Kyna

Well it has been two years. When Isla died I was happy for the life she had. I still am, but I miss her. It becomes more apparent to me as time goes by that she was an incredibly special dog. In the meantime we did get another dog and it hasn't work, after a 3 week trial she is going back to the breeder, ironically today. It didn't work with us, our other dog, or our son. So we are going to give it another year and get a puppy.

A very sad day a year ago. But what wonderful and happy memories. Thank you for sharing your life with me. I am blessed.

Thank you everyone for your kind words. I am very happy with Isla's life and, even at peace with her death. But I do miss her. We have been talking a lot about how she was when she was younger. She just never wanted to stop. She was a beautiful old dog but I do think Border Collies, of all dogs, age gracefully - they still really want you to tell them what to do and then they do it, then there is a brief look of 'don't tell me what to do because I'll do it and it hurts' then 'tell me what to do". Whereas some other breeds will just lie there happily wagging their tails. I think it is a 'dogs mind' chapter 13 on aging that talks about the set neuropathways of an old dog. It was really interesting to see it in reality. Our 5 year old dog has changed over the last week - he stays closer, comes into our sons room during story time, even lets our son hug him. As my husband said it is the end of an era. Not yet though - there were four of us who got Border Collies around the same time (within 3 years - 5 dogs altogether) - Isla's sister is the last one living. Thanks again everyone. It really is wonderful to get such kind and warm support from all of you. I too wish you happiness in life and in memory with your respective dogs.

Isla died just 11 days ago. It was the most difficult decision I have ever made but in my heart I know it was the right decision and that she deserved that from me. It was tragic and beautiful. She was a once in a lifetime dog. We worked in the bush together. We attended the church of agility together. We trained other dogs together. We went to Europe twice together. We rode in cars, power boats, canoes, helicopters, float planes, and trucks together. We walked together. We camped together. We hiked together. We swam together. We laughed together. We cried together. We ate together. We moved cities together. We changed jobs together. We visited the elderly together. We dumped boyfriends together. We got married together. We cared for our baby together. When she died, we were together. Almost anything I have done in the last 14 years she was with me. Right beside me. There is a void in my life that used to be filled with the softest fur. She was a huge presence. She made me be a better person. I loved her greatly.

Wow. Thanks for the info. The vet graphed her episodes and they don't seem to follow a seasonal allergy pattern. My brilliant husband deduced that her ear infections actually started 4.5 years ago (a year before we moved) but right when she changed from Adult food to Senior (Lamb to Chicken). Here ears actually looked clear this time. So we are going to: 1. Change her slowly back to Lamb, and 2. Culture her ears the next time an ear bothers her. Of course an elimination diet may be in the future. Thanks for helping us work through this. Kyna

Hi. Since moving from Alberta to BC, our girl Isla has recurring ear infections. We live in a relatively dry area. She got spear grass in her ear right when we moved here (3.5 years ago). The removal and subsequent infection seems to have caused permanent deafness in her left ear. The infections are usually in her left (deaf) ear but are often also in her right ear. We see the vet, on average, every 3 months. The vet prescribes Surolan and I clean her ears regularly with Oti-cleanse and/or Derma Pet Malacetic HC Otic. Isla is doing great for her age but the ear infections and then the week of treatment really take a toll on her. If she has an infection in her good ear, the liquid Surolan causes her to be deaf for the week of the treatment. She is also a stoic dog but when her ears are bad she yelps at getting an ear scratch. What else can we do??? Thanks, Kyna

I only renew this old post because, when I was told someone dear to me was going to buy a puppy from the breeder for which this thread was started, I searched it here and found this post. I forwarded it to her prior to her purchase and she bought the puppy last year. The puppy had an undescended testicle and now has hip displasia.

