Jack didn't touch his breakfast this morning, and is acting kinda subdued. Not. Good.
I gave him his last Percortin injection 11 days ago on Sept 22. More to come.....
Jack
Jack Sparrowe, trail companion Jan 2012
Friday, October 3, 2014
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Electrolytes tested, 8/25/2014
It's been over a year since we tested Jack's electrolytes, so I brought him in for the blood sample the morning he was due for his DOCP injection. He's still getting 2cc's of Percortin V every 28 days.
Results: Na= 146, .5 under the midpoint of the range. K= 4.6, .5 over the midpoint of the range.
The wisdom on Percortin is: Give DOCP shot when K values are SLIGHTLY HIGHER than midpoint, Sodium slightly LOWER than midpoint. Don't give DOCP with K below midpoint.
In other words, this is ideal management of electrolytes.
Jack is very, very stable...at least in that regard!
Even after that, today he barfed his breakfast on the way back from our climb up the ridge. No shaking, but he spent much of the morning in his crate. At noon, we went outside, had a chewie, a brush and I shaved his face. Seems perfectly normal...
Dogs barf. But with Addisons dogs, everything puts you on high alert, even when the science says everything is perfect.
It's been over a year since we tested Jack's electrolytes, so I brought him in for the blood sample the morning he was due for his DOCP injection. He's still getting 2cc's of Percortin V every 28 days.
Results: Na= 146, .5 under the midpoint of the range. K= 4.6, .5 over the midpoint of the range.
The wisdom on Percortin is: Give DOCP shot when K values are SLIGHTLY HIGHER than midpoint, Sodium slightly LOWER than midpoint. Don't give DOCP with K below midpoint.
In other words, this is ideal management of electrolytes.
Jack is very, very stable...at least in that regard!
Even after that, today he barfed his breakfast on the way back from our climb up the ridge. No shaking, but he spent much of the morning in his crate. At noon, we went outside, had a chewie, a brush and I shaved his face. Seems perfectly normal...
Dogs barf. But with Addisons dogs, everything puts you on high alert, even when the science says everything is perfect.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
I haven't updated this blog for several months. There hasn't been anything of medical interest for the Addison's interested, Jack's health has been excellent.
Jack's starting to act a little like a dog, to my great delight. We were out at Lake Chabot with the Oodles of Poodles crowd, which included a number of dogs Jack didn't know. Jack is slow to trust new dogs, generally.
There were a couple of youngsters, 7 and 11 month old standard poodles on this trip. They habitually ran ahead of the group, running back and forth between their owners and point. Sometimes they'd engage Jack with a sniff and a play bow. Jack would bark, lunge and run them off.
Of course, the puppies thought this was a new game.
Pretty soon, they'd run away, and run back to bounce in front of Jack again. Pretty soon, it had us all laughing and Jack running back and forth on the trail with the pups. Jack got comfortable with the whole thing, and might have got the idea that this is what "Play" is all about.
Jack's starting to act a little like a dog, to my great delight. We were out at Lake Chabot with the Oodles of Poodles crowd, which included a number of dogs Jack didn't know. Jack is slow to trust new dogs, generally.
There were a couple of youngsters, 7 and 11 month old standard poodles on this trip. They habitually ran ahead of the group, running back and forth between their owners and point. Sometimes they'd engage Jack with a sniff and a play bow. Jack would bark, lunge and run them off.
Of course, the puppies thought this was a new game.
Pretty soon, they'd run away, and run back to bounce in front of Jack again. Pretty soon, it had us all laughing and Jack running back and forth on the trail with the pups. Jack got comfortable with the whole thing, and might have got the idea that this is what "Play" is all about.
Lake view...
A couple of other adventures we've been on were trips to the beach in Albany, and the "Albany Bulb", once a dump for demolished construction waste and recently a homeless encampment known for it's um.. artistic side.
And of course, Mike and Martha's Dunsmuir Ridge Temple to the Universe...
We went 'swimming' in Lake DelValle, but Maya did most of the swimming...
and talked about it a lot....
Monday, December 9, 2013
We had a great little hike this weekend with Poodles At Play up above Tilden Park, in Berkeley. I need to explore around the Grizzly Peak Road area a little more for some hiking.
This area above Tilden boasts views from Antioch across Marin, Mt. Tam, the Golden Gate, and San Francisco (seen here). It also looks out over Contra Costa on the other side of the ridge, with Mt Diablo, Las Trampas and unknown waves of ridges receding to the East.
This is a WWII gun battery set up for a straight shot at anything coming through the Golden Gate.
This area above Tilden boasts views from Antioch across Marin, Mt. Tam, the Golden Gate, and San Francisco (seen here). It also looks out over Contra Costa on the other side of the ridge, with Mt Diablo, Las Trampas and unknown waves of ridges receding to the East.
This is a WWII gun battery set up for a straight shot at anything coming through the Golden Gate.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Cap'n Jack Gets His Sea Legs
Our friend Mark invited us to go over to San Francisco for a benefit called "Dog Day Afternoon" put on by the retail store Pawtrero. It's a benefit for the Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, and only a few blocks from a berth at South Beach Harbor.
We got the boat in the water in Alameda, got Jack and Mark's girl Maya (THE Mayanator!) secured, and coated (it was pretty chilly starting out, and we blasted across the bay!
We got the boat in the water in Alameda, got Jack and Mark's girl Maya (THE Mayanator!) secured, and coated (it was pretty chilly starting out, and we blasted across the bay!
You'll want to turn up the speakers for this one...
We had breakfast at Red's Java House, and threw some discs on the lawn. Yeah. That lawn. That lawn right there...
