A Good Day

Yesterday was Day 2 on phenobarbital for Shyla, and she is continuing to amaze me. So far, we're not seeing much drunken-like movement, and Shyla seems mentally sharp. I even did a nosework puzzle with her, and she aced it!

I emailed our vet to ask whether this means that Shyla can live her normal life for the next 14 days. We'd been told to severely restrict her freedoms for 2 weeks so she wouldn't get hurt due to "ataxia" or get lost due to unclear thinking. Our vet said to keep the restrictions in place because we never know when the side effects might amp up. For now, I'm thrilled with how it's going.

The Runner took Shyla for an on-leash run yesterday morning. I took our black dog for a mountain bike ride. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how upset Shyla would be that I was taking R and not her. Shyla was extremely anxious while I was out with R, barking and pacing - making the Runner worry that she might work herself up into a seizure. On future days, I'll sneak out with R while Shyla is running with the Runner.

It was a joy to spend time with our black dog. He's so strong, and he's such a sweet and fun dog.

It also gave me a chance to see the fruits of all of our hard rehab work since his elbow surgery 11 months ago. Seeing R run on our rocky trails so smoothly and athletically is wonderful!

We did a loop near our house, and R was as strong at the end as at the beginning!

All in all, it was a wonderful day. Shyla seems to be handling her new med well, and I got to spend some time with her brother! And our indoor daffodils opened...

Happy Saturday!

The Start

Shyla's first phenobarbital pill was yesterday morning. She's not allowed to mountain bike with me for up to 2 weeks after this first pill because she can't be off-leash. She'll be "drunk" so getting lost or hurt is an issue. So, yesterday morning, we got up early to get in a fun ride before the first pill. I love having her company on my bike rides. It makes them so much more fun!

She did a serious leap at one point in our ride. I adore seeing her FLY!

As we finished our ride, I looked up and saw an intense Sun Dog. Sun Dogs occur when there's a lot of moisture in a cloud so the sun going through it produces the colors of the rainbow. Actually, I'd prefer just to view it as a good luck charm!

At the appointed time, I gave Shyla her first pill of phenobarb. After that, she had a quiet day. She wants to be in contact with me or R at all times so I know that she's feeling a little off. However, she appears to be walking pretty well so perhaps the clumsiness won't be too bad for her. At this point, I'm a little hopeful that she won't get the terrible side effects that I've been warned about.

She's spent most of the afternoon like this.

I had an inkling ahead of time that we might be headed into a rough patch. Consequently, I did some extra fun things with her in the time leading up until now, and I did a lot of nosework puzzles with her. Over the next two weeks, I'll probably share photos and videos from our fun times over the last little while. I also hope to get to take R on a mountain bike ride every now and then.

A whole two weeks of photos of Shyla looking stoned or sleeping might get a little boring!

Brave Bobcats - and our Decision about Shyla's Epilepsy

Bobcats awe me. If I had to use one word to describe them, it would be "tenacious". However, I'd like a second word too - "brave". They are small but so tough, living at our elevation with ease throughout the year.

Winter around here is the slow time of year for trail cameras. Many of our animals move down lower and our bears are in their dens so I don't expect a great variety of animals to appear on my trails cams.

However, I can always count on the bobcats. Some years, I capture images of mother bobcats with their almost grown up kittens. Not this year.

This year, I've been seeing solo bobcats and lots of them.

Back in 2010, I had several vertebrae in my neck surgically fused, and I couldn't ride my bike for a long time. I made it my goal to figure out the bobcat routes in our area by following their paw prints in the snow. Then, I put trail cameras on their routes. I still have trail cams on a lot of those same routes.

I love this photo because I'd been to check the camera within the previous 48 hours, and I'd left footprints in the snow. The bobcat carefully placed his paws into my foot prints to avoid having to walk in the deep uncompressed snow. You can see his focus on where to place his paw!

Then, once he got in front of my camera, he had to leave my tracks. It is hard work for a small animal like a bobcat to move through the forest in the snow.

We need some of the courage of a bobcat for the upcoming weeks.

Our vets have concluded the the usual first anti-seizure drug is not doing a good enough job for Shyla. That means that she's going to start a much stronger drug that has serious side effects for the first two weeks that she takes it. Then, the side effects usually go away.

I've known a couple of people whose dogs started this drug for epilepsy, and I saw the people in tears in those first two weeks because their dogs' spirits seemed absent from their bodies. Moreover, their dogs were clumsy - moving like they were drunk. Phenobarbital is a strong drug but most dogs eventually adapt to it.

Despite that initial awfulness, we've decided to start phenobarbital for Shyla. She won't be allowed to do very much for those first two weeks so our lives will be dramatically altered for a little while.

I don't want to do it, but it's time to take that big step...

... with the courage of a bobcat.

I am thankful to have our wildlife as my inspiration, and I am thankful to have amazingly dedicated vets taking care of our dogs. I am hopeful that this new drug will help Shyla immensely.

Wordless Wednesday - Our Labraduo

Waiting for the word

Blast off into a Recall!!!

The Monster Revisits

Two nights ago, I was awakened by Shyla's muscles jerking. She has had a number of myoclonic seizures over the past 9 months, including two nights ago. Her first one was last July (2016). During that first seizure, we had no idea what was happening when her hind limbs started involuntarily jerking because we'd never seen a myoclonic seizure. We took her to the emergency vet at 3AM but the jerking had stopped by the time we arrived there.

We then had a long relaxed time, with no more seizures. We hoped that it had been a fluke and would never reoccur. We went back to leaping and playing, almost forgetting about it.