Hi John, Welcome to the boards and the world of Border Collies!! You have received some terrific advice on playing. You mentioned Jack 'always seems to want something'. I grew up with Black Labs and my first dog as an adult was a beagle cross. I find with our Border Collie's they always have an eye on you or know what you are up to. Our older dog (now 12) has just recently (last 2 years) stopped 'watching' me - she still follows me from room to room but I think she sleeps more deeply - our younger dog (3.5), no matter where he is in the house seems to have an 'eye' on me (I can feel it from another room . When I met my husband years ago (a Golden Retriever man) he asked if you ever got used to the 'watching'. I think it is just something Border Collies do and can be perceived as wanting something. Now though, when they seem to want something, they do, a bathroom break, water, or their clocks are telling them it is dinner time or time for a walk (they are usually right). But it has taken years to get to know these signs. I agree that Jack needs time to settle in and that you may need to teach him to play, but I have also found Border Collies to be.... well.... a little bit different All the best of luck and Have fun with him!!

The Truth??? Everyone's truth is different and is based on their own beliefs and experiences. My 'truth' is I don't believe in feeding my dogs cooked or raw bones. And I could get a handful of vets to agree with me and a handful to challenge me. My thoughts? Everyone needs to do their own research and come to a decision that they can live with and then argue it out on these Boards

Our dental vet insists on pre-screen within 3 months prior to a procedure. We really don't like putting the dogs under and with Isla (12 yrs old), we left her with some folks who gave her big boiled bones (for 2 weeks 8 years ago). We have been paying for it ever since - literally - she fractured ALL her molars in that two week period and as each one decays we have it removed. She also broke a canine and has knocked out some her bottom lower teeth. With Rock it was a really difficult decision to get his teeth cleaned because of the risk of anaesthetic. We got him at a year old and his teeth were stained black - we tried for a year to get them cleaner and then decided to get his teeth cleaned so we could differentiate rot from discoloration - fortunately he had not rot. For us, if their gums look good and there aren't any black spots receding into the tooth and if the root isn't exposed we don't get their teeth cleaned. Teeth cleaning is usually something we do if they are going under for something else. We don't feed raw so we clean their teeth (brushing and topical treatments - though not as often as we should)..... It is tragic when a dog (or a person) goes under for something minor and never comes out.

I have been thinking about getting Isla treated for overall stiffness but much of her pain comes from Spondylosis so I am not sure how effective that would be since it is a bone/structural issue. It is very interesting though and great to see!

Rock, our 3.5 yr old boy still pees on his front paw every now and then - at first it really bothered us and now, well, it is just something he does. Every now and then he also pees on Isla's head... What can you do? Like the dust monsters in the corner we just all live with it.

Hi, I can't remember all the risks - I know we choose to do the pre-anesthetic panel for our senior dog anytime she needs a procedure - she has some historical issues - elevated BUN, sometimes protein in her urine - so we check her kidney function and put her on IV fluids. The young fella has only gone under 2x - 1x for neuter and 1x for teeth cleaning (they were really discolored and we wanted to know if it was decay or what!). We did a blood panel for him as a baseline but may not do that again until he gets older - he's got other issues for which we test his blood as well. We travel 8 hours to a dental vet and she charges $900 CND for the cleaning - we do the blood panel before we go which is about $60. That ~$900 covers IV which, even if there isn't a problem, we opt to do. Good luck!

I think the capacity to love is unlimited. I think each dog is an individual - and it is partially about expectations. When I was a child I couldn't imagine loving dogs more than the dogs we had. Then I got my first dog and I couldn't imagine loving a dog more, he died and I got the older dog we have now and again, I couldn't imagine loving a dog more than her, now we have our younger dog and I love him heaps - I know I'll feel the same way about him one-day. So now I try not to judge and compare - I try to just accept each dog for what they bring to my life. I have been pretty lucky though - although they all have had their idiosychracies I haven't had to deal with major issues. There are no gaurantees though - I have seen people who don't like their dog due to some sort of personality trait or medical problem. My 2 cents though is to allow a single dog to mature into him/herself before getting another dog which, in my world, takes about 3 years.

