My Little White Dog

My little Cas is aprox 14 years old, we rescued her from Border Collie Trust when she was 6 months old. She was in such a poor way and so frightened of everything. That soon changed, we taught her how to enjoy life, she loved and excelled in agility, canine freestyle and flyball.

Last Tuesday I went to bring her in from her morning wee to find she couldn't move, I carried her in and sat with her all day, I thought it was the end. She perked up a little and so we came from the vets with metacam & antibiotics. Wednesday evening she had her first dose of metacam, a couple of hours later she was so unhappy, breathing heavily and quickly I didn't think she would make it through the night. She did, so I booked in for blood tests that day. Results were her liver wasn't performing well, an ultrasound showed that there wasn't the dreaded C word present. So a different painkiller prescribed and advised it looked like her liver may be failing and it may only be a matter of time but to see how she goes.

That was Thursday, having researched the internet it seems the liver can repair itself to SOME degree. So off I went to the shops and came back with milk thistle, broccoli (rich in vitamin e), sweet potato, porridge, courgette - all things that should help to not work the liver too hard. A special raw diet is on order and arriving tomorrow. So far so good and she is doing fantastically well at the moment, however painkillers stop on Friday so we have to see whether she is okay without. She still won't eat things that she used to love but she's eating well and putting weight back on.

These photos were taken today, she looks so healthy! Fingers & toes crossed we can slow things down, even better to reverse it?

I created this video a few years ago:

The Story of a Rescue Dog from Gina on Vimeo.

Chad Valley 2 in 1 Swing

I noticed this swing was on offer in Argos reduced from £39.99 to £29.99. Macy has turned 9 months and loved the swing when we went to the park the other day so I had been trying to find one. When she is a bit older we intend to build a play area for her properly so we didn't want to spend a fortune on a swing as it doesn't need to last too long.  However this appealed as it comes with a toddler seat and a proper swing seat.

The instructions for putting the swing together were easy enough to follow but several of the bolts for the nuts had rubbish threads on them and we couldn't use them.  Then putting the bolts through to attach the swing seat was an absolute nightmare, the holes just didn't line up properly. It is a shame because you can't just up clip and clip the different seats on which would have been useful for when family with older children visit.

The seat itself is nice and deep so is quite secure, there are a couple of straps that just run over the shoulders and straight down. They don't look very comfortable and flap down to the side, it would have been better with a 3 point harness. Also the back isn't rigid and 'flops' down so when you are trying to get baby in you need another pair of hands to hold the back upright to enable you to put baby in!

The frame is a bit wobbly and I wouldn't like the idea of an older child using it as it doesn't seem sturdy enough, there are legs that hammer into the ground but these are a bit awkward.

So all in all, it's okay as a cheap swing but I wouldn't have wanted to pay £30 for it. I have also since read a review from someone saying her toddler's feet drag along the ground so I wonder if I wasn't supposed to put the full frame up? If so I missed that in the instructions and it works better on full height anyway, don't have to stoop to push her!