Ok, looking it up now. WTF is a javelins?!!?

The short version from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Hi. Learn something new everyday

Ever feel like you could reach up and touch the clouds??  I took this when I went up to Terlingua Lodge (the Bad Rabbit cafe for lunch)  That's the bottom of the clouds about 300ft overhead.



Pretty, yes; green (in the desert?) yes but it's not even winter here yet and we've had almost a week of solid cloud cover - I'm really getting tired of it!!! did I say something about solar power?

You are right, it IS really beautiful. I don't know about Texas but I foresee an earlier than average winter here in California. All our seasons this year started way early. Our ocean temps for much of our summer were in the 80's as well, I can see us even getting the El Niño that we somehow missed last year and getting more rain soon. When jbealer visited San Diego back in January, we were already in Spring!

Beautiful.

wow, its so beautiful.

These dogs are going to drive me to drink or worse!!

Sasha was in her normal spot, laying between me and the living room; all of a sudden all *chaos* breaks loose under my chair - Sky and Sasha are having a set to. Took a can of compressed air and sprayed them and they finally broke up; Sky heading for her crate and Sasha bleeding all over the place. Sky managed to get a grip under Sasha's eye and ripped about 1/2 inch (thankfully it wasn't any higher.) So like most cuts on a head she was bleeding like a stuck pig! I got a look at it - she wasn't impressed and growled at me (and I've learned that when she growls it's best to just leave her be.)

I've kept Sky either outside or in her crate today because I don't want her doing any more damage to Sasha (not fair to Sky, I know.) I have no idea what that was about, but it's like the other times they've had a go at each other - seems to be over nothing that I can see. Problem is that neither of them were backing up until I 'sprayed' them.

This is a "Silly Dogs" entry ...

I went into town (Alpine, TX) a few days back. I had some running around to do - part of which was to run Sasha and Avalanche to the vet for their "annuals." One of my stops was at a watchmakers whose office is located off the road but with several cars in his parking lot (okay, to be honest, he shares his office with a used car salesman.) As I got out of the Jeep, Avalanche slipped out on me and I'm having a case of heart failure - I'm too old to go running after him (and we all know how that works anyway, right?) He sniffs a few tires on the cars, looks at me as I'm calling him - "Nope, I just got out of that there Jeep, not getting back in!" About that time a semi comes by on the highway that's maybe 30 feet away from him and he's between it and me. I called him one more time and he looked over his shoulder at the highway and made a beeline back to the Jeep. Silly country dog doesn't know what city traffic is and I guess the noise from the semi scared him. Whatever, it worked!

Sasha! When I brought her home with me from San Antonio both my vet and I figured her to be about 2 years old - making her about 9 now. I really think we were wrong, I think she was closer to 5 than 2. She's gradually becoming an 'Old Dog' (don't we / they all??) Among other signs of age, she's been laying on the floor and the callouses on her elbows are becoming pronounced. Since she normally sleeps in her corner, I took the pad out of her crate (which she doesn't use) and put it in the corner for her. So of course, she's now sleeping on the bare plastic of the crate and the other two are sleeping in "her" corner.

Argh!!! Silly dogs!!!!

Silly human, btw, is really ready for our "winter" to be over with. At least now it's settled down to highs in the 50's and lows in the 30's - for a while we were running between highs of 80's and a day later having an overnight low in the 20's - my body just can't handle that temperature change!!!

Phew - glad Avalanche found discretion to be the better part of valor!

I'm having the opposite thoughts with Z'ev - he's supposed to be 10 in June but the way he hops around, and now wants to play with the big boys, the way he is interested in EVERYTHING that happens makes him seem much younger. Though the slight droopiness to his eyes suggests otherwise.

As for winter. I am DONE. Done, done, done. We've had snow almost straight since early/mid November. Between the early snow and my Mom's death, I did not get my garlic in yet. Right now, sitting, cracked and sprouted in a big box. Not happy about that.

While I'm running around to the Vet with Avalanche today is

Sasha's Got You day!!

It seems unreal, at times, that with all the problems I had with her 'adjusting' she's now a really sweet playful - definitely in her own way - dog.  She's the only one of my pack who I can take out for a walk on the desert and let her off-leash since she normally stay fairly close to me.  Since she's a rescue, we don't know how old she is but my guess is somewhere around 9 and at times she shows her age with arthritis beginning to settle in.

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I'm getting ready (woke up and coffeed) to take Avalanche back to the Vet for a follow up.  I have enough chicken on hand for another few days, but I think it's getting to be time to start adding in some 'normal' food.  

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I'll have to see if I can get some pictures of the Bluebonnets here, they're putting on a show - BIG TIME! - this year.  I've seen more Bluebonnets in more places than I have ever seen in my time out here.

Look forward to Bluebonnet pics.

So... Can we assume Avalanche is on the mend?

Happy gotcha day, Sasha! I was bad and missed Kye's. He's been with us 2 years back on February 3rd.

Sash says "Thank y'all!!!" (well, she's a southern Siberian Husky, y'unnerstand?)

