George knows how busy I’ve been with Flapper being ill and Chewy passing away, so he decided to help with some chores. Here you can see he helps clear the ice off of the tree trunk pool. Then he’s not sure if he broke it, so he walks away from the evidence.
Later George decides to take all the water out of the pool, one neck-full at a time, instead of getting in the pool.
Nice work, George. Thanks for pitching in to help with chores buddy. I appreciate it.
Flapper looks pretty good this morning. His blood work came back totally normal so it is really likely that his heart is the problem. I may take him in for more of a good listen to his heart, but I’m not sure I want to stress him more. We’ll see.
He has been on heart meds for two days now and they do perk him up a bit. The first night they perked him up TOO MUCH! But last night was better, and they actually make it easier for him to stand up, so that is great. He can stand and preen better, and he seems to have a bit more energy. He is also eating good. It is nice to have some borrowed time with him, and I appreciate every minute of it.
The weather is cold for Seattle today and tomorrow, so the other feathered kids are locked in their night pens. It’s going to get down to 25 degrees tonight, brrr!
The chickens have their heat lamp, so they think they are at a tanning salon. They tried to order some mai tais but they couldn’t show proper ID so I turned them down.
George is still sweet as ever, and his foot looks great. We’re giving his forever sanctuary some time to get some repairs done to their waterfowl areas, and then we’ll talk to them about when is best to deliver George. He’ll still have one last vet visit to get the all clear, but he’s pretty good.
Simon is also getting old and feeble. He sits funny like this sometimes now. I think it is because his back legs hurt a bit. His back legs are weak, which is one of the symptoms of diabetes in cats. He has been on insulin for about two weeks now and we’re working out the right dosages. His biggest problem this week is that the wet food he loved was discontinued. So he has tried 10+ different foods and does not want any of them. He only wants his beloved discontinued prescription-only, limited ingredient food (which incidentally was a food he refused to eat for a long time, until one day he decided it was his only favorite). Being a cat is a tough job.
That’s the update from this motley crew for today. We wish everyone a very Happy New Year, and we thank everyone for their continued support.
Flapper and Chewy are both feeling crummy, so today Chewy went to the vet. He hadn’t been there in a year so it was his turn. They’re not eating well and they’ve both lost weight. It might have been a bad bag of feed, but it also might be an infection.
George also went to have his foot checked again.
George’s foot looks just great. The scab on the bottom is super shallow now, and down to 2cm by 1cm in size. We will do one more vet visit to ensure he doesn’t have any more infection and keep trying to get that scab to heal as soon as possible so he can go to his sanctuary. He will always have a weird foot with an old broken foot bone, but if the scab heals well, he won’t be at much risk for future infections. And as you can see, he walks just fine.
Flapper is sleeping in the house and he took a bath in the people tub this morning. He took another bath tonight. He isn’t eating well and right this moment we think he might have a respiratory infection. Chewy’s blood work could show what’s going on with both of them, and we might just do a round of antibiotics just in case.
Flapper’s arthritis is really bad now. He barely walks at all. He has also lost weight in the past few weeks and yet he still can’t get around even though he is lighter. He supports his weight by holding out his wings, which is a sign of pain. He can’t scratch his face very easily and he can’t reach around with his beak to get oil from his tail gland and spread it to his feathers. This means his feathers don’t stay oiled and he can’t stay dry when he swims.
Basically this all means Flapper is declining in health and he won’t get better.
His cold right now will get better, but it is important for everyone to know and prepare that Flapper may only have a few more months with us or maybe a little longer if he is not in too much pain. Please respect that we are not looking for tons of advice on building contraptions for him to walk around in or home remedies to cure him. Flapper will have the most comfortable and natural life he can have, and it will be his decision when he is ready to say goodbye. The leading cause of death is… life. And Flapper has lived a good one so far. We wish we had much more time with him, but that’s out of our control. We’re not going to rush him, but it’s time for everyone to start coming to terms with it.
This may seem out of the blue because I don’t always share everything that we’re going through here. But Flapper is struggling, and you’ll just have to trust me. I will not be sharing much of his struggles. It won’t help him and it won’t make it any easier for me.
In other news, O’Malley wanted to snuggle and sit together in the rain. It was really wet and muddy today so I took a raincheck. He is a cute kid though, and I’d snuggle any other time.
When George came back from the vet today he had some serious business to attend to.
George has a “test flight” routine he does several times a day. I could tell you about it, but instead I’ll show you. Once, twice… and a third time. This is test flight #1.
Test flight #2.
Test flight #3.
We’re not sure what George is planning with all his test flights, but it’s sure to be amusing. We’ll keep you posted on that, as well as Chewy and Flapper’s cold (or whatever).
And thanks for understanding about Flapper.
After the rain on Saturday, everybody enjoyed the sunshine on a chilly Sunday morning.
Can you pick up on the body language here?
O’Malley decided he wasn’t going to be very friendly today. I stopped O’Malley from attacking George just in the nick of time, and George is fine. Then everyone ELSE enjoyed the sunshine.
George nursed his bruised ego.
And O’Malley sat on my lap, insisting that George had started it.
Flapper and Chewy enjoyed a swim in their fresh pool, and then settled in for some preening and a nap.
George took a bath too, and then chatted with me about his morning.
Janet and the other chickens went all floppy in the sunshine so they could sun their feathers. They love to lay spread out on the ground so they can soak up as much sun as possible.
That’s about all that’s going on here this weekend. Preening, napping, swimming and sunshine.
