It's been a very long time since my last post, almost a whole year! It's been an absolutely crazy year so far. Yada and I were taking lessons this summer with my friend Hannah and doing so great! Finally I have Yada's canter under control and she is just fabulous on her right lead canter. I'm so in love with this girl! She's just perfect. This winter we've also done a bunch of lunging and she can finally free lunge in perfect circles around me in the arena. I can't wait for the snow to go away and lunge her in the big outdoor arena and see if she can canter just as nicely in a bigger space. It's also weird to think that Yada will soon be seven years old in March! I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with this girl. =]
To go along with all of this good stuff, we've had a lot of bad luck in our family. This summer, my aunt's Dachshund, Ratty, needed spinal surgery. She came home and he was dragging his back end. So instead of buying a no turn riding mower for her farm, she got surgery for Ratty.
After that, my aunt had a lot of issues with her leg and the doctors were talking about possible amputation if things didn't go well. Luckily, things healed up and she still has her leg. This is the same leg that she had surgery to remove tumors and it's the reason she can no longer ride horses. She had to take a lot of time off work, teaching chemistry at a college, and now she's healed up.
In November, we had to put our Spanish Mastiff down due to his hips causing him too much pain. He was on triple the pain dosage just to be comfortable enough to lay down. A couple of weeks later, I got my mom a kitten to keep Brie, my mom's long coat German Shepherd, company so she wouldn't be home alone while everyone was at work or school. Four weeks after, when we were getting his second round of shots, we mentioned how his eye had changed. The iris was getting darker and he started to get spots on his cornea. After multiple blood tests, we found out he had FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) which is untreatable, uncurable, and 100% Fatal. According to vet research, the longest a cat has survived after diagnosis is 24 months. The least amount of time is just weeks. Knowing he was terminal, we opted out of neutering him and decided not to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars treating any symptoms he might have because it would not lengthen his life. Tuesday, February 2nd, I noticed him really struggling to stand and walk. His back end was losing control. He was already losing sight in his left eye so he was clumsy without his depth perception, but this was different. Wednesday morning, he started losing control of his bowels and he started having diarrhea. That's when we decided it was time and we said goodbye to our kitten, Guinness, at 3:30pm with our vet who originally diagnosed him. Eye issues, URIs, neurological issues, diarrhea, lack of appetite, and such are all symptoms of FIP. It can be spread through feces and we're assuming that's how he got it. After you have a cat who has FIP, you should wait 30 days - 6 months before bringing another cat into your house and throw away all toys, dishes, and litter box to avoid future infection. Wash all blankets or surfaces this cat has been on.
Also, Wednesday morning we heard that my uncle (married to the same aunt with leg issues and the Dachshund) had collapsed and was headed to the hospital with the EMTs. My cousin, thank goodness, happened to be home, heard him collapse, and had to be talked through CPR to get him breathing. It took a while to get a pulse back with him in the ambulance. My aunt had just left for work 15 minutes before this happened and headed straight back. Doctors had to do a lot of tests to see if he had a heart attack or a stroke. He had to be under a medically induced coma and needed a neck brace in case he had any injuries and he needed a breathing tube. Friday morning, he was finally responding to voices and moving all of his arms and legs. That rules out stroke! YAY! We discovered he had a heart attack due to an arrhythmia in his heart. Today, he got his breathing tube out. We're all very happy with his progress, even though right now he is still in the ICU. We've done a lot of phone calls and text messages to stay updated so that way my cousin and aunt can tell one person and that person tells everyone else.
However, to go along with this, a neighbor's dog came over, there was a fight over dog food bowls, and the neighbor's dog attacked and killed Ratty. My aunt is devastated and if she sees the neighbor's dog near her property again, she can't promise that dog will make it home again. Sounds like that dog needs to be contained on a leash, in a fence, or on a run.
Hopefully this is the end of the family's bad luck. I'm not sure how much of this I can take but hopefully my uncle keeps improving and can make it home soon!
