The Poor Old Man...

At least that's what the girls call him and no I'm not talking about Brad. HA! I'm talking about our basset/beagle mix, Buford, that we rescued from Pets and People a little over 8 years ago when he was 6 years old. Do the math!! Yes, that is 14 years old. See why he is the poor old man. He has been able to hang with the girls and even his best bud Riley until about the last 9 months or so. He can't jump on the bed or couch anymore, which is just fine with me. He sleeps about 20 hrs. a day (a small exaggeration), can barely walk, and it takes him a good 10 minutes to eat a half a cup of food. Not to mention all the other health issues he's had the past 6 months. I won't go into too much detail here but I will say I have had the carpet cleaned and I have to use my personal steam cleaner AT LEAST 3 times a week, usually more. We took him back in May to the vet for the problem and they tested his feces (sorry if that's TMI) and everything came back normal. They suspected it to be an ulcer so he was placed on a very bland diet, given a medicine like our pepcid, and an antibiotic. It may have helped a little but the problem is back. I took him again this morning with another feces sample to be tested and this time they were going to do an x-ray of both the stomach region and his leg that he limps on.
When I went to pick him up today the vet said she wanted to talk to me about some things...OH GREAT!! She did some blood work and saw nothing, she did a rectal exam and felt nothing, THEN the x-ray of his stomach. There she saw some thickening of the lining and from the symptoms he's have, the blood in the stools, etc. she is very certain that there is a polyp. Ok, go on...The only way to be sure if it is cancerous or not is to have a colonoscopy done and that will run you anywhere from $750.00 to $1200.00....HOLY JESUS!! Umm...I love my dog BUT he is 14 years old and well....I told her I didn't want him to be in any pain and she said he is such a happy go lucky guy that she thinks for now he is alright. She gave me some meds. and told us several things to do to help with digesting his food to relieve the pressure or pain that he might have with the polyp. Now for the leg problem, it's arthritis. He needs to take 1500mg of glycosimine and something else (she wrote it down). It stinks to get old. So for now we will do all we can to just keep him happy and pain free and deal with things as they come. Poor Old Man!!
Buford has been a great dog over the past 8 years. He has always been the girls protector and tolerated all their pulling, dragging, laying on, and pretend baby doll. I can remember when we first brought Madeline home he used to lay in her room in front of her crib if she was in there sleeping. Also when anyone came over to see her and hold her he would go lay underneath them as in "Just in case you drop her I will catch her." Anytime I had either girl laying on a blanket on the floor he would go and lay right beside them. He was so sweet!! I don't know what they will do when he goes to doggie heaven but I'm afraid his years are coming to an end. Here are some pictures of our beloved Buford....




The Old Man...



Madeline and Buford...See she has him covered with a blanket.


Our first "Family" picture with the dogs (before the girlies came along)


Protecting Macy.



Macy's turn to terrorize Buford.