The (all too brief) life and death of a Wubba toy

It took me approximately 15 minutes and 41 seconds to destroy my wubba toy. Our time together was short and sweet.

It was good while it lasted but like all good things it came to an end. Farewell my wubbery friend. Missing you already!

The Pawsome Postcard

Paws up who knows Pappy? I'm sure many of you have already seen the pawsome artwork that his owner Nat does. I noticed on Sunday that Nat was doing a "Will Draw For Links" thing whereby if you have linked to his art blog in return he'll send you a postcard he's drawn. The subject could be anything, from a slice of cake (they seem to eat rather a lot of cake) to a bunch of grapes or a paper aeroplane. Just random stuff.

I decided to give it a try and not only was I the first dog to take him up on his offer, but he decided to draw ME!



Pretty handsome, eh?

Thanks Nat for making me look EVEN MORE HANDSOME than I already am!

Diagnosis Jackson

Finally home again after a week of vet visits and tests and stuff. It's certainly good to be back.

[you'll have to excuse me using an old photo, but now I'm even more nekkid and I don't want you to see me not looking my best!]

Now onto the results. Apologies in advance as they are rather long and boring with no pictures, but J1 insisted that I tell you all the facts to stop you worrying:


Skin: My horrible nether-region rash is clearing up and I'm taking anti-biotics for the next month or so. The vet has removed a lump from my back (I've got lots of small hard lumps/spots) and sent it off for analysis. It's probably caused by my fluctuating calcium levels earlier in the year and nothing too much to worry about.


Neck: The degenerated discs are the same as they were in January, hurrah! Surgery is still a possibility if they get any worse, boo!


Cushing's Disease: May be re-tested again at a later date.


Seizures: Cause still unknown. We're just going to monitor the situation at present. I've had 3 so far.


Kidneys: I'm in the early stages of kidney disease. It's treatable but not curable. This means I've got to go back on the horrid prescription low phosphate diet which I DETEST! My blood pressure will have to be checked regularly to ensure that it doesn't get too high. My urine is poorly concentrated which means that my kidneys aren't working properly. I drink a lot more water than the average dog and you know what that means; more time outside sending peemail!


Other stuff: The Js were worried that my tumour may have come back and was causing some of my symptoms. For newer readers of my blog, I had a malignant tumour removed from my neck in February and on examination in the lab they realised that they didn't quite get all of it out. This means that it may return and so the Js are extra vigilant at any new symptoms I have. Also they're both fusspots (but don't tell them I said that).


Further investigation: My pal Pippa is always eating toast and I was beginning to wonder if some of my symptoms could perhaps be caused by a lack of toast-eating on my part. After extensive testing on my toast levels, the vet decided that this doesn't have any bearing on anything. I tried to get her to write me a prescription for toast but sadly she wouldn't. Never mind, I'll just bug J1 whenever she's eating hers. I thought it was worth a try!


Finally, I'd just like to thank everydog, human, cat and hamster for your kind messages of support during these testing times. Thanks pals, you're all pawsome...

Little Miss Pickle

Good news! Pickle's surgery went well and she is expected to return home this weekend.



She has to have another operation in February but in the meantime, she's doing fine. Thank you for all your kind messages, they were much appreciated by Pickle and her family.

Jackson's brain

I had my MRI scan earlier today and this is my artists impression of what the vets saw, revealing my innermost thoughts:



As you can imagine they were very impressed!

Now here's the science bit..

The good news is that the MRI of my brain was normal. This means that it's unlikely that I have a brain tumour, which is what was suspected. They also had another look at the degenerated discs in my neck and said they haven't got any worse. Hurrah! They took a sample of my spinal fluid for testing and we should get the results back in a day or two.

As you can imagine it's very frustrating to keep having all these tests and not knowing exactly what's wrong with me. That's why I was so delighted to see both the Astas and novice nurse Lacie this evening on my return from hospital. I've certainly been keeping them on their toes with my requests for them to wait on me hand and paw and spoonfeed me nokedli. They might be staying for quite some time...

