my dad told me..."don't believe in the golden years, it is a lie."....(ie... getting old sucks.)

i am really worried about donny and his eye...while the ulcer got better..the eye itself is worse. he is now totally blind on that side and the pressure is building inside the eye, looks like on top of it all...donny now has an acute glaucoma..the eye needs to come out for his quality of life...his overall health is so bad, the surgery in not a great idea...i will see if i can get him into the vets first thing tomorrow morning..if everyone is full, i will bump chica or murphy and he can have one of those appointments at noon.
oh donny, what do we do...give you a remote possible chance with the huge surgical risks or let you go before you are quite ready? i wish you could tell me what to do.

max is having some increased respirations late last night and early this morning...he is ok when up on his feet, but not as good when he is trying to sleep. it doesn't sound like fluid in his lungs, but it could be because of his cardiac disease. it sounds more like pressure on his chest when he is laying..i will have to book him in for a check and possibly an xray.

here is the thing about really old dogs...they can suffer from several different age related things..cardiac, kidney, liver disease, cancer, arthritis, old dog lung disease (COPD)acute or chronic pancreatitis...just pick any or all of the ancient and worn out parts that they have and in the end it could be many things in a combination together...one could be bugging them this day, and you put them on meds...2 and 3 problems can bug them next week and you add meds to treat those symptoms too. you can successfully treat an ulcer in the eye, not knowing that glaucoma is in a week or two is going to destroy the eye anyway.

the bottom line is...never assume that because they are sick from one thing, something totally different or even related is not going to try to knock them down too.
getting old is a challenge, the body has lot's of possible parts to crap out on you at any given time....and at the very same time.

it is like playing the end of life game where there are no rules cuz in an instant...anything or everything can change.
anyway...for max and donny, we'll have to see which old life's curve ball is about to knock them out now.

cole and rose are now spooned together, laying by the computer room/outside cat run door...too cute! (but i do wonder, in their sleep..who is going to poop on whom cuz their incontinent butts are pretty close together!)