Serial Episode

Ollie At The Vet=No Serial Episode Today

~ beetleypete ~ 96 Comments

After a perfectly uneventful walk today, Ollie began acting strangely. He would not lie down and sleep as he usually does, and instead stood around, panting.

It hasn’t been remotely hot here today, and I also noticed his tail was uncurled. So something had happened. It was one of those times when you wish a dog could talk. I gave him a good examination, but could find no obvious injury. His skin has flared up again recently because of the hot weather we had, but that never stops him lying down.

He kept coming to me for strokes and reassurance, and at one stage I realised he hadn’t had his dinner. But when I prepared that for him he refused to eat any of it.

When Julie got home from work he was pleased to see her, but nothing would persuade him to sit, or lie down. He continued to pant constantly, so we became concerned and rang the Vet. Luckily, we were able to get an appointment at short notice, and took him down at 4pm. He jumped into the back of the car easily enough, but when he tried to lie down on his bed in the back, he screamed and yelped. That meant he remained standing all the way to Swaffham, so I had to drive extra carefully.

Her diagnosis was inconclusive. Possibly a sting or insect bite, due to her noticing a small swelling on one of his back legs. Perhaps a back strain, as he was not happy when she examined his back. While he was there, she suggested antibiotics for the skin condition, and a steroid cream. Though this had nothing to do with why we had taken him of course.

To try to ease his pain immediately, she gave him an injection of a Morphine-based pain killer, and prescribed tablet painkillers containing a ‘dog-dose’ of Codeine. Julie asked her if he might be able to lie down later to sleep, and her reply was “I don’t know”. His regular Arthritis tablets were ready, so that at least saved me a second trip tomorrow.

We got back at 5:20, and Ollie is still standing up, still panting, and still refusing to eat or drink anything. I have a feeling we are going to have a very troublesome night with him later.

The bill for the 10-minute consultation and prescribed drugs was an eye-watering. £237. ($285)
It takes a long time to train to become a Vet, but it’s worth it once you qualify.

As a result, there will be no epsiode of the serial ‘The Prodigy’ today. Sorry about that.

By My Standards, A Busy day

~ beetleypete ~ 51 Comments

I don’t do a lot. Blogging, cooking, a bit of housework, and taking Ollie out on his walks. I don’t feel guilty about that, as I am retired, and worked hard to be able to do very little now.

But today felt busy. I was up early, in the bath, then dressed and ready to go out before ten. (Early by my standards) Of course, as I headed off to my bank in Dereham, I forgot it was Market Day. Despite the once substantial and thriving market now amounting to just four of five stalls as a mobile coffee bar, the local people still set great store by ‘Market Day’.

As a result, the first two car parks were already full, and I eventually found a space in one of the less popular ones heading out of town. Then when I got to the bank, there was a decent queue of ‘Market Day’ customers doing their banking, so I had to wait almost thirty minutes to sort out what I had gone there to do.

Then it was off to Swaffham, to collect Ollie’s arthritis painkillers. Twelve miles each way, including a delay at the Vet’s because they couldn’t find Ollie on the computer system. It seems my London accent was to blame. The lady was looking for ‘Holly’, presuming my accent had dropped the ‘H’. (Quite amusing, really)

Back in time for a late lunchtime sandwich, then out onto Beetley Meadows for the dog walk. On the way, I encountered a lady who has recently moved in two doors down, and we chatted for a while. Then over on The Meadows, we met up with a lady dog walker and chatted about my driving licence saga, which she knows about from reading my blog.

By the time Ollie had managed a decent walk, including three dips in the river because it was 26C (79F) and sunny, Julie was home from work, and we sat and chatted for a while.

So, no serial episode has been written, and I am now about to start preparing dinner.

Sorry about that.

Serial Episode/Emptying Spam

~ beetleypete ~ 39 Comments

Apologies for missing off the episode of ‘Outside’ yesterday. It will be posted later today.

Sorry to say I am getting between 70-100 Spam comments arriving in my Spam Folder every day at the moment, something of a ‘Spam Avalanche’.

I just don’t have the time to check them individually, so if anyone’s comments are being put in Spam by mistake, I apologise in advance for missing them.

I am just using the ‘Empty Spam’ option, to delete them in bulk.