Pickle, a pip of a pup

Meet Pickle the Pocket Jack Russell. She's sort of related to Molly the Irish Terrier as she lives with Molly's owner's close family. Does that mean that she's Molly's niece? Or third cousin twice removed or something?





Now, I've not met Pickle in person but I've heard a whole lot about her from Molly. Poor Pickle has a portosystemic shunt which means that she has abnormal liver function. She is having surgery tomorrow at a top notch specialist veterinary hospital so we know she'll be well looked after. Pickle doesn't have a blog but I know that she reads mine when she's not getting into mischief so I'm hoping that you'll leave some pawsitive comments for her. We're all rooting for you, little Pickle!

Home again

I'm back! Did you miss me?

I'm hiding in my bed cos as well as poodle legs AND a shaved neck, I've now got a shaved undercarriage! It's pretty draughty so I'm wearing my stylish green jumper to cover my nekkid-ness. J1 says I look like Val Doonican *. What a cheek!

Anyway, we're still waiting for test results and I've got to go back on Tuesday and stay overnight to prepare me for an MRI scan of my brain on Wednesday. J1 says that they're doing the scan to find out what is causing my fits. I think the real reason is that they've never met a blogging dog before and want to examine my GINORMOUS brain and massive intellect.

[* Val Doonican is an Irish singer famous for his hideous jumpers].

Vet stuff

Hey pals, Barnaby here.



Remember me? Yes, I'm the responsible member of the "dog on wheels" toy gang.

Jackson is staying overnight at the vet hospital and he asked me to let you all know that he's doing OK. He's having loads of nasty tests today and tomorrow and we probably won't get the results back until next week. He knows that you're all rooting for him. I'll let you know as soon as we have any news. In the meantime, I'm off to check up on my pal Seymour cos I think he's raising hell over at Scruffy and Lacie's place.

Jackson Street Blues

Remember my pal Pinky the miniature schnauzer? Her owner is a piano teacher. She's teaching her students to play a lovely song that was written all about me and my very own street. I think it must also be about my human blogging pal Blue as well cos it's called "Jackson Street Blues". How appropriate, given that Blue came to visit at the weekend. Click here to go to Pinky's site and hear the tune. It's rather good!

Tea for Two

I had such an exciting weekend; My human blogging pal Blue was visiting my neck of the woods and so I invited her to come to my house for afternoon tea. Well, actually she had a cup of tea and I just tried to sneak a drink out of her cup when she wasn't looking. We talked about our mutual blogging pals like Harry & Cassidy, Asta NY and all our other special wirey friends. It was totally pawsome.

Today we met again and went for a lovely walk in the park with Molly the Irish Terrier and her owner. Molly kept trying to push in and get friendly with Blue, but I know she was really there to see me and although I let her make a bit of a fuss of Molly I felt it was important that she remembered her priorities. So I gave her a few gentle reminders, mainly by barking loudly until she made a big fuss of ME!

As you know I won't let J1 post any photos of herself on my blog (hey, it's supposed to be all about me; she can get her own blooming blog!), but I wanted to have my photo taken with Blue. J1 was fussing and generally getting in the way so I'm afraid that the best shot we got was this:



That's me (obviously) and that's Blue's shoe in the bottom right hand corner of the photo. Ahem. Move over, David Bailey!

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

The vet test results came back today and are inconclusive. You're probably wondering what exactly that means. Well yes, you guessed it, MORE TESTS! I'm turning into a pin cushion here what with all the jabbing and poking. I've got poodle legs again AND a shaved neck. I'm going back to the specialist hospital next Thursday so I'll keep you posted. In the meantime my pal Nurse Asta NYC came over with supplies of roast beef and yorkshire puddings and peas and stuff! Mmmmmmmmm!