larkinthemeadow-blog - Tumblr blog

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

Gaea at 4 years

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

Goodness but we’ve been away for an age. I wonder how many pornbots follow us now? (Answer: so many.)

Things that have happened since I last logged on:

• Lark turned 8 years old in October! And had another noncancerous lump checked.

• He got to be a watermelon for Halloween because I love puns.

• His eyesight has gotten worse recently.

How has everyone been? I’ll try to remember to actually log in now and then aaah.

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

After Bullard's Beach, it was time to head down into the California Redwoods and make a stop at the ~*Trees of Mystery*~ with their giant Paul Bunyan statue. (That's chest hair.)

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

After the lovely Cannon Beach, we drove South through Manzanita and stayed a night in the very wet Yachats (ya-haats) before driving down to Bullards Beach! Our first camping on the trip~

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

Feels like I’ve been to the ends of the world and back with this guy.

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

Next stop on our roadtrip after Portland, Oregon, was the fabulous and wonderfully dog friendly Cannon Beach! Aah, the sea~

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

My little bogzoi…swampzoi…bogdog…

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

snow boye

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

Soggy doggo at a Portland dogpark.

I figured that I might as well post pictures from our 13,500 mile roadtrip on here. I miss driving long distances!

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

Long time no see, here is some Lark in the wild flowers on the side of the road somewhere in Texas while on our roadtrip.

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

There is a house down the way that is overflowing with poppies, so of course I took Lark there~

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

Six is a good age to start growing in a neck ruff, right? 🤔 (Seriously, that whispy fluff on his chest just grew in. Uh. Lark, why now? 😂)

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

undefined

Lark is so, so bad at catching treats. And these were all underhand tosses! (He caught one in the end~)

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

Lark is not a swimming doggo, but he definitely likes to wade.

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

I went to a CAP trial to pick up a slip lead, and Pod ended up getting to run as well. Lucky boy!

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

Happy May Day!

[larkinthemeadow-blog]

So, I said I’d let you know about our Exciting New Year, and here I am.

Early in January, Lark, my parents and I went on a nice little road trip down to Bend, Oregon, and then over to the sea, where Lark ran and ran and got salty and sandy.  He was a disgusting sand monster, and so I decided to give him a bath the day after we got home.  It was all normal, everything was fine, until I started blow drying him.  He hates the blow dryer, but this was something wildly different.

He just sort of... collapsed in the bathtub, and started shaking.  I didn’t know what was going on, but he couldn’t stand up and his head was moving back and forth, his eyes going everywhere.  I didn’t know if he was having a stroke or what.  I managed to lift him out of the bath tub and paid, then had to carry him to the car because he could not walk and kept falling down :(  Got him to the car, and he continued to rock his head back and forth, panting and drooling.  I called his vet’s office’s emergency line, and they suggested I take him to the nearby emergency vet, so off we blazed, my heart in my throat.

Got to the Emergency Vet and had to carry him inside.  They tried to get him on a gurney, but decided to carry him into the back instead.  After an age, a vet came out and told me that he was stabilized but still had extreme vertigo.  She sat me down and told me he has Vestibular Disease, or Old Dog Syndrome, and to get an MRI done of his head to make sure that it wasn’t cancer.  I was able to take him home that night and he got to spend the night in his crate so that he didn’t harm himself by falling over or running into anything.

The next day, I had already had an appointment to a Neurologist up North in regards to his weird back leg.  They were supposed to figure out what was up with maybe his back, but it turned into a day of head treatment.  The vet said that we could either do an MRI of his head, or just... watch how he was in the next few days.  Hah, no, I’m a worrywart, so we got an MRI done of his head (and his back, for his physical therapy/rehab vet) and we found out that he had a Middle Ear Infection!  A really bad one!  That is what caused the vertigo and the vestibular episode!  So we got to go home with a month’s worth of antibiotics.  (He also charmed the pants off of the vet techs, dizzy and drugged as he was.)

He is back to his normal self now, though he sometimes gets a little off balanced at times.  Nothing like the beginning of January, though.  I’m forever thankful that it wasn’t something more dire- the ear infection is cleared, and at a check up with his normal vet, she explained Vestibular Disease more clearly to me.  There is a chance he will have another episode sometime down the line, but she said not to worry about it.  Phew!