[Dailydrool] Hound down in the rear

[Angelika]

My mom had a 5/6 year old hound who suddenly couldn’t walk and was in pain. Some meds and 3 weeks of crate rest and he appeared good as new. They said he had spondylosis. He was never overweight.

Fast forward three years, he is 9 years old and I am houndsitting him at my house. After doing the basset 500 the night before with his sister, he is able to get off the bed in the morning and walk a few steps to the doorway of the room I am in. Long story short after a few days at the vets and doped to the gills they said to to put him down. No surgery was offered. Fellow droolers offered hope and I brought him home to care for him until...

He never did walk again- once he took two steps after I had put him upright. If you held his tail ( not his weight by the tail- but you had to hold his tail) he could do a wobbly drunken sailor walk. After some time he had movement and some feeling in his legs and tail- none of it voluntary. I weaned him off the pred that the vet said he would be on for the rest of his life. Stopped the morphine and asked for muscle relaxers as he was so tight. He received pain meds regular until I was sure he wasn’t in pain. He took 1000mg B12 every day. Also 1000mg of L-Glutamine. He was incontinent- sometimes he seemed to know he had to go, but he had no control over it. Belly bands are about as useful on a scooting hound as a Tuxedo on a slinky. Oh the excitement of a pee’d in pad... more often than not the belly band or the floor was what took the brunt. UTI’s and urine skin burns are a constant early companion no matter how clean you try to keep them. Once the skin toughens up, the urine burns stop. Poop... I could go on for about a dozen whole digests on the ways and forms and places a scooting hound can leave poop behind... anal glands became my responsibility not his. Brush burns on his tender belly skin were common. Just because he couldn’t walk did not imply to him that perhaps he should not race across the cement or blacktop when I said not to. the skin on his back legs calloused over time, as did his belly skin. He learned to use the ramp to go out. We learned to keep the door closed- he had no problem taking himself out- regardless of the fact that he could not bring himself in. Stairs... again no problem for him. We kept a gate up so he wouldn’t fall ( or go) down the basement stairs. Same for the porch. He was the only one who couldn’t walk...and the one who would ‘run’ away given the chance.

He was not in pain- other than occasionally from the related afflictions. He did use wheels for a few years, until it became too much for his heart. He would gogogo until his tongue was purple. He was diagnosed with Lymphoma when he was 12. He took K9-Immunity for that as well as other homeopathic meds. Nothing stopped him. Laundry- lots and lots of laundry. No one in this house has as many towels, blankets, belly bands and beds as he did. Some days I washed them all. Twice. Bathing- I got so good at bathing him that I could do it in a shallow tote in minutes ( if the weather was nice- if not we used the shower). Some days I did it up to three times. There were times I bathed him when he was still damp from the last time around. It is not easy to care for a ‘downed’ hound. But it has it’s rewards. I didn't know I was signing up for nearly a 6 year stint. I’d do it again. He had the disposition for it. Never grumped no matter what I needed to do to him. He forgave me every time I grumped. At least I hope he did. Most mornings I was cleaning up a pooped-up hound and his bedding before I did anything else. 

Yesterday marked a month that he’s been gone.

Angelika



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