RvL83
16/52 That's far enough
Another week has passed. And what a week it was....
This photo was one of the better moments. A walk on our favorite estate. Open for public and it's a nice place. We love to come there. It's a great place for a walk and a bit of off leash practice. Now that she's getting older, I notice that everything I taught her has actually stuck!
Here we were practicing on Sit-Stay and Come. Each time I walked a bit further away. My wife is just outside the frame, enforcing the stay, but Skye's focused on me because "that's Dad walking away!"
The look she gave me this last time was priceless. As if she wanted to shout at me "that's far enough, Dad! Call me and I'll come storming at you!"
But it's not all fun and games unfortunately. Last week the vet took some x-rays of Skye's lungs. There were some signs of a mild pneumonia and she was given antibiotics.
Unfortunately, things didn't really improve that much. She coughs a little bit less but the vet expected a much bigger improvement. So she suggested to send the x-rays to a radiologist for further examination. His diagnosis shocked me: chronic bronchitis or COPD.
This shocked me for multiple reasons. First and foremost: how and why? She's still so young... Too young to have a condition like this. Did we miss something? Did we overlook the symptoms? We're both non-smokers and we don't allow others to smoke in our house so that can't be the reason. So what caused it? So many questions...
But second of all: I'm all too familiar with COPD unfortunately. My father was diagnosed COPD some 18 years ago and has died of COPD in 2021, only 71 years old and just 3 months before Skye was born.
And a couple of years after my father was diagnosed, my mother-in-law got the same diagnosis. Luckily, she's still in quite good health given her illness.
So I know how this can turn out and I don't like that. In fact, it scares me. It is as if COPD is hanging above our family like the Sword of Damocles.
Luckily, Skye's still the happy dog she was before. Always eager to play and walk. Always eager to steal my slippers :D
For now, a lot is still unknown. Skye's currently is prescribed a short course of prednisone, for two reason. Main reason is to get those inflammations under control. But also to see how she reacts to it. Chances are she is bound to use a inhaler for the rest of her life. Now, that will take some training...
16/52 That's far enough
Another week has passed. And what a week it was....
This photo was one of the better moments. A walk on our favorite estate. Open for public and it's a nice place. We love to come there. It's a great place for a walk and a bit of off leash practice. Now that she's getting older, I notice that everything I taught her has actually stuck!
Here we were practicing on Sit-Stay and Come. Each time I walked a bit further away. My wife is just outside the frame, enforcing the stay, but Skye's focused on me because "that's Dad walking away!"
The look she gave me this last time was priceless. As if she wanted to shout at me "that's far enough, Dad! Call me and I'll come storming at you!"
But it's not all fun and games unfortunately. Last week the vet took some x-rays of Skye's lungs. There were some signs of a mild pneumonia and she was given antibiotics.
Unfortunately, things didn't really improve that much. She coughs a little bit less but the vet expected a much bigger improvement. So she suggested to send the x-rays to a radiologist for further examination. His diagnosis shocked me: chronic bronchitis or COPD.
This shocked me for multiple reasons. First and foremost: how and why? She's still so young... Too young to have a condition like this. Did we miss something? Did we overlook the symptoms? We're both non-smokers and we don't allow others to smoke in our house so that can't be the reason. So what caused it? So many questions...
But second of all: I'm all too familiar with COPD unfortunately. My father was diagnosed COPD some 18 years ago and has died of COPD in 2021, only 71 years old and just 3 months before Skye was born.
And a couple of years after my father was diagnosed, my mother-in-law got the same diagnosis. Luckily, she's still in quite good health given her illness.
So I know how this can turn out and I don't like that. In fact, it scares me. It is as if COPD is hanging above our family like the Sword of Damocles.
Luckily, Skye's still the happy dog she was before. Always eager to play and walk. Always eager to steal my slippers :D
For now, a lot is still unknown. Skye's currently is prescribed a short course of prednisone, for two reason. Main reason is to get those inflammations under control. But also to see how she reacts to it. Chances are she is bound to use a inhaler for the rest of her life. Now, that will take some training...