Sunset

[summer_jackel]

Going beautiful places with my dogs is and I suspect always will be one of my favorite things. I got a lot of happy feedback regarding dogs at the beach pics at Furcon, so here are some from yesterday, a beautiful, quiet sunset on an empty beach.

Pryderi's hips/low back are giving him a lot of trouble, and he is about as bad as Fenris was about 6 months ago. It's painful to watch him age, and I am so very scared of losing him, especially now. Don't even want to imagine being without Pryde. Glucosomine and chondoriatin helps, and at least it isn't dysplasia, but his arthritis and loss of motion in the hips and spine are inevetable with age. He's 12, far younger than I expected this to happen (Fen was 14). But he is a very big dog, and this seems to hit them shockingly fast.

I am trying to cherish every moment I have with him. This trip to the tidepools was the first when he was not at my heels almost the entire time; he stayed on the shore watching me, only coming out into the pools in areas where the rock was particularly flat and easy to get over. I'm glad that he knows he could hurt himself and isn't taking risks. But then, this is the dog who has been backpacking with me regularly for the last 11 years---he knows his limits and his body, and he was always so good at knowing exactly how far he should go on a mountain face or slippery rock.

He seemed content and relaxed on the shore, though. Coba, interestingly enough, has taken the role of being glued to my heel at the tidepools. Maybe Pryde is glad to see somedog keeping an eye on my reckless ass as I attempt to get as close to the waves as I can...









The light made it hard to take decent pics, but the ones that did come out are pretty.


Jez doing her thing, rolling around in the sand.


Uff. Sand. Feels so good. Rotting kelp is also just the fragrance I was looking for in my fur to counteract that tutti frutti smelling stuff Jackel keeps washing us with...





Itty bitty sea stars!!!!! awwwwwww!




Lovely tidepool. The orange ochre stars are so dramatic against the dark rock; they make for some really nice pictures.



My noble Pryderi.


This one is sadly blurry but I love it enough to post it anyway.



Coba has a dash of nobility in there...


Usually, though, he's all PuppyPuppyPuppy OMGeelgrass LetMeRollInTheEelgrass yes. (I know it's blurry. Taking clear photos in low light of something that is constantly in motion is, I fear, somewhat beyonnd me...)


Sunset.

Comments

[cphoenix.livejournal.com]

The clearest vision of nobility I ever saw was a dog with hip pain. It was obviously in constant pain, and just as obviously making a constant, and constantly successful, effort to be a good citizen despite the discomfort. I've never seen anyone, human or canine, so self-controlled. It was simply determined not to let its pain make it snarl, or whine, or snap, or ...

I didn't even get the feeling that it was distressed, as in fighting stress. It was simply fighting pain. And winning.

Here's hoping for many more happy times with Pryde.

[ladyringo.livejournal.com]

Have you talked to your vet about NSAIDs for Pryde's arthritis? Glucosamine helps a little, but eventually we all need to take some antiinflammatories. It might help make him more comfortable.

<3

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea. He's seeing the vet next week, and I will bring it up.

Today, he seems like he's feeling pretty good. The glucosamine does seem like it makes a notable difference, which is really nice.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I did a lot of research when I searched out an anti-inflammatory for Frieda and came up with Deramaxx, mostly because it was -not- Rimadyl (too many bad stories/side effects), but my info is about four years out of date and more research and better drugs may have emerged in that time. Beware especially of drug inter-reactions (especially with neuro-theroputic drugs like Eldypryl and Anypryl). Eventually I just went back to buffered aspirine and that seemed to be enough to ease her pain from arthritis.

[ladyringo.livejournal.com]

Depending on his health- Rimadyl or Deramaxx are both really good NSAIDS and they taste good too. Most dogs will eat them like treats. :)

[mooncatx.livejournal.com]

hugs for your fur babies. Clicked your pixel babies. Um... fogged baby chicken is waiting for you. >.> that is if you still wants it. I'm afraid to leave it fogged for too much longer.

mcx

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

I was giving my sweet Ladybug doggie aspirin and it really seemed to help, up to a point.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

I'm planning on bringing this up with the vet next week. I generally try to keep them off of medications whenever possible (though I give him buffered aspirin when he seems like he needs it, and that helps a lot) but if the vet thinks NSAIDs are a good idea for him and they don't cause a lot of side effects, I'll try them out.

[kynekh-amagire.livejournal.com]

Your dogs are so photogenic. So are your tidepools. I love that Coba-in-the-eelgrass picture, blurriness and all. The tongue!

Luck only likes the beach when there are Frisbees involved; he's never forgotten his introduction to the Pacific Ocean, or that it tried to murder him (read as: get his pasterns wet). I've had gung-ho waterdogs my whole life; a dog who thinks that maybe allowing the surf to wash his toes constitutes a bracing swim is still a strange and novel thing to me, even after five years. (Luck turns seven sometime this year. It's weird to think of him as middle-aged; I know nothing about his breeding or his parents, but I've known plenty of BCs to make it to their spry and zippy late teens. Here's hoping.)

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

heee...maybe it's a herding dog thing. Coba and Rogue love to run in the sand and possibly get the tops of their paws wet. Any further in and it's all "why on Earth would you want to do _that_?"

Take them to the pond, though, and all four of them like to go belly-deep and just stand in it, looking happy. You know, just enough to get their coats wet enough to pick up some good mud on the way back.

I guess that the shelties at least have good reason not to like swimming. Their coats, when soaked, pretty much outweigh them. A truly excited and barky Rogue occasionally finds herself tossed into the pond, and afterwards, attempting to shake herself out, is quite an amusing sight.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Great pics! Yay for dog pics!
For low-light shots, use the flash as a fill and that will make the images pop (and freeze them). See if you can find a compact flash that isn't a pain to leave on the camera expressly for this purpose.

How much glucosomine are you you giving Pryde now? Can you up the dosage? A little MSM regularly also can't hurt (for recovery after high-activity). And I'm guessing you already know about buffered aspirin. Frieda was on a cox-2 Deramaxx, not Rimadyl) inhibitor for a while, but they can't be taken along with Eldypryl, so I went back to aspirin because Cox-2 drugs don't mix well with the Eldypryl and I liked the increased cognitive effects of the Eldypryl more than the effectiveness of the Deramaxx.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

I've given them buffered aspirin before, always start on day 2 of a long pack trip! I gave it to Fen regularly, too. I've started Pryderi on it, and it seems to be helping a bit. We will see what the vet says next week; I tend to try and keep them on the least medication possible, and this looks like normal canine aging, but if there is something that will help him without causing a lot of side effects, I'll have him set up.

Hmm...cameras. I really ought to take a course in how to properly use one. Mine is a Sony (I could tell you the model when I get home) which was marketed as one of the higher-end point and shoot varieties at Best Buy. It has various flash settings, and a little flash that pops up automatically when some of them engage. I find that in many cases using the flash makes the image obnoxiously bright and weirdly-colored.