"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it."

Watty1

Hope Stinky's paw heals quickly.  WattyDog loves the vets, I took him there a lot as a puppy to collect treats (provided by me) at reception so it would always be a positive experience for him.   One time the nurse came out and played ball with him - chaos - but he has always loved going as a result of this.

greenbee

The dressing is slowly working it's way down his leg, so there's a flappy bit at the end of his paw. I'm hoping it'll stay on until Monday, but suspect I'll have to redo it tomorrow. 

Our vets provide treats (although interestingly the new one we've seen this time hasn't given them to him even though Stinky has been clearly telling him that he knows where they are. However, the receptionists, other vets/nurses have all been giving them to him. They let all the dogs put their paws up on the reception desk for cuddles and treats, and generally try to make it nice for them He ended up sitting behind the reception desk on Friday, with one of the vets threatening to kidnap him and keep him as a reception dog (I did suggest they keep him for a fortnight until his paw is healed... I don't think they realised I was serious...  he would LOVE to work there - all those dogs to play with and cats to cuddle...).

I'm still unsure what to do about the dog walker. It's not so much the injuries - although I think if she had the dogs under control they wouldn't happen, as they don't when he's with me (and he still plays with his friends and races about). However, these things happen, but it's the fact that she doesn't notice so clearly isn't checking him over before/after every walk - and sometimes I don't see him for a couple of hours after she drops him off. If I hadn't happened to have a break when she dropped him off last time I'm not sure when I would have noticed and I may not have been able to get him to the vet until the next day. I've told her he isn't going for his holiday with her as he needs to be quiet and stay indoors, but haven't said anything about after that - however, i'll have two weeks sick leave, then Christmas, so I'm off work until the New Year and won't need her to take him. I might talk to the receptionist at the vet about other options as I think she knows all the local daycare/boarding people. 

It's a huge pity, as he loves her and his friends, but I can't take risks. And as well as the stress for him, it's been expensive - it'll be at least 3x vet visits, plus antibiotics, and meant I can't leave him unsupervised at all while the bandage is on. Plus having to get my mum to have him at short notice (it was that or cancel hospital). I haven't had an apology. Just 'how on earth did he do that?' (I don't know, I wasn't there), and 'he's his own worst enemy'... well if she can't control him, it's not safe for him to be with her. 

Anyway, Stinky has spent an hour with my mum this morning (he was a bit anxious wondering where I'd gone) while I went to have a blood test (hospital carpark is blissfully empty at the weekend, as is phlebotomy, despite all the whining in the waiting room - I was there for less than 10 minutes and they took about 90 seconds to check my details and get blood out of my small, mobile veins). I then fixed my mum's mesh wifi (a breaker switched last weekend, and she couldn't get it working... and once she'd done a factory reset there was no chance of it happening!), doorbell, and security cameras, and came home via the petrol station as I was getting very low - I'd tried to get some on the way but they were closed (apparently they had a brief powercut and some of the pumps were still out of action).

We've all had lunch, one cat is supervising the robot upstairs, and the other is out as it isn't actually raining right now. As Stinky can't run about outside, and I need to make sure he isn't eating his dressing, I think I'm going to have to spend the day lying on the sofa reading... 

beanielou

Such a shame about the dog walker but that’s really not on. Her insurance should be covering your vet bill. 

greenbee

She's not admitting any liability, so that's not going to happen. I've just got to find a diplomatic way to get rid of her - difficult, as she's the local doggy guru - and also find someone who can have Stinky when I'm away/come and house sit (which would deal with the cats as well). 

Stinky's getting very good at telling me he wants to go out by asking for the plastic bag to be put on his paw. He's bored and possibly a bit depressed. Certainly subdued. Hopefully he'll at least be able to play in the garden without a bandage next week, even if it's only trotting to the compost bin and back or very gentle ball games.

I'm currently cooking up a whole lot of veg for supper, but honestly don't feel like eating it. Just a glass of wine and a book in front of the fire is fine. I'm only staying up to keep Stinky company and let him out and put him to bed!

Watty1

Would a boot help Stinky?  WattyDog has little boots he wears on his back paws to stop the skin on top breaking where he drags them.   His boots have little rubber soles and come up over his "ankles" and I leave them on most of the day so he can go in and out and run about at will.

greenbee

He's got boots Watty - he's not keen on them (when I first put them on he was holding his paws out as he walked and someone passing said 'I've never seen a labrador doing dressage before 🤣), but I've used them when he's had small cuts before so he can get over rough ground. I take them off on sand/mud as he can't grip in them. And he also loves going through ever puddle he sees and into every ditch... I struggle with how tight they should be - they seem to need to be on pretty tight to avoid them coming off when he runs about too fast.

