Saturday, May 10, 2008


Time creeps up on you slowly and before you know it 6 years have past. When we took in Robbie and Sam it was because their loving owner had terminal cancer. It is always sad in these cases, to rehome someone's pets when they are still caring for them. But we kept in touch with their owner and after she had gone we corresponded with her daughter.

Earlier this year I had the sad duty of telling the daughter that Sam had to be put to sleep and now I feel Robbie is deteriorating. I have a feeling that he has Cushing's Disease, which is an endocrine disorder, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cushing's_syndrome . Robbie has lost most of his thick black coat from his back and his skin is scaly and leathery, he is ravenously hungry and looks pot-bellied.

He had one blood test at the vet's which showed a slight increase in liver function, so on Wednesday he went in for a dynamic blood test. He had some blood taken, then was injected with steroids and after two hours had another blood test. The variations in these results will show whether he has Cushing's or not.

We had one Griffon before who had Cushing's and she lived a happy life for another two years, but I feel that as Robbie is alread nearly fourteen he might not do so well.

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