Saturday, October 12, 2019

Kort

A young Kort doing Agility
Kort is now 11 1/2 years old.  He is not doing great.  His legs are arthritic, his feet have gone flat, he is overweight.  I am working on the weight but it takes time.  I know that getting weight off him will help with his problems. He is also unsteady on his legs.  If he turns around quickly, or sometimes for no reason, he stumbles , it sucks
.
Yesterday he fell down the last 4 stairs in the house.  He splayed at the bottom in a way I didn't know his hips could go :(  We have only one door in the house and he has to do stairs to get out.  He was already hesitant to go down them and now it takes him even longer to try.  It's not bad when I have days off but when I am working its not good.
Otherwise he is alert, eating and interacts with Brad and I and the other dogs.  I question his quality of life at times and I am sure it's not time yet.
I am scared however.  I can't lift him so I have been looking for ways to make his doing the stairs easier.  I am going to price getting the stairs carpeted to see if it is a feasible solution. I am not sure it will make any difference but it might.  A ramp is out of the question as it would be too steep and there is not enough room to make it more gradual. I even tried a harness around his rear end once but he totally freaked out so finding a solution has been difficult.

Kort has been such a good dog, we had a rough start as he was very reactive to other dogs and weird things like roller blades, but he ended up being an awesome performance dog for me.  We did conformation, obedience, agility, rally, and scenthurdle.  Its sad to see him go downhill with age.
I can't see the future but I am hoping to have Kort for quite awhile longer.
Kort doing Weave Poles


4 comments:

Fay said...

Hey, I have an idea for you...so I hope you read comments. For stair coverings check out: Everyspace Recycled Waterhog Mat, Stair Treads Set of Four. They are available at LLBean, and undoubtedly elsewhere, but LL has free shipping to Canada. $60 USD for 4. My only concern would be if their backing is sufficient that they don't move. I have a waterhog rug in my foyer and it doesn't move much. I suppose you could always tack them down. Anyway, 60 bucks is a good price compared to carpeting and reviews are really, really good. We have rugs all over the house now for Tali, who recently had a stroke..../Fay, Tali et al

onecollie said...

thanks Fay! I will check them out. I found some carpets treds and put them on the stairs, so far Kort is still hesitant to do the stairs, I'm hoping once he sees he wont slip again he will get better. He is the worst in the morning after sleeping all night, poor guy

Fay said...

I am in total sympathy with Kort. I need to pop out of bed and take Tali out on a leash, instead of letting him out the back door, and then I have to take out James....and I am still asleep! I love your posts; please keep us up to date. Been reading for a loooong time, just not commenting :)

Helen said...

I don't have any ideas for you, I hope you find a solution. That's the nice thing about Shelties, I can lift them; I carried one of my Shelties up and down stairs for two years. I hope Kort has many more happy years.