look up, here i am on cloud 9 ;)

Im still sat here, on a cloud, that is numbered 9!

That also happens to be how old diesel is for the next 32 days , then of course , he will be TEN!

my favourite boy at the front aged 10months

Yes 10, and apart from a foot issue in the last year ( which was dealt with so perfectly by rob at http://www.vets-one.co.uk/ a lot of honey was involved) he has been perfectly perfect in every way

Now sadly I can see his age is creeping up on him, in the mornings he doesn’t hear me until im downstairs ( if he is sleeping on the no dog sofa , which he often does, he gets caught , but obviously I don’t see that!) if he is sleeping in his bed, he seems a little stiff when he gets up , front not back, back seems fine

So I popped him along to see a vet, I felt sick, my tummy was a mess and I could have cried at the drop of a feather, especially as Delaney is also poorly ( that’s another story when it finally has an ending)

I decided that we should run some blood tests, because im pretty sure we are heading for some kind of pain relief for old man issues. Then the questions started !!!! but why! Why do that? Well why not?

Hes almost 10, hes a saint Bernard, life expectancy has arrived and gone a year or so ago, so before we do anything, I want to know everything else is working at least ok, because we are heading towards drugging him for the rest of his life.

We did blood test him, Laura the vet agreed it made sense , we got the results, all perfectly normal, we high fived in the waiting room and left with a couple weeks of pain relief as his wrists are old , to see if this is what diesel needs ( he’s also on youmove and green lipped muscle tablets)

Then it got me thinking do most of the people think I tested him just because he is old? If that’s the case the answer is no, I did not, I tested him because he is going on some medication for a long period of time, and I want to retest him in a few months and have a clear “ before” blood test, I wanted to know before I try and treat one issue, there wasn’t a couple more hiding, I wanted to know if his liver, kidneys or heart are poorly too, because if so , that may have changed the plan, if he had poorly organs, and he was starting to be in pain, it may well have been time to say goodbye, I will not have him suffer , not for a single moment just for me.

I know you shouldn’t have favourites, but diesel is my favourite, he has been my favourite boy since the moment I held him and carried him home at 7 weeks, he has been my favourite when we visited old peoples home as a therapy dog, he has been my favourite when he visited schools, when he was a stud, hes my favourite choice , when dora delivered his babies and he washed her face, my favourite, when he built bush tunnels all around the garden , my favourite , when he creeps upstairs while im pregnant to check on me , my favourite , while I pushed a baby out in the sitting room twice, with him watching me, my favourite ,when we trod the green crufts carpet, bright eyed and bushy tailed…. My favourite, I think the list of reasons is far too long

But he didn’t have the blood test because he is my favourite, he had the blood test because he should, because it makes sense . you should have blood tests if your starting long-term meds, and they should be rechecked regularly so you know whats going on, so you know when to call it , so you know if they are causing an issue, so you can act, change and react correctly