Daz's Animals

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This is my dog of 14 years. As a pup you couldn't keep her still for 5 minutes. Being and Australian Blue Cattle Dog (AKA ACD or Blue Heeler), her breed was breed as a working dog for cattle and given their name because of the low front shoulders and the fact that they chase and nip at the heels of cattle (And people if they get pissed off, very protective of family)

We moved from Sydney to the Gold Coast when she was 2 years old and she instantly fell in love with the beach, spending at least and hour every morning on the beach chasing a ball, frisby or swimming in the surf.

As she has aged she has lost her vision to a degenerative disorder called 'Progressive Retinal Atrophy' where the retina just degrades to non-existant resulting in complete blindness. She has been blind for 2 years now and it initially didn't slow her down. Obviously she couldn't chase her beloved balls anymore, so we started putting bells in the ball and viola...she could chase balls again.

Then about 18 months ago we found her laying on the lawn and struggling to get to her feet. Our initial thought was a Paralysis Tick so after 30 minutes of looking for a tick, we found nothing and it was off to the vet.

X-Rays revealed that she had arthritis so bad that the lower 3 verterbrae in her spin were fused and her hips had rather large spurs. The vet commented that technically she should not be walking with that level of arthritis and that it was the worst case of arthritis she had seen in over 20 years. The only thing that kept her going was her great muscle tone developed from years of chasing waves, balls, fribees and anything that moved.

Because Tiggy was in absolute perfect health other than her arthritis (Heart, lungs, liver etc function better than you would expect from a 5 year old dog) and she was still so happy and full of life, she decided to try pain management, so for the last 18 months we have been managing the pain with medication and it has been working a charm. She goes to the beach once a week in summer because she absolutely loves swimming in the surf.

Here are 2 videos, the first one was made about 3 months ago, the second one was made yesterday.





Going to upload vids soon of my new hobby, Aquariums, to share with you

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A short video of my Siamese Fighters. From left to right their names are 'Bri' named after one of my staff at work be cause both of them always have their mouth's open, the middle is Smurf for obvious reasons, and the red one on the right is Tyson because she is all butch and trying to pick a fight all the time.

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My month old Marine Aquarium. 4 peices of Coral, 2 x Clown (Nemo) Fish, 3 x Green Chromis and 1 x Firetail.

Hiding in the Live Rock because they are far to shy are 1 x Firetail and 2 x Banana Wrasse

[Rainbowmum]

They are awesome thank you so much for sharing.
Tiggy reminds me very much of Banjo he lived till the ripe old age of 21, He was Jays best mate and would walk him to the bus stop in the mornings and wait for the school bus for Jay to return.

He was also a kleptomaniac ,always steeling shoes , brooms, dusters and not forget the day he came home with bar towels.

The neighbors were always searching Banjos Klepto Box which was at the bottom of the steps.:biggrin:

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I love blue's, Tiggy is our second. Our first was Gremlin, she passed away in 1998 after a valiant battle with Liver cancer.

The problem with Blue's is they are too tough for their own good, they don't show their pain and discomfort very well.

[monk]

Tiggy is GORGEOUS!

[lizzielee]

Gorgeous doggie................

That is amazing how she is blind and can still play with her toys...........wow. So wonderful for her and for you too........
Well done too for sticking by her when she got sick and making her comfortable and doing what you can.

Thanks for showing us ................ I really enjoyed it and made me smile...........

[ChadCoxRox]

Loved the clips and hope you'll add more. Tiggy is precious obviously. My Sophie loves that same pig toy. You can tell arthur is in her saunter. Hope you both fare well through it all.

Did you just feed the salty fish before the clip? They move erratically enough to make me wonder.

Aquariums are a great hobby and it looks like you're off to a great start. I love playing with the betas using a mirror. They puff up like badarsses!

Thanks so much for sharing!

[TryingNewThing]

Daz, thanks for sharing. I especially like the first 2 videos, it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside haha. She looks very healthy and active. I think you're doing a good job keeping her that way. For me, I always wanted a dog but pets are prohibited in apartments so no chance to have one They're great companions though.

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Did you just feed the salty fish before the clip? They move erratically enough to make me wonder.

Yes, the Salties just had some brine shrimp and they love it.

Tiggy is GORGEOUS!

Oh she is so much more than that

I really enjoyed it and made me smile

it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside haha

It's amazing what doggies can do for us hey

She looks very healthy and active

She is still pretty fit. With the warmer weather she is more active obviously because she can move more freely. We also shave her coat each summer because Blue's have a very wooly undercoat and because she loves swimming the water stays next to her skin for so long and the sun heats it up and then she ends up with hotspots.

We have also made her lose about 2 kilos since she was diagnosed with Arthritis, so her weight is down to 23kg.