he is a senior husky?shep?chow? cross..ie a biggish black and tan furry special..elderly owners went into care and will not be returning home. he is a little bit rough around the edges..needs a bath, a bit of grooming, most likely a good vet check with bloodwork, a dental and some arthritic meds but seems to be a really nice dog. his name is Curtis and he has joined the computer room group. I won't have time to trial him out in the barn this weekend but hopefully I can next week and get him fully blended into life here.
in the mean time..out on leash to the front yard only and make sure odie is not in the kitchen (odie can go over to the big dog yard) when taking Curtis in and out.
I am changing my mind about gilbert..today I had a really good look at him, and his actual physical size is misleading because of his big ruman, but he does not need to lose any weight. I had the vets out to confirm, just in case I was wrong....the vet said we are to continue to feed him as we normally do and it is ok for him to continue to have treats too as he is an elderly goat and we are looking more at quality vs quanity of life at this point. having said that, lets not go nutz and make him fat cuz that will be too much for his poor messed up feet. we will continue with his reg. pain medications and if we can keep him feeling well and a little more active, he should be good for a bit. hope floats yet again and gilbert is glad he doesn't need to go on a diet!
Johanna came and took her sweet little chi's back home, I bet they were glad to see her!
Maggie and shelagh came and deep cleaned the big dog room and it looks GREAT!
it was a pretty busy day today so everyone is settling in for an afternoon nap and I am thinking of joining them cuz this last day off is almost over...napping with dogs on a day off is good!
Hey Bunny, Gilbert actually is quite overweight. He has an old goats body: thin along the back and at the back hips but drastically overweight in his front end. Give him a rub and you'll feel his front end is like jumping on a waterbed, a whole lot of jiggle going on. The rolls and bulging at the front are fat deposits. The vet said that the best thing for him would be excercise but due to his feet that is not a viable option. The excess weight is making his feet worse but at this point the vet said that putting him on a diet Gilbert would loose more muscle than fat which would also make him move around less, making his situation worse. Diet and excercise would have done him good in the past but at this point in Gilbert's life it is too late. Essentially the vet believes we cannot do anything else for him so it is steady as it goes in terms of food, The vet, Carol and I agree we might as well make him happy while he is still with us. I believe the best thing for Gilbert is to spend extra time with him and show him some love, a little extra love never hurt anybody and in some cases can give an animal or person the extra umph to keep pushing on. In terms of life span dairy goats usually live 8-12 in farms due to the lack of productivity at these ages but actually life span is 14-17 for males and late teens to twenties for females, one female I found lived to a ripe age of 24.