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Juggling things at the moment is a tad difficult, not least the fact that to get my dog Arthur to eat, I need to get down onto the floor, eye to eye with him, and hand-feed him (due to his dementia). That said, I do it willingly.
Well, today, having gathered everything I’d need around me and making sure it was close to hand, I carefully lowered myself to the carpet and began the coaxing. Surprisingly, he approached this morning’s breakfast with enthusiasm and began gobbling up a new, specially-made kibble I’ve got for him.
I find that I constantly have to try new things to keep him interested in his food because he regularly behaves like I’m trying to poison him, even though I’m offering him the same thing he ate yesterday with gusto.
Until recently I prepared fresh and raw food for my dogs daily and supplemented their diet with kefir and natural probiotic yoghurt. As a result, both my dogs have always been extremely healthy and I can count on one hand the times Arthur has been sick, or that either of them has needed to visit the vet, in sixteen years.
Strangely though, now he’ll only eat junk food and some processed foods – a scotch egg, sausages, and chicken nuggets are all consumed with enthusiasm when I can’t get him to eat anything else. While bizarre and a little frustrating, if he’ll eat, so be it. He can go for days without food if I don’t give in and give him something I normally wouldn’t even have in the house.
One person said to me recently, “Oh you’re shortening his life by giving him ultra-processed human food!” No. I’d be shortening his life if he died of starvation and, at fifteen (105 doggy years!), I don’t think it’s relevant. I want whatever time he has left to be comfortable and happy. Unfortunately, cocktail sausages and scotch eggs make him happy.
Anyway, several years ago he cracked a tooth and developed an abscess. I woke up one morning to see him rubbing his cheek and looking like a hamster – one side of his face swollen and his eye closed. On inspection he firmly pushed his furry face into my hand, wanting me to rub it (hard). When I looked into his mouth I could see a broken back tooth and an abscess in the gum.
I immediately rang the vet and took him in for dental surgery. When I picked him up I was horrified. Not only had they removed the offending tooth and drained the abscess, but they saw fit to remove nine other teeth without consulting me. A bill I’d been told would be around £200 had morphed into a bill of nearly £600.
Don’t get me wrong, had it been necessary for his health and well-being, I’d have paid it willingly. But when I drilled down and questioned them, pushing for details as I couldn’t understand how the price had tripled, I was informed that most of the teeth were removed, in their words, “as a preventative measure”. I was fuming!
Arthur recovered well but was left with permanent gaps at the back of his mouth which have often proved problematic for him as these are (well, should have been) his grinding and chewing teeth. This new kibble that I’d bought is quite small and, from the sounds made, clearly very crunchy.
As he enthusiastically hoovered up the kibble from the palm of my hand and began to crunch, small bits of kibble began to shoot out of the tooth gaps – like a spray of bullets around the sitting room! Clearly aware that he wasn’t actually getting the food, he hoovered faster, and the spray of biscuit became akin to machine gun fire. I couldn’t help but burst out laughing as my sitting room got peppered with tiny bits of kibble.
Suppressing my laughter, I had to intervene and used my other hand to close up the gap so that the food remained inside his mouth and he was able to slow things down, chew on the other side, and swallow – but I couldn’t help giggling as I assisted him.
Once the plate was empty I wasn’t concerned by the mess as I also own a super efficient, furry hoover…Having managed to get back up off the floor, I opened the door. Ila, my other dog, was waiting just outside and shot in, tail wagging to clear up. Like a minesweeper, she navigated her way across the carpet in regimented lines to hoover up all the propelled pieces until not a single crumb remained.
A very satisfying conclusion all around.
I obviously love my dogs, but the important thing is that they make me laugh daily. They never fail to lift my spirits and brighten my day.
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