[Dailydrool] slinky hounds

[Angelika Hastings]

Elvis’ story sounds a bit like Nigel’s except surgery was not mentioned and he was already neutered when he went down in the rear. 

He does have some movement to his rear legs and up until the last months they were able to sort of help propel him along. They don't hold his weight or push him, but I think they help level him. He hasn’t used his wheels in a couple of years as he will GOGOGO and his heart isn’t up to that anymore. When the vet suggested sending him to the bridge and my mother couldn’t care for him in his current physical state, droolers offered hope and I took him home for whatever time he had left.

Forward over 5 1/2 years and he is still here. He can’t use his legs, can't control his pee or bowel. But he IS a basset and likes to sniff and ‘hunt’ and do all the other stuff he’s always done. He is nearly deaf now and has cataracts, so his vision is limited. He still enjoys life and his bowl. He has slowed down a lot. He goes outside ( most often on our front porch which has a roof and is long enough for him to wander a bit) but also in the back yard many times a day. The frequency for the back yard really depends on the weather and my level of sanity ( or insanity) that day. Let me tell you a hound that slinks can pick up at least a gallon of muddy wetness in his fur. Like Nigel he has callouses from his slinking. I have tried various purchased or home made methods of covering him. None really work. Maybe if he was slinking across only very smooth surfaces, but not out in the real world. I feel terrible anytime he gets cut or scraped up- it doesn't happen often anymore. I have choice words for him when he goes ALL the way out back and then hollers for me to fetch him when he is too tired to come back, or when he goes down into our small ditch and of course can’t come out. When he breaks through the barrier on the wrap around porch so he can go down the ramp and into the backyard. Or when we go to a friends house and he ALWAYS goes down the hill in the yard that of course he can't get back up on. But he is a hound and I will allow him to be as much of one as I and he can, for as long as he is willing and able. He is 15 and 4 months old and I think is trying to suck all that he can out of life.

droolies, Angelika



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