Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara logo

Happy Birthday, Speck

Today is Speck’s 16th birthday. I remember the day we got him . . like it was yesterday. I had asked for a dachshund for several years and Vince always said “no dogs in the house!” One day out of the blue, he said “Do you want a dachshund?” YES! We drove over to the next county where he had found one and they had three adorable puppies. We had to pick one. I wanted one; Vince wanted a different one. We got the one Vince wanted and that’s Speck.

Speck

Speck

I’m taking him to the vet in the morning to get his teeth cleaned. Hopefully, there’s a bad tooth causing some of his problems. If not . . we’re about at the end of our options. He’s back on two antibiotics and unless we find a solution, once he stops taking them, he will end up very sick again in a week or so.

Dogs don’t live forever . . we’ve done what we can. Cleaning the teeth is a last resort but I couldn’t give up on him til we’d done everything we could do.

He’s had 16 very good years . . been loved and pampered and he’s brought lots of love and joy to us!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Happy Birthday, Speck – Hoping his teeth cleaning goes well tomorrow.

  3. Happy birthday to Speck – he sure has had a great family to live with! He’s made it about a year longer than our dachshund did – hope it’s the teeth and you have even more time with him.

    • Thanks! No matter how good the outcome tomorrow, at 16, we don’t have much longer with him so I want to love on him and snuggle with him as long as I can. Speck is a cuddler where Rita wants no part of being close to anyone.

  4. Cleaning teeth involves going under sedation—he’s pretty old for that, some vets think the sedation can be too hard on dogs of a “certain age” Good luck and happy birthday

    • Yes, we are aware of the risks. It’s similar to treating us as we get older. Sometimes the procedures are risky but doing nothing is more of a risk. Our vet is a great vet and we’ve talked about the risks. We usually have Speck’s teeth cleaned every 8 – 10 months and because he’s been so sickly, we haven’t had it done in just over a year.

      He was sedated a month or so ago in order to get some heart tests done and he did fine so we’re hoping he will be fine with this procedure. Unless they can find something wrong in his mouth and “fix” it, he isn’t going to make it but a few months anyway.

  5. That’s one of the hardest things about having pets. I don’t like to hear that but sure hoping all goes well tomorrow and Speck’ll be around awhile longer. He has been a lucky pup living with you!

  8. My dog is only 13, but he had a difficult time the last time he was sedated. He acted dopey for almost 2 day after. But his teeth had to be cleaned because he has a heart murmur. I hope we don’t have to have it done again.

    Happy Birthday and good luck to Speck!

  11. Happy day to Speck! Chloe the Smelly Basset is 13 this year, and has issues as well. she limped all weekend. Of course she stated limping at 12:30 on Saturday, significant because the vet closed at 12:00……..

  15. Happy Birthday Speck!! Hope everything goes well with teeth cleaning. My dog Clancy is going to be 12 and started having seizures a week ago, trying some meds to control them but Vet says at his age it’s probably a mass in his brain. I never thought it would be so difficult to hear this news.

Discover more from Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading