@amymeme by expensive and cheap I mean prednisone is more expensive at like $17 while prednisolone is cheap at like $8. lol. I am getting ripped off a bit on the insulin I give kenzi, or at least I thought I was until I saw what Costco raised their prices to. Suddenly the $44/vial for Vesulen didn't look so bad. Going to work on making the swap to the much cheaper $24/vial Novalin N hopefully. Vet says they've had a harder time getting dogs to regulate on Novalin though so I need to be used to home testing before doing that.

I will attest to the tasting nasty part. Prednisone and Tramadol both taste horrible. Keno, a dog with lab in his genetics, tried to starve himself when we first went on all his meds because the taste was so awful I couldn't hide it well enough in his food. I was hiding it in cream cheese and still struggling sometimes. As for side effects, the only I've had to deal with has been weight gain in kye. Makes him "puffy". and the increased drinking and eating urges. I haven't had any behavioral issues barring just the initial transition of being more hungry than normal. Cases of increased heart rate I've had have come from the weight gain and not the meds directly. I don't know if I would consider it long-term ever again for a dog barring anyway to avoid it, but for short-term ease for dogs on their way out it has bought us time we wouldn't have had otherwise.

I don't have one of those beds but I'm pretty sure somewhere on the site someone has brought these up before but this was the only thread I could find on it and it's not the one I was thinking of. I thought someone here had made one out of pvc pipe one time.

https://www.itsahuskything.com/t6458-coolaroo-elevated-dog-bed-vs-kuranda-dog-bed?highlight=elevated

I can't get any of mine to sleep on the bed that I have that's supposed to be good for their back and hips. All the kennels seem to use these style of beds now. Throw an old blanket on them and they seem to take to them decently.

I just bought the Amazon basics version of the elevated bed for about $25. I bought 2 mediums and they seem pretty well built. I'm not sure how big Sasha is but Nikita is around 44-50 pounds to give you an idea of size.





They're still new (had for maybe a week) so the dogs will investigate and sit on them if I have treats but haven't chosen to sit on them on their own.

@cheywhite that's exactly what I was looking for and the pictures help a lot!!

Sasha's apparent pain level varies from day to day (hour to hour?) and I'm looking for something that might be a bit more comfortable for her.  Sahsa's a bit overweight at about 55 pounds and she doesn't sprawl a lot when she lays down so this should work ... thanks muchly!!!

@twisterII I was surprised when a search only showed up that one topic. I wasn't looking for a "you get what you pay for" I was looking for some idea about whether they'll even use them or not and some idea of what the sizes really are.

That Amazon basic looks like it's worth the minimal cost to see ... now to see if she'll use it or if one of the others do (Avalanche would hang off on both ends but that's never stopped him from getting comfortable!)

I'm glad I could help! I hope it works for Sasha.

Well, after setting for four days just up the road from me (in Odessa, TX) we finally got the bed.  Put it together and realized that I was either going to have the bed in the middle of the floor or I was going to have to re-arrange some furniture.  So, my couch - that did set against an outside wall, is now in the middle of the floor with my liquor cabinet behind it, with some bookshelves on the interior wall beyond that.  Her bed sets in the corner of those two walls - which is where she's often slept.

Introduced her to the bed, she got on it and promptly walked off - figures, but then it's new.

Of course with the rearranging they're wandering around like it's all new .... oh well, they'll adapt!

ETA: That cold front that was up in Colorado yesterday went through here last night - I'm sitting here shivering at 58°, at least the precipitation was wet not solid (rain not snow/ice.) I'm not sure how much rain we really got but it was nice to get any at all. We had a great light show last night as I was going to bed and, I think, we had two nice showers overnight - at least the ground is wet enough I'm not getting out today, too muddy!!

Hope you all are doing well and (Colorado) don't worry, we'll warm up some before the real winter weather sets in!

Seriously al right now i hate you. Its 22 out we got 3 feet of snow and lost power yesterday. No power means no heat or water. And no eta on when we will have power.

Oh but the mountains in Colorado are so nice, great view either way.  Pretty snow but I'm glad it's not here - as, I bet, you're wishing it (or you) were somewhere else.

Talk about a freaky year ... hotter than blazes for most of the summer and then it got 'cool.'  Looking at the forecast for Denver - they'll be back in the 80's later this week / next week.  Look out for flooding ...

Since you're up there, you might enjoy this.  Back when I was in my, probably, very early 30's (this would be mid 70's?) after I'd gotten out of service, I took a trip from the DC area to visit a military friend who was stationed at Colorado Springs.  Late spring and it was a nice day so while his father was at work, the eldest boy and I decided to climb the mountain behind their house.  Fairly easy hike ... then we hit the road that ran around the base of the mountain and were greeted by some MP's who wanted to know what we were doing.  Seems as if we were climbing the back side of Cheyenne Mountain ... oops!!
I'd ridden over on a motor cycle and the night before I was going to head back, of course, they got about 6" of snow, warmed up nicely but my early morning start was delayed till mid afternoon.

Really insane monday was 83 then yesterday it only hit 50 and snowed all day. I actually like the snow but i like my heater running. Currently 48 degrees INSIDE my house.

Al, does she have a blanket or something she likes to lay on that would mask the new smell with something more familiar? At least for a few days until she's used to it. Even a towel would do.

It's been a mild few days here. It's actually starting to warm back up and last I checked, that cold front was gonna skip us and it was gonna be in the 90s again. I'd love to see some snow this winter. Maybe not right this minute but when it's actually supposed to be snow possible weather here.

Lostmaniac wrote:

Seriously al right now i hate you. Its 22 out we got 3 feet of snow and lost power yesterday. No power means no heat or water. And no eta on when we will have power.

I'm sitting here with my mouth hanging open. Flabbergasted. Hope you get some heat, soon soon soon. Just stacked wood last Friday and have been seriously lame until today. So much so, was working up to discuss ductless mini splits with husband.

Sigh. Maybe lame for a few days isn't so bad

We just got power back, watching the news we set all sorts of records. Im shocked i got the new jeep out of the driveway. Most of my aspens look like weeping willows. So whats really really funny is we knew it was coming and still the hunters went out. And now alot of them are stuck because of trees on the road.

So i looked at ductless systems and ran into an issue with bottom temps. Would work for ac but its too cold for the mini systems.cost wise they are pretty reasonable when i was comparing them with rinnai heaters. Our rinnai heats the whole house really well. It has a bunch of add ons like wifi controls that i didn't get but it does the job

Just looked the rinnai up. They seem to be program be propane? Propane out get is stinking expensive. Done of the new mini-splits are good down to 18° below. We rarely have temps that low, lady winter was an overnight of minus 11. Mostly our worst temps are into the single digits and teens several times a month January parts of February. December and March overnights occasionally mix teens, frequently low 20s. Daytime, usually a week of single digits, low teens in January/February with frequent temps high 20s, low 30s. And for October thru December and March thru May, the mini splits would be perfect. And. Our electric rate is only .10 kwh. Thanks to deregulation and voice your choice for supply. Supply is now billed separately from delivery. Delivery is fixed provider but you can choose your supplier. Also cost fixed or variable rate. My son gets variable rate and probably pays a bit less than we do in average over our fixed rate. But hubby more comfortable knowing our rate is locked in for 2 years with no surprises.

I'm still aghast. THREE feet of snow in early September

Rinnai does propane and natural gas. Our electric is expensive. So we run alot off propane. Handles -30 much better then electric.

Snow up here in September is normal 3 feet of snow in September is historic

Damn dog, Sasha, has a better clock than I do!  17:00 she's prowling around by my feet - and 17:00 is the earliest they get fed, normally more toward 18:00. They get "treats" at about 22:00 and Sasha's wandering around whining that it's getting later; it's odd that a food conscious as she is, she won't harass me about breakfast ... I've commented before, her whining is enough to drive me nuts - she leaves me with the problem of figuring out what the problem is. "Oh, your water bowl is empty." "Oh, you want out." "Oh. Sky's picking on you, sorry ..."

Backing up a bit:  She gets fed twice a day and depending on how she's moving may get an aspirin in the AM and if it's really bad, may get another in the PM.  I've stopped giving them to her "on schedule" since I've seen her browsing on what little grass I have outside (desert, remember) and now give them to her "on need."  Seems to work a lot better.  She's still doing okay getting around though there are times when she'll step over / on something and her back legs give out ... but she gets up and keeps on trucking on.

The bed has turned into a joke, all three dogs have slept on the tile in the corner where the bad is and all three refuse to even look at it ... they don't try to move it so they can get tot he tile, they just ignore that corner now.  Yep, I've tried using different blankets - Sasha stands at the door to her crate and whimpers at me "Dad! Someone stole my blanky!" Sky was a little more inventive, she grabbed hers and took it back to her crate!  (( Did someone say "Stupid dogs!"?? ))

Weather here is back to summer, it's been in the 90's during the day but it's also been cooling off at night.  I've turned the heater on a time or two to take the chill off in the early morning (before 09:00) because it's been in the 50's a couple of times.  Wish we could get some of that rain they're getting over in Louisiana, we've had a short year - something like 1.5 inches out of our normal 10-12.  Watching my water tanks ... pray for rain!!!!

Ami and Zev have a more reliable clock than the atomic clock! They let me sleep on the morning but dinner?!!!? And then their 9PM whipped cream taste followed by bones?!!? I frequently take a nap in the evening and they are a highly reliable alarm clock

As for blankets/beds? Nah. Perfect the slate floor. They do use carpet pieces I picked up at Walmart, they're about 18x30". But that is sorry of more to mark where I want them to park then for a bed. As for beds. Makes a nice chew toy

So the board at rainbow says pray for snow. The rio grande is only about knee deep and normally the mountains have snow on top this time of year. Crazy drought and no monsoon this year.

Al, ill add you wanting rain in my prayers for snow

We've been needing rain here too. Skies seemed to shut off around the 1st of August. Had been doing good up until then. Trees are losing leaves before they get the chance to turn. What could have been a pretty fall leaf viewing season is missing out quickly.

I have found that a B12 supplement has helped with Kenzi's rear end weakness.

Some days I just have to laugh.  It was cold - well, okay, cold for me - so I lay down to take a nap.  Have had the propane heater on low yesterday and today, I don't think we broke 60 today and didn't get out of the 30's yesterday.
Anyway I woke up to a strong smell of smoke - brought me right awake! - looked around and didn't see anything and then realized the smoke had an odd smell to it - then Sasha walked past.  Seems as if she lost a little of the tip of her tail to the fire.  Needless to say, she's walking around with her tail politely 'tucked under'.

Aargh. Stupid dogs. Glad it was nothing more than the top of her tail! My younger son did a similar thing when he was in middle school. He would get up in the morning and either sit in the office chair opposite the wood stove and put his feet on the the little shelf under the door of the stove or he would stand with his back to the stove.

He has scorched wool socks and melted his polypropylene long johns. Not a particularly spectacular learning curve

We had a dog or cat knock over a heater in the middle of the night and woke up to the camper carpet on fire loke 6 years ago. Glad that sasha is ok.

Spider learned the hard way about the stove and pans. She didnt always have a pink nose. It was all black before she tried to steal cooking bacon.

Lostmaniac wrote:

Spider learned the hard way about the stove and pans. She didnt always have a pink nose. It was all black before she tried to steal cooking bacon.

Lostmaniac wrote:

We had a dog or cat knock over a heater in the middle of the night and woke up to the camper carpet on fire like 6 years ago. Glad that Sasha is ok.

Spider learned the hard way about the stove and pans. She didn't always have a pink nose. It was all black before she tried to steal cooking bacon.

As I was getting ready to add a note here - probably a major tome before I get done - was reviewing the previous few posts and realized I didn't see this or remember it to comment on.  
Thanks @lostmaniac Sasha is fine; it's getting weird, somedays she goes out and irritates the hell out of Sky and somedays she goes out with a "Leave me alone!" attitude.  
A dog stealing cooking bacon - bet that didn't happen more than once!  Sorry Spider, but I bet that hurt, but look at the bright side, you can always use the bacon fat to "cool the burn".  << okay, slap me! >>

Since just before Thanksgiving I've tried to:

• (Tuesday before Thanksgiving) Give myself food poisoning - messed up a perfectly good meal since: 1) I didn't feel like eating and 2) couldn't get up nerve enough to leave the house, I spent something like 36 hours wandering between the bed and the throne. Recovered ...
  
• (Monday the 7th) Convince myself that what I had wasn't appendicitis.  It wasn't but I finally called EMS just to make sure. Our 25 bed 'hospital' has 16 Covid-19 beds and 7 non-Covid beds (the other two <????>) and I really wasn't interested in spending any time in the hospital anyway.  I'd made breakfast, Canadian Bacon, eggs, toast, all in a pan I keep just to cook such in and apparently there were some particles left over that were abrasive enough that they scratched the epithelium of my lower intestine and, to phrase it mildly, it hurt like bloody hell. Recovered ...
  
• (Wednesday) Walked into the back bedroom - where the kittens are (more on them shortly), turned as I walked into the room and tripped over a folding chair that I use outside when the weathers warm and the winds not blowing; face planted myself with great flair, if I do say so myself.  I fell partially onto a stack of stuff, hitting it mostly with my left side as I went down - but still managed to catch myself so I didn't really 'face plant', just damn close. Wednesday, I'd have sworn I cracked a rib; Thursday it hurt; today, not so much but I do have a nice green / yellow / purple / blue bruise!  It's making sleeping interesting since I mostly seem to sleep on my left side - but either haven't for the past couple of nights or have woke up enough to 'adjust'
  

I think I commented a couple / few months back that I'd lost the two cats I had had since kittens - within 24 hours of each other. I've no idea why they just up and died but they did.  I use no poisons in or around the house and cleaning supplies are all secured where they can't get into them.
The friend who gave me the two of them came back and gave me three of the cutest yellow tigers - who are all completely wild!
After he first brought them over, I kept them in the back bathroom which has a gate to keep Sasha out of the cat food, but added a cardboard backer to the gate.  Seems as it wasn't too much more than a week before they were jumping the cardboard to get out, so I removed the cardboard so they have the run of the back part of the house.  
If I walk into the back room, without tripping, I hear this "whoosh" as three yellow streaks disappear!  There's one who'll set on the bedside table and watch me until I get to close then (s)he's gone.  I keep hoping that if I keep feeding them eventually they'll lighten up ... but then kittens are my rodent control not really pets.
I've been amused as they get braver and wander through the gate into the main part of the house.  At first Avalanche would pounce toward them and they'd run back to safety; lately I hear then moving around the kitchen and don't seem too bothered by the dogs - oh, yeh they leave when the dogs come in but isn't with the vigor that it was - if I walk into the kitchen, they're gone!
I do swear though that there were times I didn't know how many kittens I had; I'd look in the bathroom and see one, maybe locate a second - and leave wondering about the third; sometimes I'd look in and see one ... hmmm.  Finally decided they were getting out and around before I knew about it.  

Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times" yeh, well, it doesn't always have to be this interesting, thank you.

Ugh, Al. Be careful!!! At our age things can go south in a hurry!!!! Glad you are ok. Ironically, I am also a dedicated side sleeper but haven't been able to sleep on my side since last winter. Just three days ago, suddenly it's ok. Weird thing was, it was my left side hip and but that had been a total pain since last winter but it didn't matter what size I tried to sleep on, right or left, aggravated my left side and induced never pain in my left leg.

No more kitties here. Can't have them in the house with Wayne's allergies.

Stay healthy!

amymeme wrote:

Stay healthy!

Oh hell, I'm healthy! At least as well as can be expected for an almost 74 year old who's smoked for most of my life ( used to say it was my to a slow suicide but it's taking way too long!! ) I've had more than one doctor half my age say he wished he had the blood pressure I have, somewhere around 125 / 70ish, generally. The routine normally goes something like this:
"Are you taking any medication?" ... "No"
"Are you eating right?" ... "Well, mostly I eat what I want when I get hungry"
"Exercise much?" ... "Nowhere near what I should"
"Been gaining or losing any weight?" ... "Nope, mostly stay within a few pounds of 185"
"Want to change jobs?" ... "Nope I'm retired and wouldn't go back to work now even if I could find someone to hire me"
"Oh, god, you're disgusting ..."
(( I know this doctor well, so I'm not offended by his questions or comments ... until the time he left this clinic, we got along well ))

But that's why getting sick and being down for more than a day or two is so frustrating to me.

Fröhliches Hanukkah, aber ich bin spät ...

Well, the old year is - VERY Thankfully - GONE!!! I have no idea what 2021 is going to be but I'm hoping for better than 2020.

Almost a month after I took a nosedive in the back bedroom and my ribs are pretty much "all together" every once in a while I'll bend just wrong and pull it/them but for the most part I'm good.

I had to laugh at Sasha, she went out this afternoon and went wandering and came back limping (right front paw)! Couldn't make it up the stairs so I started to walk her up the ramp - she'll go up it if I'm there, but not on her own - got part way up and tried to lift her foot to see if I could see why she was limping - she growled at me and not being a fool when she growls, I leave her alone (she's bitten me 4 - 5 times, always with warnings that I ignore ... FOOL!!)

We got in the house and she wandered around very tenderly and eventually came over and looked up at me ... "Dad, it hurts!" I got down on the floor with her and lifted her foot and found a mesquite thorn that should have come close to going all the way through her paw (1 - 1½" long! ), no wonder it hurt! She let me pull it out, no qualms, no growls just a good jerk when I pulled it out. (( No good way to pull them out, you grab hold and jerk - slow is painful, very painful!! ))

I don't think I've mentioned but after my last cats died I wasn't going to get any more but a friends cat had kittens - so I now have three "orange tabbies" wrecking havoc all through the house. They've gotten bold enough that they're in the living area now - run back through the gate when they feel threatened - but they're not big enough to take a really offensive stance but they try. Dogs aren't too scared yet, Sasha will go node to nose with them - but then she's been good with cats. Avalanche wants to play so he "pounces" toward them, which, of course, sends them scurrying. I'll be glad when they're big enough and the weather is good enough that they can go out!!