Under (the weather and the water)

Poor old Blue has had a few days of severely upset tummy, but this morning he has finally completed his recovery. Without being too graphic he suffered after a few tasty morsels from the next door neighbours BBQ, sausages and chicken pieces etc.

The effect on him was very dramatic, making a mess of the kitchen hallway and upstairs landing, the loss of so much fluid caused an element of dehydration, and generally became very clingy.

There is no apparent long lasting effects, but with a carefully managed diet of the right food, he soon got over the sickness and diarrhoea.

This morning we had "conkers" as I described his business to my wife.........who ever walks Blue reports back on condition of his deposits.

Blue will be swimming tonight, Wednesday, as per usual being he is over the worse for his experience. Last week we used our new GoPro to film his underwater swimming action

Really good fun to film and watch back afterwards, you can tell how much he enjoys his sessions in the pool.

He has also continued to find discarded and lost balls in the hedgerows of the local park, some are behind chain-link fencing on the railway side of the fence, he knows they are there, he points them out, but is not too bothered when we move await without getting the ball.

Blue has also been housebound more than usual as we are putting up a new boundary fence, but he always checks out the progress.....

Thanks for reading, and please share Blue's experiences where you can

Sunny days, Blue days

Blue is a very fortunate dog, who is rewarded in so many ways for his loyalty,companionship and love, which in fairness could never be rewarded enough.

We have been enjoying walks at weekends in the beautiful grounds of University of Reading, Whiteknights campus where Blue loves to walk through the wild meadow, we tend to keep away from the lake, as Blue and nesting birds don't see eye to eye.

Last weekend we set off for our annual excursion to get some flowers and shrubs for the garden, out came the trailer, in the trailer went Blue.

All though we had other idea's Blue seemed to settle in quite quickly.

But with a bit of a fuss he agreed to shake paws with Sue and agree to vacate.

It would have turned a few heads if we would have driven down the road with Blue sat in the trailer, though it is likely he would have soon bailed out at the first sign of a C-A-T or anyone that would dare speak to him. He soon settled in the back of the car, and enjoyed the trip out in luxury.

Gardening and Blue do not always mix well, last year, half of the plants had been "Blue'd" before they had been planted, so this year he was kept separate from the plants and the planting.

Given the glimmer of an opportunity, Blue decided that if the plants were out of bounds, the containers needed his attention, and in a blink of an eye, their fate was sealed.

So the damage was much more limited this year, but Blue does enjoy helping, so even if the planting out passed him by, the watering needed his close supervision.

and whenever we are in the garden, all activity has to end with a game of ball, though his "Jollyball" no longer resembles a ball.

and the flowers in the garden are beginning to flourish, with Blue's assistance

Morning walks are more like morning drags, Blue will happily walk to the local park, but once we begin road walking, the paws dig in, and the pass goes in reverse, after a while he does move forward but all be it behind you. Until he knows that he is homeward bound or returning to the park, where the pace increases significantly.

Daily exercise is important, it ensures he gets good movement on his joints, and in fairness looking at the pictures below you can see where he is happiest.

Yesterday I went to Asda, while there I picked up the No1 CD by Florence + The Machine

When I got home, I noticed how apt the title was;

HOW BIG HOW BLUE HOW BEAUTIFUL

Until the next time here is Blue 

enjoying his holiday 

in

 Scotland this year.

7 Today

Look who was born on this day seven years ago. Blue looks at the gifts received this morning.

We have just spent two great weeks in the Highlands of Scotland, where Blue has had a marvellous time. He is, showing his years more now, with the grey whiskers and a little stiffness as he rises, but apart from that he is in good health and spirits.


One of the funniest things on our holiday was when walking along the shoreline at Sand in Applecross, Blue spotted something on the rocks, actually it is best shown in pictures..............

Enjoying the fancy footwork of @Bluesmummy 

Aha what is this hiding in the rocks?

Now he's got it

Yikes it's getting away

Assistance is required, if you please!!!

Looks like the rapid response team are too slow!!!

As you can see it was best to keep taking pictures rather than assisting the dynamic duo.............

Happy Birthday Blue!

Things always come in 3's

They say things come in threes, especially at this time of year.(Thinking of three wise men)

At about 5.00 am this morning, Blue was barking relentlessly, on inspection, a Milk Float was delivering down our road. 

This is not an unusual or isolated event, we all managed another 20 minutes sleep, then it was time to do the early morning walk, at 5:45 am

With darkness all around we walked up to the main road, a barking session near a hedge, revealed no hidden critters,....

Walking along the main road, Blue became very alert and agitated behind me, as I turned around, a milk float emerged from a side road. Blue was not having this, to which end, barking twisting turning and spinning round in circles the intensity grew as the vehicle approached even closer.....

Barely being able to hold this intense behaviour, I backed Blue up into a drive of a  house, to allow the milkman pass. Then to our dismay the milk float came to a stop, right by where we were stood, well when I say stood, I had planted my feet firmly on the ground holding a land shark going into a deaf roll like action. Mr Milkman said he needed to go into the house which we stood outside, so through much heaving and tugging, we made a path for him to pass.

Having got Blue up the road a little, we waited for the milkman to return to his float and drive up the road, that cost half a pocket of treats. 

When I say drive up the road, he only went about five doors down and stopped again, so we stood passionately waiting, finally, milk delivered the float drove up the road into the distance.

Blue and I then carried on with our walk, up to the end of the road, where we always cross over and return home.

Amazingly what was in the distance, waiting at the traffic lights, yes you guessed, a milk float, ironically not the same one coming back but a different one. So we had to wait for it to pass and fortunately not stop!!

So there we have it 3 different encounters with probably 3 different milk floats, (the first two instances may have been the same one just at different times.

Or was it history repeating itself; Three wise milkmen delivering their gifts.

So in tribute to the Three wise Shepherds 

Blue pays homage

Blood test results are in

Last week we received the eagerly awaited results of Blues blood test, to see if an allergy was responsible for his ongoing problem with scratching itching and biting himself.

Sadly it has not pointed to one specific thing, 

Blue has shown a positive reaction to the following (Scores of 100+ are positive)

• Grasses

1. Ryegrass
2. Meadow Fescue
3. Cocks Foot

• Weeds

1. Sheep Sorrel
2. Lamb's Quaters
3. Yellow Dock
4. Ragweed

• Trees

1. Oak
2. Beech
3. Willow
4. Olive

• Fungi

1. Aureobasidium pullulans

• Foods

1. Lamb
2. White potato
3. Tomato
4. Carrots
5. Duck

• Insects

1. Mosquito

The highest scores sit in weeds and grasses ranging between 115 & 178

As we had previously changed his food, we have had to change it once more, as his previous food contained potato and lamb.

Blue is now being fed James Wellbeloved, Turkey & Rice, which also has coconut oil and Bionic Biotic powder on top, which sounds more like a preparation for a chemistry experiment.

So poor Blue is still itching,scratching and nibbling, making many parts of his body sore and open wounds, he still has his daily walks in the park, along with the usual road walking.

His much loved swimming at Aquadoggies is still on hold until further notice, though we may resume this some time soon.

The hard plastic buster collar was very unforgiving on us and Blue, so he has now been fitted with a much softer user friendly version, in fact he seems very much attached to it, occasionally we will put his muzzle on, though he is still able to lick through the gaps.

Blue seems reasonably contented when he is not scratching, but once he starts it is difficult to get him to stop, to the point he now has open wounds on the elbow joints of his right foreleg. The wife puts Sudacream on to prevent infections getting in.

We do hope the change in diet will turn this around, but if not, we will return to the vets to see if there is anything else to consider as a remedy.

Night vision

Blue is still out and about, here he is in his hi-viz coat in the early evening sunshine

Blue meets the vampire vet

Special privileges

For a while now Blue has been suffering with hot spots and constant itching, today was our biggest step forward, to seek some answers.

Since the end of November Blue has had a few hot spots, some longer lasting than others, but increasingly he has been scratching nibbling and biting. He has not been swimming for two months, and is one itchy dog.

We have changed his diet, provided him with Yumega oil, and coconut oil, alas to no avail.

Today we took Blue to the vets to see if they could help discover, what the cause could be, a time was booked for Blue to attend, to gather samples for testing.

When I say samples, we are talking blood and skin scrapings, neither would be given up without resistance, so sedation would be essential.

Leading up to today, my wife Sue and Blue had been making regular visits  to help remove any stigma or anxiety that Blue had developed in attending the vets.

We had the entire waiting room to ourselves upon arrival, after a five minute wait Blue was greeted by the vet, Nadine, and in return Blue gave her the Blue greeting, barking and prancing, no less than we had experienced in the past.

