Thank you, Nancy, and yeah there have been lots of ups and downs thinking this is it, well maybe not quite yet. Ester, our lab, had cancer and she suffered from it, until fourteen when she passed. It was hard to see her go through it. I'm not sure which is best, putting them down or waiting to they pass.
@Nancy Hart, she did kind of snap back, She's up eating and drinking again this morning, and Stool is solid again. She seems to be almost like a cat with nine lives to me. I took some photos of her this morning, and of her feed and water box I made her, which works great, she can not turn her water or food pan over with it. But I'm having trouble getting them to load, for some reason. Maybe post a few if they ever load.
Molly this morning. After she ate, she went back to her house to rest. The food water, and wood box works.
Moving along, had to cut the grass yesterday, and was already a foot tall; always something to do, and never slows down. Plants are getting pretty now, fixing to clean raise bed and remove some of the older plants from it, so next month, I can put some of these new ones in. Still haven't started the lasagna garden yet, but I've got plenty of cardboard, leaves, and compost never enough, green nitrogen, and perlite, to get it going. Need more places to put all these plants, so fixing to get busy on that; if nothing else tears up or needs fixing. Hope everyone's having a wonderful day.
What happened when you tried pulling the skin on the back of Molly’s neck to see if she was dehydrated or not, like @Nancy Hart mentioned doing ? I have heard of people testing their skin to see if it would snap back into shape right away or not, and it seems to me like it would definitely work great on testing Molly for dehydration, too. If the skin doesn’t come right back into shape, then you at least can know that she is dehydrated, @Jake Smith .
Molly looks like she is suffering, from internal pain. They try to hide pain. She is not hiding it. See how she is hunched up. She is trying her best, maybe just to please you. I'm so sorry you both are going through this.
When I rescued horses that had been starved, or were just too old and could not chew their food well enough to digest it, I made them a gruel with pig food (which is mixed grain ground almost into a powder) and soaked beet pulp pellets, and since it was already so ground up, they were able to digest it better and gain some weight back, and the beet pulp helped with their skin and coat as well. I try to buy dog food that has the beet pulp in it because I know how healthy it is for the dogs, but you might try making Molly a gruel with some fine ground cereal (or put some oatmeal into the blender for a few seconds), and add some ground up chicken or hamburger and cook that for her, maybe blend up some carrots and also add an egg to the mixture, and those are all things that will nourish her and be easy for her to digest, and will give her more liquid also.
She pops back slowly, but is drinking more water, than eating; always been a big drinker of water. After she had her first stroke, all she would do was drink water for nine days. I knew she was dying, but on the tenth day she started eating, Marie's salmon patties, and that's been two years now. I don't think she's dehydrated, drinks too much to be. I do think she may be diabetic making her drink so much. In photos, you see how skinny she is, and we have fed her all she will eat, and at her age 17 years old, almost 18. We can't get any weight on her. I've been cooking for her for the last few years, and she still hasn't gained an oz. I do scrabbled eggs in the morning, hamburgers evenings, chicken all the time, and high-protein dog food mixed in. Just do not want to go making a pin cushion out of her, or would have her checked for diabetes. The daughter said her daughter hates giving shots to Romeo, and Romeo hates taking them.
At her age, I'm sure she is, but she keeps going, drinking and eating, I can't see having her put down. That's why I feel so guilty like I'm doing the wrong thing. Today she ate twice, so far drank well, and walked about two thousand feet, with Marie around the trail, of her own free will. She walked up to Marie and wanted to walk, so off they went, while I was weeding the raised bed. It's just strange how she keeps going; she "has nine lives". She never whines, at all. If she is just doing it for me, seems she would still whine at times. I don't want to make her suffer, at all. I can't see putting her down when she acts like she wants to live. Back in my mind; I keep thinking that I'm wrong. It's ruff on everyone.
Mollys now on her electric heat pad, she likes it a lot. I cleaned the house, cooked and Jake did some weeding in the garden so tomorrow I will double dig it and get it ready. I also have a wagon full of logs to pile, not dure where to put them, maybe lay em under the lasagna garden we plan to start , not sure.
I will check on the beet pulp to mix in her food, haven't heard about that before. We thought about adding oatmeal to help her stomach too. I've been making sure her food is solfter and easier for her to eat.
I am not sure if she would eat beet pulp like horses do, but some dog foods have beet pulp as part of the ingredients. The main thing I was thinking was how hard it was for the old skinny horses to digest regular grain and horse feeds because of their teeth and jaws, and they just kind of slurped things down whole. When I read about using pig food and making a gruel with it by adding water, they could slurp it down and it would digest because it was blended up so fine. Some of the hot cereals , like cream of wheat or malt-o-meal, are pulverized so that if you cooked those for her and added some blended chicken and carrots when you cook it, it is already partially digested by the time she gets it swallowed, so she can get more nutrition from it and it does not just go right through her digestive system.
I will check on it and try, she's been good on her bowels until I put her out. Ever since her system changed, she has been on rice chicken carrots, hamburgers, and rice. Not easy to help her gain when her stomach has surely shrunk, and she won't eat much. I'm worn out thinking she giving up, but then she does better for a while. She ate three times today, but not large portions, she does try but has a hard time it seems. I added some dog food to her food, which has 28% protein and 20 % fat, I figured that should help her too. She's on her bed tonight, with her heat pad set at 4 and it goes to 6, with two towels over it and a blanket on top of her. Try to keep her warm, it's in the 40s here at night, the last two.
Today is not so bad. Did usual, taking care of animals, greenhouse, cleaned and changed well filter, and bleached lines out. Had company, the couple who ownes a lot beside us. Been a long time since they came. Nice to see them again. They're trying to decide if they gonna leave Tampa and move here, on their property. Nice visit, and lots of laughs. I do hope all of you, are having a wonderful day.