Thyroid and vaccinations

Well, yesterday we went to the vet's. It was Ian. He took blood from her for the thyroid test, I need to call them today for the results. Skye also got her vaccinations, which luckily seems to have had no adverse effect on her at all (other than being a bit grumbly when we got home due to the stress).

Titre results

Well, two out of the three diseases are low now for Skye: distemper and hepatitis. As distemper is now even lower (the reading is just 7) than it was last year when it was already low, Mark recommends to vaccinate and I agree. So when we go back for the thyroid test in a month time, I will get her a booster sorted out.

Re thyroid: I am not sure whether it makes a big difference with Skye now being on soloxine. She isn't very grumbly in general at the moment and there have been a couple of moments when I was pleased that she didn't grumble... but right now, I can't see enough difference in her behaviour yet to say that it is definitely working. It's only been just over a week, so will definitely observe another month of course when her thyroid test is due.

Thyroid

Well, Skye had another thyroid test. The T4 is a little higher at 21, but still well below the top half range that a young dog should be. After a chat with Mark, he agreed to put her on a trial of Soloxin for a couple of months. So she is now on 0.3mg a day (that's less than Jesse who is on 0.5mg).

Skye's aggression issues were well under control and not a problem at all anymore at home, but in new more stressful situations, she can still be quite scary... e.g. in training school with a new dog, at Karen's (where she was over the week-end) etc. So we will see how she gets on.

She has been on Soloxin since Monday evening and she hasn't had any growls (other than her usual "chatty" growls) since then... probably just coincidence, but nonetheless encouraging.

Just a picture

We had a lovely walk in the country park today - finally it has dried out a bit and the dogs are not covered in mud anymore when we get home.

Some pictures

This morning

Under the bed LOL

It's one of her favourite spots



And some pictures I took on a walk a couple of week ago when we had quite a bit of snow. It was beautiful!

 

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, SKYE

I can't believe my naughty little girl is already 2 years old, but it's true! Unfortunately we didn't have much of a chance to celebrate. It is lovely to see how far Skye has come and she is such a joy to be with now! I love you sooooooooo much, Skye-girl. HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Some udpates - major improvement with bones

I thought I'd risk giving the guys a bone to clean teeth today. Last time I did this it was a major disaster due to Skye's extreme guarding where she didn't even let ME within any reasonable distance; let alone the other dogs. I had to trick her to get the bone away from her and she was very guardy and growly for many hours afterwads. Well, today, she still did a good mean growl at the dogs walking past at a few yards, but she did let them walk past now AND once she had finished with the bone, she allowed me to exchange her bone for a few treats after a bit of convincing! Hurray! I am over the moon as a bone is the highest value item she guards and she wouldn't let anyone near her at all hence why they haven't had bones for a long time! But my girl has come a long way and now we are finally breaking boundaries down with this last and biggest issue of her.


For the last couple of weeks, I have also been going to agility again now that the obedience season is mostly over. Skye is doing brilliantly in agility and really enjoying it. She is confident on all the obstacles, does a pretty good (and almost independent) weave now and her attention is much improved. Not bad for a crazy thing that has only done a handful of sessions I reckon. She does some bits and pieces with Elke in Advanced, and I do Intermediate with her to give her more 1-2-1 practice! She is a natural!