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Follow up today with Avalanche and Mary had a little more time to explain what she saw on the X-rays Tuesday(?) It seems as if he'd gotten into something ()food/??) that:
..Filled him with gas (but he wasn't expelling any)
..Lower GI tract was "loaded"

He's been on rice/chicken and olive oil for three days now with small meals every 4 hours (more or less). He's defecated at last three times over the four days - that's good; he's watered most of the plants around here but the well seems to come up dry after a few too many.

On the follow up Lower GI looked good, he could still afford to "release" some of the feces but nowhere near as bothersome (to us) as the first set.
Stomach looked good and most of the gas had dissipated - not in the house, thankfully! She's still concerned about this "pocket" forward of his stomach (and I need to clarify that that is where it is) she says that it's decreased in size and isn't the "unidentified object" that she thought it might have been - but it's still a question mark, it shouldn't be there.

All told, he's been given a "clean bill of health." After a few more days of chicken and rice I can start to transition him back to his normal food and we see how it goes from there.

(( and needless to say, this old guy is pooped! We went over to the Crisis Center this afternoon and while I was inside, he deposited a nice, gooey, green pile right in the middle of the walkway ... well, at least he's getting rid of some of that stuff he was full of ... but dog!!!!! ))

A new friend moved into the neighborhood - about 12 miles away and needed some help getting things into the house so I and a couple of other friends went over to give him a hand ( rural living, you need help, just ask )

On the way back I just about rear ended the fellow leading us out when they saw this little guy:


Now, if you look around his feet you'll see some blue bonnets ... er, wait, those aren't blue bonnets ...  while these guys are wild, they're not so dumb that they'll not take someone up on an offer of feed and water - and this guy looks like he's right at home.  I asked Steve, the fellow who sent me this picture, why he didn't get a little closer to get a better picture - that just got me a "You've got to be kidding me!" look.

Wish I'd think to take either my camera or my tablet with me, this picture is way too grainy ...

Look at the horns on that thing!!!

Nice longhorn and yeah im in the same kind of area, all you have to do is ask here the most asked thing is who has firewood or a plow we've had way too much snow this year

Wow. HORNS+++ Glad I didn't find that one in the back yard!

If i found it unbranded and untagged in my backyard it would be going to the processor after i put a bullet in its head. No brand/tag its fair game

Lostmaniac wrote:

If i found it unbranded and untagged in my backyard it would be going to the processor after i put a bullet in its head. No brand/tag its fair game

Welllll...this is what I found in the backyard.  Notice - no lethal horns!!!
But, it was my neighbor's bull.  So no freezer...

Yeah we get cows and horses in the yard alot sometimes in the 100s depending on the time of year they dont have to be fenced in here

amymeme wrote:

Look forward to Bluebonnet pics.

So... Can we assume Avalanche is on the mend?

I keep wanting to think / hope so. He was fine on chicken / rice till yesterday, now we're back at square one - I just picked up breakfast and it wasn't digested enough that I couldn't identify the chicken and rice. Gonna call Mary again when she gets back from lunch.

There's a part of me that says put him on a two day fast and then reintroduce food; but there's a part of me that says he hasn't eaten enough that's stayed down to matter.

Went over to the Crisis Center (Community Center) yesterday and he made a deposit that looked really weird. The best description I can give is that it looked like a large, greenish "Hershey's Kiss" and that was it, just one little blob. He was wanting to play with the strange dogs who wandered past with the tourists (Spring Damn Break!)

He's in good spirits, ready to go if I pick up a leash; not to enthused about playing, Sky's "picked on him" a time or two and he'd normally respond but isn't.

I would fast him for 24 hours. Water only. Then slowly introduce boiled chicken and rice in very small quantities. Add pumpkin too.

Maybe avoid too much exercise since he won't have a lot of calories.

Best wishes.

He was on Cerenia (anti-nausea medication) to alleviate the vomiting, which seemed to work reasonably well through Sunday night / Monday morning. When the last dose wore off he was back to vomiting again.

We've done two sets of X-Rays and nothing shows in them. Mary wants him up in Alpine (80 miles) by 8:AM Monday morning for a set of Barium X-Rays. So I'm looking at another US$200-300 depending on how many they need to take.

He's generally feeling good but a little reluctant to "get into" play with Sky; both Sasha and Sky are looking at him like "What's with you?" Sometimes he's stretched out but a lot of the time, even when it's warm, he's curled into a ball like he might have a tummy ache - and with no/little food I can see that as a possibility.

@dvflyer I'm not ignoring your comment but it basically follows what we did - hence the Barium Follow Up. Thanks for the good wishes, I'm at a loss with him!

Odd point is that he seems to be getting enough "juice" that he hasn't lost much or any weight and with the continual vomiting that's really a surprise.

No worries.... I didn't go back to review your past posts about this so I apologize if I comment on something you've already covered.

I googled green poop and vomiting and Pancreatitis came up. Has he been tested for that yet? (I did search for Pancreas and Pancreatitis on the forum and nothing came up so I'm assuming you hadn't posted about that yet).