November 15, 2010

We’re back on the road, headed south for our winter trip. We left home about 8:30 this morning and arrived at Hi-Way Haven in Sutherlin, OR, about 3:00 pm. This is our third stay at this park – we stayed here one night each way on last year’s trip. It misted and rained on us most of the way here, but it wasn’t cold (stayed in the 50’s the whole way).

Now for news about Shadow. He has been diagnosed in the early stages of kidney failure, also high blood pressure. It was discovered during routine tests for recent teeth extractions – about 6-7 teeth had to be pulled because they were loose and/or decayed. Don’t understand how they could have gotten so bad, as I have always brushed his teeth 2-3 times per week, but I guess that’s how things go.

Shaddy is now on medication for the high blood pressure – an ACE inhibitor – plus the medication he has been taking for over 2 years for Cushing’s Syndrome. He’s also taking fish oil capsules and has new low-protein food for kidney function. The fish oil capsules are a replacement for fish oil liquid, which we tried first and Shad rejected.

He hates the new food. They told us to introduce it gradually over the course of a week by mixing increasing amounts with his regular food. The reason for this approach is that the low protein food is bland. So, he hates the new food. It’s not going well. We started with 1/4th new food, 3/4th old food. He ate a little bit the first evening, but then we added the fish oil liquid and he rejected the whole mess. Back to the drawing board. Now he won’t touch his food with the new food, even without the fish oil. He has hardly eaten anything since Thursday. We are starting over with just a tiny amount of the new food – less than 1/4th. Stay tuned.