JoM wrote:That is brilliant news!!
Is she still using her special food bowl?
I think she'll be using it for ever now Jo. The stricture will always be there. Delectable Dan did say that when she is back up to her normal weight he might consider having another go at stretching it a couple more times but he will wait and see how she is getting on.
She is very funny with the bowl - although I'm sure she doesn't think so. She gets very cross with it if she can't get to it (it has to be in a corner to stop it from falling off the stools) and growls at it. Yesterday she was barking at it as some food had fallen behind it and she couldn't get at it.
The feeding is still a bit of a pain - she has at least 8 small meals a day (more if she comes looking). I split the tray of food into 8 portions and she has that (her recommended daily intake is 3/4 of a tray but until she gets back to normal weight we can feed her as much as we want) a quarter of a tin of AD for each feed. It probably takes around 5 minutes to sort out each feed. But I think that will be forever too - I can't see her going back to normal meals.
But at least the meals don't have to be evenly spaced out during the day now. So on my two longer days at work she has 3 small meals before I leave and then has the rest from about 3pm onwards. The rest of the week she just gets fed whenever. We tend to feed her when she comes looking for food. She doesn't generally tend to want anything after about 8pm - she takes herself off to bed and we don't see her again.
She is off to my mums next week whilst we are at Legoland and I feel much happier about leaving her with my mum. I am hopeful that after next week she can start to go to my mums one day a week again. It means that she isn't home alone on one of my longer days and my dad enjoys having her. It will mean Mick remembering to take her food and her bowl with him when he drops her off though.
She used to go to my sisters on a Tuesday and Roy took her out on long walks with their dog. She isn't quite up to that yet (her leg starts to play up if she walks/runs for too long) and my sister doesn't have the cleanest of kitchens so I am worried that she might pick food up off the floor.
The most important thing is that we have to watch her to make sure she doesn't pick food up whilst we are out or let anyone give her treats (its amazing how many bar staff automatically give dogs chews!) as she can't swallow anything big and that makes her sick.
So, other than gaining that extra 4 kilos, I think how she is living now is how she will be forever. It is perfectly sustainable - not as easy as it used to be before the accident but a damned site easier than it has been over the last few months.
