Leica’s Infrequent Pensées

I woke up at 5:30 this morning to Riz milling a bit in the hallway and a never-shiny-yet-somehow-shiny kitchen floor. However, I covered the ground floor in newspaper yesterday. Good job, too.

As I hit the the bottom stair Riz walked as quick as he could to the back door, but couldn’t quite manage to wait until I reached the door. Fortunately he chose a different sheet of paper from the one the night before. I let him out and made soothing noises while he negotiated the steps to the garden then I cleaned up the wet paper, got out the bleach and mopped the kitchen floor.

He still refused food and avoided sitting or lying down. I waited for the veterinary surgery to open, rang and described his condition and they asked me to bring him in. I arranged a pet taxi and down to Purley we went. Kudos to Gina’s Pets-to-Vets for making a Saturday run - they normally don’t.

A young Australian vet I’d never seen before examined Riz. He groaned and whimpered when the vet examined around his stitches and he had a slight fever. The vet decided it was most likely the pain that affected him and gave him an injection of painkiller and one of antibiotic.

The vet sent me home with some “high palatability” food (I think, from the smell, it was essentially a pureed tuna sandwich).

I managed to get Riz to eat first a tablespoon, tentatively, but a couple of hours later he at the rest of the tin’s contents, and two small packets of James Wellbeloved Lamb and Rice. He managed to convince me it was too painful for him to stand up. So I fed him off my fingers — very icky but at least the silly mutt started eating again!

I spent the rest of the afternoon with him in the garden, listening to birds and stroking him frequently. When the sun started to set he decided he had enough of the garden and I helped him up the steps and back into the house, where he slept off the last of the afternoon and woke up, still hungry.

I fed him the last tin of pureed tuna sandwich and a few spoonfuls of another soft food for sensitive tummies I picked up at the pet store, to check to see if liked it. He gulped that too. Good! Tomorrow morning it’ll be brimming with mashed-up meds….

Tags: Rizla
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I booked yesterday and today off. Riz’s vet wanted to have a look around to see if she could work out what was causing Riz to pass blood.

Thursday morning, I walked him up to the nearest veterinary surgery, down in Purley, near the Purley Way playing fields. I signed the release form and left him for the day. The receptionist told me I should ring after 2 p.m. unless the vet rang first.

I rang at 2:30 and spoke to his vet, who performed the surgery. She explained what treatment and what test she performed.

I tried to arrange transport from one of the pet taxi services but no one was available. I rang the vet and asked if he’d be okay to take the bus, the receptionist checked with his vet and told me that was fine. Rizla seemed in a lot of discomfort and couldn’t quite standup on his own so propped himself up against my legs as we waited the long 25 minutes for the bus to arrive. The trip back was fairly gentle and surprisingly quick given the time and a longish route. We sat behind the rear door, thankfully no bouncy-bus effect between the axels!

I spent most the day today next to him. He needs encouragement to standup and sit down again - obviously still in pain. Still he managed to potter around the garden a fair bit. I helped him up the steps to the back door — mostly by giving him several minutes of encouragement and praise as he tentatively put his paw on the first step.

He whimpers when I go too far away. Murray reckons he knows he’s milking it a bit but if it works…and of course I pamper him rotten when he’s ill.

He drinks his water but refuses to eat, while I fret and stroke him gently behind the ears. I worry but general consensus of friends is he’s still feeling queasy after surgery and the pain ain’t exactly an appetite stimulant. Sigh. Still I worry.

If tomorrow morning he still refuses food I’ll see if the vet wants me to bring him back in.

Poor fella. Wish him luck.

Tags: Rizla
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