. I'm tempted to go down the "do nothing" route. He's a very fit 22 year old but I can't see any advantage in putting him through the trauma of an operation with a general anaesthetic. The vet said that even if the cataract developed to a stage where he was blind in that eye he could still have a happy and fulfilled life. As he said, there is a horse doing three-day eventing at Badminton who has only one eye! The only proviso is that Horse mustn't be ridden on the road because of the danger of him shying at something he can't see properly at the side of the road and causing an accident with a motor vehicle. That's no problem as there is plenty of off-road riding around the farm where he lives.
He's not keen on dogs due to a very bad experience when he was young but he'd happily snuggle up with the invalid DC kitties in the chronic cases ward.
I was really quite relieved that it was a cataract as I had the spectre of brain damage/tumours, etc., at the back of my mind.
The vet needs to know whether it has been a long time coming or if it has developed quickly so he's going to do a progress check in 8 weeks but he ran through the alternatives with me. They ran from do nothing, through to a cataract removal operation at Liverpool University Vet Hospital. I'm tempted to go down the "do nothing" route. He's a very fit 22 year old but I can't see any advantage in putting him through the trauma of an operation with a general anaesthetic. The vet said that even if the cataract developed to a stage where he was blind in that eye he could still have a happy and fulfilled life. As he said, there is a horse doing three-day eventing at Badminton who has only one eye! The only proviso is that Horse mustn't be ridden on the road because of the danger of him shying at something he can't see properly at the side of the road and causing an accident with a motor vehicle. That's no problem as there is plenty of off-road riding around the farm where he lives.
He's not keen on dogs due to a very bad experience when he was young but he'd happily snuggle up with the invalid DC kitties in the chronic cases ward.
MC, I'm glad to read that it isn't anything serious. I think you are right that putting him through general anaesthesia at his age might be a bit much and I doubt he enjoys long rides in a horse trailer.
Dawgluver
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Oh Horse! Hope you get your bearings. Several of my previous (elderly) dogs had cataracts and got along just fine, though they weren't ridden. It may be he just needs to get used to it. I don't think I would want to put him through all the rigamarol of surgery either.
Of course we have room for Horse! The kitties will help with snuggles.
What PF said.
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
Horses happen to be my favorite animal. When I worked with the 4-H kids, I always found myself spending more time with the horse kids than say the sewing kids.
For the wild, it is Bison an elephants.
For the wild, it is Bison an elephants.
Mad Cook
Master Chef
Fortunately travelling wouldn't be a problem. He loves going out in the horse box but he'd be disappointed when he arrived at the hospital and there were no hounds. He learned to love the horse box when he found out that it took him to hunt meets. (He didn't hunt foxes. He "hunted" with a drag pack that followed an artificially laid scent.)
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There is definitely room for Horse here. Violet absolutely adores horses. When we go for walks in an area nearby called the "Watershed", there are usually horses along the trails. Violet goes up to them and licks their legs and tries to follow them. She is oblivious to the fact that one well placed hoof would knock her silly.
When TB was working at a youth camp one summer he often took Violet with him. It was a horse camp and while TB worked, Violet would go down to the stables. She never got in the way, but loved just being there with the other animals. She has been to many different camps now and the kids love her as much as she loves the attention.
I bought Monkey new grain free food today and will ease it into her diet. She doesn't need to be grain free but we did figure out that Violet was eating any crumbs that Monkey allowed to fall from her windowsill feeding area. Now, if Vi gets any food she shouldn't react.
When TB was working at a youth camp one summer he often took Violet with him. It was a horse camp and while TB worked, Violet would go down to the stables. She never got in the way, but loved just being there with the other animals. She has been to many different camps now and the kids love her as much as she loves the attention.
I bought Monkey new grain free food today and will ease it into her diet. She doesn't need to be grain free but we did figure out that Violet was eating any crumbs that Monkey allowed to fall from her windowsill feeding area. Now, if Vi gets any food she shouldn't react.
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
He sounds like the typical English horse that we hear so much about on this side of the pond. Even the Queen's family stopped hunting foxes and use the scent trail now. Why give up a perfectly good sport that gives exercise to both man and animal.
Mad Cook
Master Chef
Horse is very wary of dogs he doesn't know and is plain scared of German Shepherds. He was chased and bitten badly by a GSD which was being exercised in one of the fields field a couple of years before I got him. Whenever a dog is brought onto the yard I always take Horse to be introduced as a sort of psychological therapy ("Mum says it's a nice doggy so I needn't be scared" sort of thing but it doesn't work with GSDs). Oddly enough the hounds never bothered him when he was hunting and he let them run under his tummy and round his legs. He even stood still while one of them cocked its leg and "wee'd" on one of his hind legs! (He was shampoo'd when he got home!) I don't think he thought they were dogs.
I hope the grain free feed works
I am sitting here with a wet cat, who wants scritches. Shreddy was out in the rain and had to be encouraged to come back inside.
This is him yesterday, out in the rain. YouTube is taking forever to get rid of the shakiness of the video. It says the editing is in progress and will be ready in a little while. It's been saying that since last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqddMD99JgM
This is him yesterday, out in the rain. YouTube is taking forever to get rid of the shakiness of the video. It says the editing is in progress and will be ready in a little while. It's been saying that since last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqddMD99JgM
Shreddy looks like he is still having a good time.. He is a very beautiful cat!
Mad Cook
Master Chef
Everyone in most of the UK has had to stop hunting foxes and other live quarry with "dogs" (eg foxhounds, stag hounds, beagles, otter hounds, etc.,) since the bans in England and Wales in 2004 and in Scotland in 2002. Northern Ireland and the Irish republic don't have anti-hunting laws so they still have foxhunting.He sounds like the typical English horse that we hear so much about on this side of the pond. Even the Queen's family stopped hunting foxes and use the scent trail now. Why give up a perfectly good sport that gives exercise to both man and animal.
The anti-hunting law is noble in intent but is convoluted in execution. As the Countryside Alliance put it "The Act makes it an offence to hunt a mouse with a dog but not a rat, you can legally hunt a rabbit but not a hare. You can flush a fox to guns with two dogs legally but if you use three it's an offence. You can flush a fox to a bird of prey with as many dogs as you like."
Addie, Horse would be mortally offended to hear himself described as English. He's Irish
He's a breed called the Irish Draught Horse and came from Ireland when he was three. He isn't a heavy horse like a shire or Clydesdale and doesn't have hairy legs. The breed was developed as a farm all-rounder - pulling the plough and taking the farmer's wife to market in the trap in the week, taking the farmer hunting once or twice a week and the family to church on Sunday. They are noted for their intelligence, commonsense and gentleness and are amazing jumpers, which led to their use in the development of the Irish Sports Horse (formerly called the Irish Hunter in less PC days) which is a mixture of ID, Thoroughbred and Connemara pony.Horse walks to heel like a dog, without a lead rope and does "stand and stay" while I walk away to fetch something I've forgotten, and he comes to call in the field. Love him to bits.
Sorry, I can bore for England about my lovely boy.
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