Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

In recent news; Napoleon fixed the aerial today, Yuki's still so itchy that she's tearing her own fur out....did I mention that before, and I made strawberry jam yesterday. I was so pleased with myself. Although I thought we had a clean jar and lid, a pickled onion jar but still. Had the jar but no lid so I had to take one from another jar of pickled onions that was just filled with vinegar now and use that. Even though I washed it vinegar odour is really hard to get rid of. I left the jar overnight and when I opened it this morning I was met with the unpleasant smell of vinegar and strawberries, the jam didn't taste bad though, so it's all fine....I hope. Jam, well preserves in general, originally came about because people wanted to keep seasonal fruits for later in the year so had to find a way to preserve them. Pickling also serves the same purpose, although with a very different method. So I find it kind of poetic to have jam in a pickle jar.

I think I told you that both mum and Yui were on medication. Both finished their treatment over Christmas and New Year and I'd say Yui's gotten worse. I will admit that one cause of her itchiness could be fur. I combed her the other day and got a huge pile of fur out of her. Odd really because she didn't really look that woolly (that's what she looks like when she's blowing her coat). We really don't want to take her back to the vet but it was so bad today that she made her paws bleed. It's possible that some of this scratching and nibbling is psychological so I've been trying to condition her not to do it so much. That's getting a bit tricky and tedious now, not to mention dangerous. I have to poke her with a plastic bottle (a long one) and force it between her mouth and wherever she's nibbling but she gets quite angry and aggressive when I do. I did start with a cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper but it wwas too flimsy. I figure since the bottle is smooth and round and filled with air it shouldn't hurt her, well, not much. In some places her skin is quite red so I see this as a necessary evil, even though she probably hates me for it. Well, you would too if someone poked you with a bottle every five minutes while you were trying to scratch a horrible itch. I've been doing it for about 3-4 days now I think and she's started to ignore me completely and just keep tearing at whatever she's nibbling, sometimes now she hears me coming and stops, then starts up again when my back's turned.

One of mum's dog walking friends said her old dog had an itchy scratchy problem and the vet just prescribed pills that did nothing that she later learned were steroids. Also, while she was on whatever pills the vet gave her before, Yui had a serious diarrhoea problem. Mum went out and got a witch hazel and aloe itch remedy/prevention that seemed to have a good effect on her tummy, where she'd gone a little bald, but now she's going at her paws like mad. We just flea treated her yesterday and we're pretty sure she's been okay for fleas. I rather hope that we can just get one of those lampshade style dog collars to stop dogs biting their stitches after operations but I doubt that would happen, besides, Yui wouldn't like it.

The friend who had the itchy dog also gave mum some of the shampoo she used for her dog (oh, that dog died by the way, age related) and we were planning to give her a bath tomorrow but because she's making herself bleed again we're thinking of just taking her to the vet again. Maybe he won't just prescribe unknown pills again. We can hope.

I was going to write about going to see my family for Christmas, sort of, but this rather got away from me so I'll save it for another time again.

My eyes are getting so tired lately. Going to have to go to the opticians soon. I'm trying tro get into a better sleep patterns first so I'm not tired during the eye exam, because that won't help. What idiot would get an eye test after something stupid like an hours sleep.....unless they have a diagnosable sleep related disorder that is.

I'm done now.

Bluebiird out.