I am starting to see how common spondylosis is (even our vet has it!!). I am sorry to hear about your old girls knee. It is one thing to see a young dog laid up with an injury but the chronic pain of old age is disheartening. For me, Isla has been such a great dog that I want her to enjoy her 'dotage' and get old as painlessly as possible. She now has about 6 or 7 growths ranging from little warty types to one big fatty growth and a little skin tag here and there - we get them aspirated if they look suspect but at her age I just don't want to put her through more surgery unless it is really necessary. Last year she needed to be anaesthetased because she had spear grass in her ears - 2x and then she needed a tooth pulled - so she was under 3 times in almost as many months - it took her a long time to recover. It is wonderful to hear how you all just accept your dogs issues and- I wouldn't expect it on the boards but in our community there are lots of people who would 'give a dog back' based on a health issue that may cost them money or for which they may have to modify their lifestyle. I just love old dogs though - I always have.

With Isla we are guessing that it is environmental because she has only been symptomatic in the last 6 months. That said, she is pretty stoic so it could be genetic. I have lost touch with the breeder but am good friends with one of Isla's sisters owners - their dog is a much calmer, smaller dog and has very limited health problems compared with Isla - no sign of back problems. Isla's spondylosis isn't 'that' advanced which is good considering her age - she still has decent space between her discs. It must be difficult at 6 years old for you to watch Mick's activity - even at 12 it is hard to keep Isla from ripping around - that said we do have a 3.5 year old Border Collie as well. When Isla has flare ups we do walk them separately which has actually been really nice - it forces me to work one-on-one with each dog and they both seem to get a lot out of it. For us the main thing is the separate walks and my husband built a ramp for the car/truck. She slips at as she is first walking up the stairs sometimes but we are usually behind her and are ready to catch her. Eventually I can see having to put a gate at the top of the stairs - which we will have to anyway when our baby starts wondering around. A friend of mine always adopts Rotweiller's - her dog died last winter - he had advanced spondylosis at 9 - she rescued another one this summer - ~2 years old - she seemed fine and my friend who is a tri-athelete was looking forward to trail running with her new, young, healthy dog. The new dog has much further advanced spondylosis than her old dog! But she is a dog lover and walks her dogs and then does her runs.

That is interesting - I am glad that we had Isla x-rayed to diagnose the current problem but it also taught me a lot - there have been times when I thought she may have hurt herself but just picked herself up and kept going. In the future I will question the event vs. the dogs reaction more strongly - some dogs are just so exuberant - it is hard to know if they are hurt. Even now something will happen on a walk - a patch of deep snow or a rogue ball that she has to twist for and I wonder (and am learning) if it is too much.

I can't believe I am going to write this because I have always been anti-TV..... At 38 weeks pregnant I am loving our TV. We gave each other an HD TV and PVR for Christmas and got the movie channels. I have never bought a new TV and prior to moving in with my husband (boyfriend at the time) I never had cable! It is the best! I sleep from about 10 to midnight, then e-mail, read, grump about, and watch TV until about 4:30 AM!! LOL (I have gone a little maniacal - now I know why my parents are crazy, it starts with pregnancy). The PVR is great because I can record shows in the day in case I can't sleep! Favourite show is definitely Chuck. Every now and then a show catches the dogs attention - it is pretty amusing Okay, now I am going to go hang my head in shame

Hi there, I found this interesting: We had Isla's back x-rayed a few months ago because she was having mobility problems, she is otherwise a healthy, slim active girl, full of energy. The diagnosis is spondolosis (sp?) and perhaps a bit of degenerative disk disease. We are treating her with modified activity levels - different kinds of play - we don't take her on deep snowshoe trips, we walk on compacted easier surfaces and play a lot of catch vs. fetch. Every now and then we give her some anti-inflamatories and she is on a joint complex. Anyway, the interesting thing is the history the xray gave us(?). She has been our pet since she was 8 weeks old - she did agility and she was my companion dog as a field biologist/forester. She sleeps inside on a plush pillow and has had a pretty nice life. She has always been a bombastic dog, rolling over herself and if/when hurt, she has always been stoic. That said - the xray showed that she has a handful of different little bone irregularities - each looks like a healed injury (to my untrained eye). The vet didn't venture a guess but I was wondering if these could be old, undetected injuries. It is amazing how fasinating I find my dogs! Kyna

That is one CUTE puppy!