Weighing Blue in at 48.6kg we joined Nadine in the consulting room, conversation was difficult with Blue's barking. At this point I took Blue out of the room to calm him down, a walk around the waiting room and back into the consultancy room, it worked, and after repeating this several times we were able not only to enter the room without Blue barking, but walk past the vet and back out again.

So we had a plan, I would repeat this three times, and on the third visit, the vet would administer the sedative by injection into his hind leg. On cue me and Blue walked in, and the barking began and he was agitated, the vet had been joined by a veterinary nurse, so we did a few trials and agreed the next time we enter the room we would do the deed.

Blue is a strong dog and as well as that he has a determined attitude, despite our best efforts it was not working, he was winning this battle. The vet was concerned that an excited agitated dog would resist the sedative. So this time we went for it and bingo, the deed was done.

The plan now was the vet and the nurse would leave the room and we would sit quietly without any interaction with Blue, to give the sedative chance to work. In his face he was fighting the effects of sleep, but slowly loosing the battle.

After ten minutes the vet returned, to be greeted by Blue barking and showing his displeasure, she quietly exited, and a further ten minutes elapsed, and he was under, sleeping soundly.

Nadine the vet, checked to see if Blue was asleep, calling his name touching and moving him, peace was confirmed, time for them to do their thing.

The first thing was to shave a section of his front leg to draw off the blood samples which would be sent for analysis to seek conformation of any allergy, being the root cause of his scratching.

Taking blood was difficult, because of the sedative, the veins were not pumping blood at their normal rate, and there were three entries required to gather enough blood for the eight sample phials. Stage one completed. Not a murmur or a twitch from the big fella.

Now came the skin scrapping samples, in order to check for mites etc, an affected area has to be scrapped to remove skin, tissue and blood, this was done from three sample areas.

While under the vet gave him a check over, and as she touched the top inside of his hind leg, he kicked out, she explained this was the muscles reaction to the high sensitivity of his skin, and she said the poor thing must be beside himself with the itchiness.

Mission accomplished regarding the samples, now Blue had to be brought around, a reversing agent was administered, and once again Blue, Sue and me sat quietly waiting for him to recover from his enforced slumber.

Blue took about fifteen minutes to fully come around, with a few false early dawns, he was back with us although very subdued.

By the time we left the vets, it was confirmed there were no mites in the skin samples, but results from the blood samples will take about seven days.

Blue spent the rest of the afternoon drifting in and out of sleep, but struggling to get settled, but after a dinner of turkey and rice, as recommended by the vet, he is much more settled.

So next time you have an itch or a scratch, think of poor old Blue, who will be waiting patiently, as patient as Blue can be for some answers that will relieve the itchiness.

Below are a few pictures of Blue resting, nice and snug at home.

Bless him!!!

New lead, new day and new cat

To avoid a chance of yesterday's events happening, Blue had a new lead.

My preference would have been like for like, but his old Wainwright nylon lead, wide band,was no longer on sale, the next best option was a leather lead.

So with his new lead attached off we set this morning for Blue's dawn walk at 5:40am The rain had taken a rest and it was a mild morning at 7 deg C

As we set off, Blue announced to the world, we were out and about. Heading up out of our road up to the main road, all felt well and comfortable with his new lead, hanging down loosely between the two of us as we walked along, very relaxed.

On the main road all was well, until out of nowhere Blue lunged towards a garden / drive, this time I stood firm with a strong grip, and after a couple of "No's" and a shake of his water bottle the lead relaxed.

There a little way up the drive of this house sat proudly not fazed, sat a new foe, a large ginger tom cat, different from the white one that yesterday scarped.

Order restored we carried onto the traffic lights, where we turn around and head back down the road, as we approached the house where Blue went on his wild cat chase yesterday, not even a sideways glance from Blue, but he did look up the alley as we passed.

We had passed the test, the lead had passed the test, time to finish off his walk and head off for breakfast.

There are two alleys that lead to our road, the second alley is further down the road, half way down this alley something moved in the dark, but we all stayed attached by the lead, it was working well under the strain, until we reached our house Blue continued to scan the darkness for signs of life.

In the darkness he has such a high sensitivity to sounds or movements, he is constantly alert, but we arrived safely home, just in time for breakfast.

So on this new day the new lead worked when we see a new cat,

 but the old habits remain.