Unfortunately, that peace was broken in September, when Shyla had a cluster of those myoclonic seizures over a week. A neurologist suggested that Shyla take Keppra, a seizure control medicine. A good reason for using a strong medicine is that this kind of epilepsy ("myoclonic epilepsy") can develop into grand mal seizures, which are life-threatening. Another danger is that the muscle jerking can become omnipresent, making it impossible for an afflicted dog to move or function normally. By controlling the seizures now, the hope is that we'll prevent worse problems from developing.

Shyla has done pretty well since she started Keppra. She had only one full blown myoclonic seizure while taking it up until a couple of weeks ago. Then, we had the tooth saga. She had a seizure on the evening that she came home after having the broken tooth extracted. Then, she had another one two nights ago.

I normally sleep very deeply so I was surprised that her twitching limbs awakened me two nights ago. As soon as I felt her movements in the dark, I knew that we'd have to wait it out - there's little that can be done to change its course aside from giving an extra Keppra pill at the start (she's fully conscious during these episodes so she can take a pill). I settled in next to her to see what happened.

I have to admit that these episodes scare me deeply. I never know how one will evolve. I wonder whether this will be the one that becomes a grand mal seizure. Despite my best efforts, my mind flits to the videos I've seen of dogs who are literally plagued by these twitches 24/7. I fear for our Shyla but there's nothing that I can do to help. Loving deeply means caring so much that it hurts.

Two nights ago, she really wanted contact and comforting during her episode. I let her rest her head on my chest, and I laid my arm along her spine so that I could feel what was happening with her muscles. After about an hour, the cacophony of twitches started to quiet, giving her longer rests between them and jerking her limbs less intensely. By about the 90 minute mark, both Shyla and I were dozing off because the seizure was ending.

We'd survived another one. I hope with all my heart that these seizures become a distant memory sometime in Shyla's life. I want her to be able to fly high for a long life.

Moose on Monday

During a recent snow storm, my trail camera captured a series of photos of a mother moose and her calf. They passed the camera once early.

And then they passed it again after it had started to snow hard. The calf is in front. Look how snow-covered she is! Both moose were focused on something down in the forest. They stood like statues staring toward something.

After a couple of minutes of staring down into the forest, mom decided to reverse course.

She left her calf still completely enthralled by whatever was down in the forest.

Then, they both disappeared for about a half hour. Mom alone came by the cam a bit after 8AM, with her face covered in snow.

She and her calf must have been foraging in this area just out of view of my trail cam because the mother moose appeared again another half hour later. Now her sloped back and the back of her ears were covered in snow.

She gave my camera a cursory glance.

And did a quick loop around it, giving us our final view before she and her calf must have moved on.

I saw a pair of moose during a snowstorm in late February. I loved their snow covered faces but I didn't manage to get my camera out fast enough to capture an image before they disappeared. I'm so glad that my trail camera got images for us all to see.

Happy Moose Monday!

Silhouette Sunday

After the sunset that I told you about yesterday, the sky to east lit up in an orange-pink hue.

Then, the clouds morphed into a purplish pink hue.

What a beautiful ending!

Sunset Saturday

Gray days are my nemesis. I have trouble getting moving when there's no sunshine in the morning. After I get moving, I tend to be uninspired. Yesterday was one of those days... but then the sun came out in the afternoon. The Duo and I hiked up to a high plateau where the sun bathed our faces.

And then we sat on a rocky point where I love to quietly watch the sunset. We can see across a canyon and all the way to the Continental Divide from that spot.

First I looked to the southwest, where you can barely see the ski slopes below the clouds.

Then I turned my eyes more to the west, to the highest mountains. The mountain in the photo below is one that I like to play on in the summertime. I love how the orange cloud made the snow glow orange too.

It was just breezy enough to block out all other sounds and let us just take in the view.

As all sunsets do, it evolved over the next ten minutes.

The Duo and I sat still enjoying the beautiful ending to the day.

As the clouds over the Divide began to darken, I noticed that the sky behind me was turning brilliant pink. We walked that way to enjoy some more beauty before the day ended.

Feline Friday

Do you see the kitty in this photo?

Perhaps he's more obvious in this one?

Then he turned around, preparing to exit left.

It was at about sunset, within a quarter mile of where the Duo and I walk at that time!

You can see that it had snowed recently. I wish that I'd seen his tracks. He must have stayed well outside our little trail network.

What a gorgeous animal - so graceful, lithe, and handsome! And I am so happy to see him without a heavy GPS collar around his neck!

He silently left the area, with none of us knowing that he'd been nearby. Mountain lions travel long distances to find prey. They stay in a small area only when they've got a carcass to feed from or when they have kittens. I think of them as being like sharks - constantly in motion.

We've had a couple of more visits since then but none were in daylight so the photos aren't as nice.

Thankful Thursday - Our Eternal Puppy

We are thankful for the everlasting puppy spirit of R. His puppy friend, Sadie, came to visit this week. She's learned how to show off her teeth from R!

Look at these competing teeth!

These two were literally in full play mode before Sadie's human had even departed.

Shyla was more courageous this time, staying out in the living room to keep an eye on the roughhousing. The pair of black dogs didn't disappoint anyone!

Although Sadie weighs as much as R, he still "self handicaps" by lying on his back for most of the playing. I noticed that Sadie has learned to control her bite strength. When she plays with me, she is very gentle with her teeth on my hands. Seeing her with her jaws on R's muzzle, I hoped that she was gentle with him too!

We feel so lucky that our 9-year-old black dog still acts like a puppy. We know how fickle life is... and he's had great luck so far, although he's used up a number of his nine lives!

This post is part of Brian's Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!

Wordless Wednesday - Labraduo in Action

The competition heats up as they give each other "looks"

Then they settle into the run to me