I'll ask the vet about using the boots on his front paws for a bit while he heals some more - I mentioned that the dog walker said he must have sensitive pads and suggested boots on all walks, but the vet said only for very cold or very hot (and there is nothing wrong with his pads). But with an injury (or in WattyDog's case) it may make sense for a bit. They won't fit over the bandage (which I've just redone - he was so good for me, and it looks as if the flap that we thought might fall off has sealed and is healing.

We've been down to the end of the garden and back, which he was very pleased about. I hope he'll be allowed in the garden from tomorrow, and maybe on some short walks if they OK the boots. I'm not sure my mum will manage putting boots on him while he's with her Thursday-Monday, but he'll just have to be bored for a few more days. 

Solar is charging slowly, so when the battery is full I'm going to run the DW, and possibly do a load of laundry. Otherwise, reading my book and trying not to feel bad about how sad poor Stinky is feelng. 

greenbee

So rather than lying around doing nothing ALL day, I should make a list of things that I won't do...

• Clear pile of stuff from end of garden room sofa
• Clear pile of stuff from blanket chest in garden room
• Clear table in sitting room
• Clear kitchen island and worktops
• Bring in more kindling
• Laundry (clothes)
• DW
• Laundry (towels/bedding/flannels - work out what will make a full load; probably needs another one tomorrow)
• Move half-mixed compost from wheelbarrow to bucket
• Move gravel/manure/vermiculite/perlite from porch to garden
• Move this year's logs from log store at back to log store at front to dry properly
• List stuff of FBMP
• Work out route for Thursday to work out whether to drop Stinky off or have him collected. 

greenbee

I've run the DW... it has now decided it has a fault (I thought I'd fixed it, but clearly that was temporary) so I'm hoping I can run a rinse cycle later to finish this load off. I will have to call the DW repair guy when I'm back from hospital as I won't have time to fit it in this week. If it isn't fixable, I'll ask him to swap it for the one in the garage. 

Slowly working through clearing the piles of stuff - which has resulted in a binful of recycling being taken out.

New robot has been working on bits of upstairs - it managed to shut itself in the bathroom earlier so I'm not quite sure what it actually did! The landing is getting done lots. I think I need to open the door to one room each day and let it go round, and that way everything will be done regularly (maybe when the volume of fluff collected reduces I will set it off less frequently). There's still one bedroom that isn't robot-accessible due to the amount of stuff on the floor, but I hope to get it cleared before Christmas. If I could get more of downstairs robot-accessible, that would be great too. 

Not enough sunshine for another load of laundry, but cheap electricity tonight, so I might actually do a load of clothes that can go on the airer overnight, possibly a load of towels to go in the TD on cheap rate, and the cleaning cloths can wash during the cheap period. Plus I will have a bath (haven't had one for ages, but I'll take the risk and leave Stinky unsupervised) and then I can reheat the water with cheap power too. 

Next up is a bit of reading and then keeping going with the pottering and clearing up. 

greenbee

I've moved a few books back into my bedroom, cleared the floors in the sitting room and hall to set off the robot, and am working on getting the security cameras recharged/changing their batteries. Towels are in the WM on a long 40C wash, and the next couple of washes are lined up ready to go. 

Outside is now wet and miserable. 

ETA - I've just checked the DW error code and had a poke around and removed a piece of chicken bone from the impeller. I'm hoping that will solve it, but need to wait for it to reset itself as it won't currently let me change the programme. I really hope I get round to doing the kitchen next year... 

greenbee

Forgot to set the electric rads last night, but it may well have been too hot if I had! Towel rails and airer did their jobs. For some reason the TD didn't run - I must have forgotten to press 'Go' after setting the delay. So that's using up precious battery at the moment as it was a load of towels.

Cleaning cloths washed though, and are now on the airer in the utility room. And the DW has been re-run (again, probably using up battery) as I couldn't adjust the programme to just do a rinse. But it's working. So need to be a bit more careful about what goes in there, as there shouldn't have been chicken bone fragments. 

Idiot dog, having left his dressing alone for 4.5 days decided to take it off this morning between early morning emptying (very early thanks to Stripey cat) and breakfast. He did announce loudly that he had something to show me, so I came downstairs to find him bandage-free, but unfortunately bleeding. There was a tiny bit of lint attached to the wound when I re-did the dressing last night (with lint-free dressings), and I suspect he pulled at that to get it off which started the bleeding again. So washed it and re-dressed it with lint-free dressings, but I don't have lint to line the vet wrap with and am now out of gauze. 

I'm due to leave on Thursday for my hospital treatment, and won't be back until Monday - he won't be going to daycare as planned (she's offered, but she has other dogs and 'playing quietly in the garden' isn't an option right now - plus TBH I don't trust her anymore), but to my mum's. So I need to make sure I have plenty of replacement stuff for dressings and she knows what to do. Her hands are very arthritic, so I'm not sure how she'll deal with that, or with redoing the dressings. Or supervising him to make sure he doesn't take them off. I can see I'll have to send a LOT of kongs and lick mats with him!