Tate Update

Today Tate had his follow up appt. with our vet. It has been 2 weeks since he began his antibiotics for his enlarged prostate/infected anal gland. His prostate has definitely shrunk & his anal gland is better as well :) I knew he was better as his appetite has come back & he is his silly crazy self again :) He still weighs 60Ilbs but I am working on that.
I booked his neuter, he will have the surgery on July 12th. I am ok so far & not too worried. I may however be a basket case on the day, I always stress a bit when my dogs have anesthetic for the first time. Tate is 9 years old as well which worries me a bit, however I totally trust my vet.
He will be having laser surgery. I wasn't going to have it as I didn't for Kort, but my vet kind of insisted on it as he is an older dog & there is less "oozing" afterwards as she put it :) She did not insist the same when Kort was done so I totally trust that she thinks this is best for Tate. He will also have to follow up with 2 more weeks of antibiotics after, just to be safe.
This is the last time I will ever leave my male dog intact. The collie I had before Tate had an issue with his prostate as well, he was 8 yrs old when I had to have him neutered.
Live & learn I guess :)

It's Gotcha Day :) !!!

Today is Kort's gotcha day :), hard to believe 3 years have gone by !......

Kort's breeder Dave introduces Kort to Tate for the first time......

It is love at first sight for Kort who follows Tate everywhere :)......

Time to go to your new home :)......

It's been a great journey so far♥looking forward to the next 3 :)

Cookie ??

Lately I have been doing alot of reading about "being the cookie" for your dog. In other words your dog needs to find you to be the most exciting thing on earth. More fun then other dogs, people, rabbits :) :) etc. I have been struggling with this. I am quite a hyper happy person so to speak, but I can't seem to transfer the excitement to my dog for very long.
I get tired !
Last night we did some Obedience & Scenthurdle work at a local park, there were tons of people, children, dogs, bikes, roller bladers & skate boarders. I did great for the first 10 minutes or so of warm up, but then poof, I was done. So I just tried doing some short bursts of work then putting Kort away. The only thing is I get frustrated with myself & my lack of ideas to pump Kort up , it means I can't get as much training in as I would like. I do realize that a short, happy session is better then a long boring one, but I want to have a long happy session :)
Scenthurdle was great, Kort is always ready & pumped up for that so it was a great way to end our evening. This weekend is an agility trial as well so that also makes Kort happy, I just have to work on myself.

Home!

I'm home !!! I had a wonderful visit with my mom in Thunder Bay, it was so good to see her & she is doing so well considering she had a stroke 2 months ago. She is a miracle that is for sure.
Tate & Kort did well at Wendy & Amanda's places so I am happy & very grateful to them for taking the boys for such a long period of time.
Now to get back into a routine again, no more sleeping in until noon for me :)

" The Shave :) "

Not so bad right?....right?? :))

Right side......

Left side......

Close up......

The Diagnosis

What a day....I left at 11 am & got home at 8pm.
The Calgary C.A.R.E Centre was a amazing!
What a wonderful, professional, caring group of Doctors & staff.
Tate had his ultrasound without sedation, although they were not able to get him on his back so they did it while he was on his side. The ultrasound showed no cancer in any of his organs but it did show a very large prostate with several cysts around it, as well as within it. The next step was to get a biopsy to make sure the cysts were benign, for this he would require sedation, it is a needle that is used to take the samples, so you can imagine how that might feel :)
The nurses kept me updated & each time a procedure was done a the vet would come out & speak to me. I will have the results by Monday. Tate is on antibiotics for now as he also has an infected anal gland.
I did some reading tonight on cysts of the prostate & one of the signs is anorexia, lets hope that getting this under control will be all Tate needs to put his weight back on.
He will most likely have to be neutered however, I am ok with that as well, anything he needs done I will do.
I know one thing, once my next dog is done showing they will be neutered, this is the second time I have had a male have a prostate problem. My last collie Drake was neutered at 8yrs of age for the same thing, he didn't have cysts, but he had blood in his urine, & 3 rounds of antibiotics didn't help.
So, I am heading to Thunder Bay to see my mom on Saturday. Tate will be in good hands with Wendy who has said she will have no problem giving Tate his pills :)
I am off to bed, what a long day it has been :)
Good night!