Hi There, I have been going through this with Rock for the last 3 years and received much of the excellent advise you have received here on the thread I posted "Rock Needs New Food - Sensitive Stomach" (http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.php?showtopic=21475&hl=kyna). I have done a lot of experimenting and we have ultimately gone with the prescription fibre food from the vet. After blood work and parasite treatment my vet related business trips with Rock's diarrhea, i.e. if I went out of town without him he got diarrhea. I had him on the vet fibre food only (no treats or chewies) for about a month and then I added vet treats and about 3 weeks later I added vet chewies. A month later we added fish oils and glucosamine/etc tablet. He has been good for almost three months. BUT my husband went on a 4 day business trip this week and Rock started to get soft stool so I immediately cut his kibble to half, topped it off with plain white rice and stopped the chewies and supplements for a couple days. We caught it and he didn't get full on diarrhea. So our conclusion is that if he gets stressed, he gets diarrhea. We aren't super happy about the quality of the vet food compared to the Origein, Acana, or California Naturals we tried. He is also quite the poop producer. That said though, we are happy that he is healthy and happy. The low point for us was when his poop was really bloody. I am 33 weeks pregnant and we know that the baby may stress him out so we are reticent to try a better quality food, especially since he is doing so well. He is a svelt dog but he is keeping weight on, his coat and skin look great, and he is exuberant. Hope our experience helps - you WILL figure out what works for you! Good luck!

Why, when one has over 1500 sqft of hardwood flooring available, why would one choose to find one of two 5'x7' carpets to throw up on? Why? I suppose it is better than going downstairs to throw up on the wall-to-wall carpeting, but I gather that trick is saved for diarrhea....

Another consideration for us is food storage - our younger dog sets himself up in front of the pantry about 1 hr before feeding time and waits. He doesn't guard his food, we can take it away and put our hands into his food but who knows how he will respond with a baby. Our baby is due in January so sometime in December we are going to move the food to the mud room in the basement. We still plan to feed the dogs up-stairs but go down to get the food morning and night. It will be a pain but it seems best to avoid conflict. Kyna

The development of our first aid kit for camping/canoeing has been through trial and error. Two things I don't leave home without is vet wrap, gauze, and tape (okay that is 3 things but all for paw cuts). And nail 'quick stop' if their nails start to bleed from rough rock etc. Have fun!

Hi Jen, Thanks for your comments - it seems I am doing most of what you have recommended: The whip worm treatment (it will take two months because the vet wants to give him two - 3 day treatments and they need to be 1 months apart) is Panacur, so hopefully that will address any other potential parasites. But my hubby is away and knowing Rocks anxiety I am waiting until he is back and settled to start the treatment - this is on the vets advice. Although Rock seems to miss my hubby his stools seem okay - he just acts a little mopey in the evenings (I got home and hubby left but Rock seems to be okay) - I guess I set his routine so even though he gets walked and loved while I am away it is a different routine that perhaps upsets him (?). Right now he is on the metamucil, bran buds and Medi-Cal hypo - which is actually Duck and Potato I am very nervous to change him to a different food or add anything right now. I was going to give him the two months & Panacur before I started anything new. One issue is finding a high fibre hypo food, hence the metamucil and bran buds. He was getting pumpkin pretty regularly but that was one of the things he was on when he had really bloody stools so I am nervous to reintroduce that right now too - I doubt I will give it to him again. Our older dog gets kibble, pumpkin, oils, glucosamine, yogurt, sometimes kelp. I hope the Pancur is the answer! Could that have been the problem for +2.5 years? He had loose stools at 1 year old when we got him and is 3.5 years old. Does Giardia really work that way - i.e. dormant and re-occur? That could explain why the older dog and local dogs don't seem to get Giardia - I assumed if it was Giardia other dogs would have it too. Thanks! Kyna