today

just a reminder to keep the xpen that is set up in the shop where it is....i came home tonight and sam had again chewed the door frame and his mouth was bleeding. he is used to going out at 4 or 430 with the staff...he gets distressed when i don't get to him til almost 6 because i am working. the xpen is placed where it is, not cuz i care about protecting the door...it is because i care about protecting sam's mouth. please don't move it, it is there for a good reason.

conveniently, ziggy turned the lights back on in the barn. this meant when i could see from the cameras that gideon was done eating, and i could go and peek in the window to check and see what he left in his bowl. he ate most of it tonight..there is still some left that he might decide to eat later.. i think we need to stop trying whatever new thing or combination we can think of and go back to carefully and consistently following his exact original recipe in the feed book that has proven itself to work best for him and refrain from adding anything extra for now. in a few days after seeing how he does, we can decide what changes to make and how we are going to assess them.
i can already see that what he left uneaten tonight was only the larger red pellets in his feed...he may not like those anymore, in which case i can maybe try him on a different senior feed. maybe everyone can save his leftovers from his feed bowl each time so i can see for myself how much is left and which parts he is leaving.
anyway just trying to figure this out by slowing down, and really paying close attention to whatever it is that gideon is saying.

also a heads up to tomorrows house volunteers...esther is right off her regular canned food. she has had so many meds in it lately that she just will not eat it. she wouldn't eat for krista yesterday or for erin today..both days i fed her some of the canned AD food (for georgia) and she wolfed that right down. you can feed her a couple of cans of AD tomorrow and i will look for something unfamilar to her in the shop when i get home that maybe she can eat until she forgets that we were poisoning her pedigree canned food with various meds.

ok..i am tired and manny's bed smells utterly foul with urine. i am thinking he hs a bladdder infection again and i better try to get him up so i change his bed for him. i will try to get a urine spec monday morning and get it into the vet to test it.

the vet called today and said that eli (in foster with carol ann) was in the clinic and not doing well. she and carol ann both thought it was his time to go. he has had a really tough time of it lately and he was anciently old. rest in peace eli and my deepest condolences to carol ann for his loss and my greatest thanks for giving him a wonderful home at the end of his life.