We hope you had a good weekend, too.
See that orange spot? That’s George’s beak. He’s riding in the back seat on the way to the vet. But I had to stop for morning coffee first. That’s my frequent buyer card in my mouth. The latte baristas really liked meeting George, and then we were off to the vet to check on George’s foot.
George wasn’t so sure he wanted to step out of his carrier at the vet’s office. He knows now that it’s not his favorite place. The first stop was on the scale, where we learned George has gained weight! He may have been a little underweight when he was dumped in a park, or he might be getting a little too much food while cooped up here at Hotel Flapper. Either way, he now weighs 7.28kg or 16lbs! When he first arrived he weighed 6.06kg or 13.35lbs, and that was only five weeks ago!
The extra weight won’t be great for George’s foot, so we’ll have to watch the treats and make sure he doesn’t gain much more weight. The good news is that George’s foot is looking much better. When he first arrived, the bumble infection was really deep. It was cleaned out and bandaged, and cleaned out and bandaged, and bandaged again. Today the vets picked at the remaining scab a bit and found that it is healing really well from the inside out, and it is really shallow now. It was bandaged yet again, and George will only have to keep the bandage on for a few days. Then he just has to spend most his time on super soft 4″ of wood shavings and limit his play time. We’ll keep his foot clean with chlorhexadine and novalsan until what’s left of the scab finally heals, and then he’ll be set to go to the sanctuary!
In other news, Simon was at the vet this past Tuesday. He is at least 14-years-old now (hard to say exactly since he’s a rescue) and he just didn’t seem to be acting right. It turns out he has diabetes, so now he’ll get insulin twice a day and hopefully we can manage it pretty easily for him. I was not going to intervene in Simon’s aging with drugs and shots like I have in the past with cats. I had decided that he was going to have a natural decline and not hang around extra time for my benefit. But the insulin is very easy and doesn’t hurt him and he should do well on it. Also, he’s diabetic because he’s fat, and that’s my fault. He has always been a big guy, but he really gained weight when Hodjee and Meelee (his play buddies) passed away in the past two years. So we’ll keep you posted on how furry guy is doing.
In the meantime, enjoy this short video of a… holiday-spirit-filled neighbor’s holiday lights.
George got into a sanctuary!!!
George will be with us until his foot heals, and then he will go live at an awesome sanctuary on Vashon Island, WA. We will share more details as soon as we can. George will have goose friends!
This is awesome news for George!
Unfortunately the sanctuary we wanted to place George with does not have room for him. So we are back to searching for a good forever place for him.
It feels like our kid got wait listed for the good preschool, or didn’t make the cut for the little league team.
But don’t tell George. We don’t want him to feel bad, and his foot still has some healing to do.
Flapper was not too keen on sharing his pool with George the rescue goose this weekend.
He will share it sometimes with Chewy, but just a little bit.
Eventually he wants the pool to himself, so he kicks Chewy out.
Then he’s free to watch the birds fly by.
And splash up a storm, all by himself.
George eventually got pool time, but he had to wait until Flapper was done.
In other news, O’Malley is a snuggle-saurus again. He has been mad at me for weeks, and running away from me when I tried to pick him up. He was mad over a combination of molting, George being here, and having to take a round of antibiotics to clear up a cold. But he finally decided that I’m okay again, and now comes to me when I call and sits on my lap. I must say, I didn’t miss the ankle-biting, but I did miss my quality time with my snuggle-saurus. I’m glad he’s friendly again and back to trusting me.
It was a good, chilly weekend in Seattle. And we had plenty of yard time with treats for the chickens and everyone else.
We hope everyone is having a great holiday season.
From all of us (plus George) to all of you and yours…
Happy Holidays.
On the left is George’s foot when he arrived. On the right is George’s foot today. It still has some healing to do, but you can see it is flatter than before. That helps the old, broken foot bone lay better and should help it stay healthier in the long run.
Now what you don’t see is the bandage that George is supposed to be wearing on his foot.
George was supposed to stay on his 8×12 foot blankie so his foot could stay dry, but while I was on the phone, he snuck around the side and then RAN PAST ME as fast as he could, flapping his wings and sassing me the whole way across the yard. He knew he was sneaking out, and he was going to make it a dramatic escape.
I yelled for him to get back on his blankie but he stuck his neck out and yelled right back at me, “no way, lady!”
Before I could stop him, he had jumped in the pool. At that point his foot bandage was ruined so we just took it off and let him have a good swim.
He really enjoyed that bath and had fun roaming around the yard for a few hours. It’s a bit too much for him to stay cooped up all night and day with a bandage on his foot, so we’ll have to talk to the vet about alternatives.
I’ve never been sassed by a goose before, and I must say it was pretty cute. George really gave me the business and wasn’t going to take any guff from me.
We’ll do our best to keep that foot clean, and hopefully it will keep on healing. We need that scab to close up and be replaced by healthy tissue so he can go to a sanctuary. Luckily it is improving so far, so that’s good.
Everyone else is good at Flapper’s house this weekend. We hope you have a good weekend. George says “Stay sassy!”
It was dark out, but I wanted to capture George talking to my cough. As I mentioned before, he’s a very good conversationalist.
He was standing on his blankie, since he has to keep his foot dry for another 20 days. He’s doing well, other than being a little stir crazy from not being able to run and fly. We’re keeping him entertained with toys and treats, and his foot is busy healing so he can run and fly again soon.
Until then, cough cough, honk honk.