Tomorrows A Big Day :)

Tate has been feeling under the weather for awhile now. He has no appetite at all, I am lucky if I can get him to eat once a day. I have been adding satin balls to his food for increased calories, & I hoped it would get him more interested in eating, I mean what dog doesn't like hamburger!
He still wasn't eating as much as I hoped. He weighs only 60 Ilbs right now, that is less then Kort :(
I took him in to my vet & did a full blood panel, of course everything came back ok. I had a sit down with my vet yesterday & she said that had she not examined Tate, she would have thought he was a perfectly healthy dog looking at the bloodwork. Clearly he is not healthy & bloodwork doesn't always tell a true picture of what may be going on inside.
So, I am booked in tomorrow to have an ultrasound done on Tate to check him out completely. I am going to the C.A.R.E. center in Calgary. I was so lucky to get in as they are booked weeks in advance. There just happened to be a cancellation!
I was supposed to leave for Thunder Bay tomorrow to be with my mom while my sister goes on a holiday. My mom had a stroke a 2 months ago. I have cancelled the plane reservations until after I am done in Calgary. Fingers crossed there is nothing wrong internally, my best outcome would be if it is nothing more then Inflammatory Bowel disease, or better yet, Tate just being fussy !!
To have the ultrasound done Tate will have to be shaved :( I have heard that it could be just his belly, or it could be all of his sides as well.
My friend Wendy from Paws On The Run Photography suggested taking some "before" pictures. I thought it was a wonderful idea as it could be quite some time before his coat grows back.
So here a a few of my favourites for you to enjoy, the complete album will be on my Facebook page.
Thank you Thank you Thank you Wendy !!!!!!

A Day In The Life .....

Of me !!!
Seriously, what could be more exciting then seeing what I did today ? LOL!
Well ok, lots of things could be more exciting but this was exciting for me, so you get to watch :)
Listen to the videos & you can hear the infamous Lethbridge winds howling in the background !
Enjoy!!!......






Later in the afternoon I headed out with Kim to do some teeter practice, the teeter & the weaves are taking Kort the longest to do, I was so happy with the results today!
Good thing too as we have a trial on July 1st!!......

Back In The Day

I was going through some albums to find pictures for my mom when I came upon these....
They are from 1994, ahhh, the good old days :) LOL!

Celebrating my Birthday in Style !......

The Great Fisher Woman !!!......

Brad with his catch......

Junior High Graduation

Congratulations to my niece Adrienne who just graduated from Junior High ♥♥

Just Kort :)

Happy Birthday!

Today is my sister Joanne's Birthday....
Happy Birthday Dude! LOL!!!

Rain

It's been raining for a month :( well ok, maybe not a full month, but almost :)
Today at work Amanda videoed the dogs outside playing, they don't care if it's raining, it actually makes them crazier :)
I love dogs !

Today's Newsflash....

All of this.....

Does NOT Make......

This.....

Sigh, Rain Rain go Away , go bug someone else today :)

Agility Trial Pictures

It was so hard to pick just a few pictures from the 60 that Wendy took of the boys at last weekends Agility trial!
Here are some of my favourites from the weekend......





Wendy managed to capture a few great photos of Tate as well even though he barely made it through his run as he wasn't feeling well......

Sunshine

I love the sunshine & being outside, I got alot accomplished today because of it :)

Here Kort is posing with my new bike, we go riding every morning now before it gets too warm, Kort loves it !......

Kort was smart & stayed cool in his house while I planted all my flowers ......

The finished products :)...........






Such an awesome day !

Decal

I finally got around to putting this decal on my van. Maureen bought if for me at Christmas, I LOVE it !!!
Thanks Maureen!