We had a great time with all the dogs at the Pawtrero event, but I didn't get any pictures as there was so much going on, I couldn't handle Jack with one hand and the camera with the other!
We had beers at 21st Amendment, where Wendy joined us...
It turned out that I won a $50 gift cert to a local restaurant in the Pawtrero raffle! So we headed back to the event to meet more dogs, hear more music. Things were starting to wind down, so we stuffed our pockets with treats being handed out by various vendors, and headed back to the boat. You can see that Maya is the REAL captain here....
It was a Grand Day Out! I think the only thing a dog likes better than a car ride is a boat ride!
Monday, November 4, 2013
Close Call
October 21 was Jack's regular DOCP injection day, at Day 28.
The day began with Jack being a little tired, or sleepy.. I didn't really take much notice.
We went through our usual morning ritual: We greet each other by the back door with wags and pets, then I open the door, and Jack goes out on the porch. He then turns around and sits down.
I sit down with him, and we have more pets. Often, he'll finish this little ritual by putting his front feet up on my shoulder (body rubs!) and he'll kiss me on the nose, spin around and run around the corner to do his usual morning ablutions.
As usual I got his breakfast at this point, probably about 5:00am.
I left him out there with his breakfast and went to the garage to practice guitar a bit.
Soon, Sue Ann came down and told me that Jack hadn't touched his breakfast!
He was up in his crate, and we knew this was a sign of an impending crash.
I gave him his DOCP injection immediately, and in a couple of hours, he was right back to normal.
I think we're going to do his electrolytes this month, and see if it tells us anything.
It's odd, because I've missed his injection once by several days, and it didn't seem to make any difference to him.
The day began with Jack being a little tired, or sleepy.. I didn't really take much notice.
We went through our usual morning ritual: We greet each other by the back door with wags and pets, then I open the door, and Jack goes out on the porch. He then turns around and sits down.
I sit down with him, and we have more pets. Often, he'll finish this little ritual by putting his front feet up on my shoulder (body rubs!) and he'll kiss me on the nose, spin around and run around the corner to do his usual morning ablutions.
As usual I got his breakfast at this point, probably about 5:00am.
I left him out there with his breakfast and went to the garage to practice guitar a bit.
Soon, Sue Ann came down and told me that Jack hadn't touched his breakfast!
He was up in his crate, and we knew this was a sign of an impending crash.
I gave him his DOCP injection immediately, and in a couple of hours, he was right back to normal.
I think we're going to do his electrolytes this month, and see if it tells us anything.
It's odd, because I've missed his injection once by several days, and it didn't seem to make any difference to him.
August Back Packing
It's been a while since we posted on this blog, and there's been a lot going on!
First, Jack and I went for a backpacking weekend with our neighbors John and Speedy the weekend of August 23. We see John and Speedy on Dunsmuir Ridge almost every morning we're up there.
Speedy is a rescued pit bull, and John is a fitness fanatic, who realizes the key to a great pit (or just about ANY dog) is them getting enough exercise. So, they go up the hill twice a day on his mountain bike.
Needless to say...John and Speedy are in GREAT shape.
The four of us started at the trailhead for Castle Peak off Highway 80. We climbed to 9000' and change, to the top shoulder of Castle Peak, and across a windy ridge to the North to the shoulder of Basin Peak. You then bushwhack across to the Northwest across another ridge which will show you the trail down to Warren Lake at 7200'. It's probably 7 miles or so, but the elevation gain and loss are brutal.
Warren Lake is really nice, because it's so hard to get to, there are very few people even so close to Hwy 80. The weather was just about perfect: cool. If it had been hot, this would not have been possible.
Jack had a great time, and actually seemed to play with Speedy once we got to the lake and got rested up a little.
Jack, Speedy and I, at the Castle Peak trail
There were a number of fires in the Sierra at the time, including an epic one burning to the south, near Yosemite. You'll see the smoke that almost made us cancel the trip on this shot heading up to Castle Peak
We were all pretty bushed when we finally got to Warren Lake....
But the view was worth it...
Boy were we tired when we got home. After a 4 hour ride in the car, we both just stumbled out into the driveway!
First, Jack and I went for a backpacking weekend with our neighbors John and Speedy the weekend of August 23. We see John and Speedy on Dunsmuir Ridge almost every morning we're up there.
Speedy is a rescued pit bull, and John is a fitness fanatic, who realizes the key to a great pit (or just about ANY dog) is them getting enough exercise. So, they go up the hill twice a day on his mountain bike.
Needless to say...John and Speedy are in GREAT shape.
The four of us started at the trailhead for Castle Peak off Highway 80. We climbed to 9000' and change, to the top shoulder of Castle Peak, and across a windy ridge to the North to the shoulder of Basin Peak. You then bushwhack across to the Northwest across another ridge which will show you the trail down to Warren Lake at 7200'. It's probably 7 miles or so, but the elevation gain and loss are brutal.
Warren Lake is really nice, because it's so hard to get to, there are very few people even so close to Hwy 80. The weather was just about perfect: cool. If it had been hot, this would not have been possible.
Jack had a great time, and actually seemed to play with Speedy once we got to the lake and got rested up a little.
Jack, Speedy and I, at the Castle Peak trail
There were a number of fires in the Sierra at the time, including an epic one burning to the south, near Yosemite. You'll see the smoke that almost made us cancel the trip on this shot heading up to Castle Peak
We were all pretty bushed when we finally got to Warren Lake....
But the view was worth it...
Boy were we tired when we got home. After a 4 hour ride in the car, we both just stumbled out into the driveway!
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