Boost Today

SUMMARY: Life continues.

Boost has so far today eaten:

• One whole jar of Gerber chicken & chicken gravy (basically chicken and cornstarch). Yay!  (This was in half spoonfuls about 1-2 minutes apart, and the second half of the jar the same way a couple of hours after the first half.)
• Two CharlieBears, about five minutes apart.
• Half a container of Gerber chicken noodle goop.  (All in one slow sitting, but then done with it.)
• Ah! She just finished all but a spoonful of the chicken noodle goop! (9:40pm)

Today's Boost activities:

• Morning, still pretty zombieish, no eating, just standing standing standing.
  
  
• An hour or two after her meds, played catch with her lattice toy (just standing there) and even some tug. (Although not super-tough tug)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• An hour or so after that, some readyyyy.... annnnd.... go! kicking the ball in the yard. Kicking just a couple or few feet. She did it only a couple of times. Then stood in the shade while I did entertaining things with the ball for a while.
• Napping, finally lying down a little after "breakfast" and a little early afternoon.
• Sitting/standing and staring intently when I play with Chip. An old favorite. But now not so much footwork as she used to have.
  
• Going for an hour ride in the car while I ran errands. She climbed into the front seat again on her own. Very droopy and maybe a little confused looking by the end (during the trip is when she ate the CharlieBears)
• Around 6:30, went into the yard and played ready-and-go again for a long, long time. Same strategy as before: I kick it, she zooms to grab it, then stands there. Every few little tiny zooms, i pull some weeds or work on the irrigation problems to let her catch her breath.  She does not lie down. I finally go inside as it starts getting dark.
• Pretty much napping since then (it's now closing in on 9:30).

Had to put her morning pills down her throat. That video I found when I need to do it for Tika was very easy to follow for Tika--push thumb between teeth and against the roof of the mouth and she'll open her mouth. Worked like a charm.

For Boost, not so much: Can't force thumb between teeth without a big battle. Finally get it through and press against roof of mouth: Teeth continue to press hard on thumb. Erg.  Finally she does open her mouth slightly, and I can barely get the pills down--Tika seemed to have a much wider area in which to get the pills over the back of her tongue; Boost's is narrow.  A real challenge.


I bought a bag of Pill Pockets to try with her, but of course she's eating so very little (or nothing) that it's foolish to expect that she would actually eat the pill pockets. Doh.

Tomorrow, more of the same? How can I leave her to go to work when she's feeling at her worst? Or when she eats food so slowly and needs to be fed every hour or maybe two?  When she's feeling better for those precious small times when she can play?

I am so glad that I canceled the appointment for this afternoon. A few hours of OKness is worth so much to me and, I hope, to her.

I have so many friends, from casual agility friends to deep,long-term friends, from heavily dog-people to not-dog people, who are being so supportive through these rough times. At the moment, must mention:

• Sarah photographer friend came over Sunday to take some photos of me and Boost
  
• The Other Ellen agility friend came over yesterday to try to tempt boost into eating--brought pizza and special ice cream and other stuff--and to take more photos.