The most popular

When I am away for a couple of days, Kung Kung is the most popular person at home.

New Norm

Six months into work from home mode....we do still need to turn up at daycare in the days I need to be at the office...

Feet-dragging upon arrival at daycare

Disembarkation negotiations

Acceptance of offer

On my break time

Having the flexibility to still work from home means I can take them for a short walk during the day. I know when it is time to go when my girl comes to see me. Nowadays, she has enlisted Hiro to have strength in numbers.

Today, the boy met the neighbor's dogs with his usual wagging tail. The boy is friendly to all dogs. Riko (not in picture) is observing social distancing rules at all times.

Butt inspection

The Staring Game

Sometimes, I feel like the minority shareholder in my house. 

This is the we-want-to-go-walking stare.

Heart-to-Heart

Hiro went for his heart scan last week. The diagnosis is that he has congestive heart condition - likely caused by heartworms. Click link for info.

Glad that we know the cause and his abdomen fluid accumulation has cleared. He will be on heart medication from now on. His walks has to be restricted so as not to strain his heart. He is still happy-go-lucky with no side effects from his conditions.

Observing social distancing

 

Hiro the hero

Hiro overcame many health issues since his arrival. Mass cell tumour then heartworm.

Recently, he had gained a lot of weight very rapidly. At first, I thought it was a side effect of the steroids in his antibiotics taken after his surgery. After trying to do some weight management without much results, we went to the vet to have him examined. His blood test was all clear (within normal band).

It turns out that fluids have been accumulating in his abdomen. So, it was drained in 2 sessions. On Friday, 600 ml came out (1 small mineral bottle). Yesterday, a whopping 2 litres (2 large mineral water bottles) was drained out. The boy was so calm and zen through the one hour process.

After the session, some 2 kilos came off. His proper waistline could be seen again. There is more fluid inside.... hope that it will subside naturally with some diuretic medication. He will need to get down to 32-34 kg for better quality of life.

Back home and resting....

The vet suspects it may he may have heart issues (from the heartworms early on). He will be monitored if the fluids come back. We have to get a heart scan sometime next week. Pray hard that it is treatable.

Weekend spa for the girls

It is a long restful weekend with the kids.

Saturday - Dori had her hair cut and grooming session.

Sunday - Riko had her head and neck massage after lunch with her grandparents.

Hiro goes on diet. Watch this space.

D-Day (Heart worm results)

This week, we received a Whatssap reminder for Hiro's post heartworm treatment check up. 

As usual, the boy was happy for the vet visit because of all the attention he gets from the doctors and nurses. Also, all the doggy friends he meets in the waiting room.

With the conditional MCO, we had to still wear our face masks and wait outside until the earlier patient exits. The boy was mighty kan cheong to go inside on arrival.

Pre-consultation weight-check (Left-Before in Feb, Right- Today)

Since January, he lost a lot of weight due to his prolonged antibiotic medication. At its lowest, it was 32 kg. Now, he has truly gone over the opposite end of the scale. With the MCO, they could not go for their regular walks and increase meal frequency (my fault). Dr. Doris says he has to get back to 32 kg. I agreed too.

The good news is the boy is tested as heartworm-free! He will need to take his monthly heartworm tablets.

So now, everyone is strictly on 2 meals a day. Intra-day snacks are limited to fruits until further notice. We need to go to the vet soon enough for his annual vaccination. He has to go for the full complete 9-in-1 version to cover additional exposures.... since he already has a record of eating rats!

Boy waiting with wagging tail before meeting new friend

Sunday Synchronicity

Heat wave - everyone's basking under the air con

Life after MCO

It was Day 2 of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

My dog walker suddenly turned up at my gate!

My girl was super excited since she had't gone for a walk for almost 2 months. The boy was super blur because he was jolted up from his afternoon nap. Glad they can get some exercise now. Had trouble fastening Hiro's harness around his body.... means he has fatten up post-antibiotic medication. Now, he needs to watch his weight since he is eternally hungry at home.

Sometimes, the kids and their walker have tea before walking. Everyone is served the same portion from the food menu of the day.

Home dining

The kids have gone from two meals a day to when-I-eat, they-eat-too arrangement. Simply speaking, my meals always get hijacked.

Grab Delivery

In the early lockdown days, Grabmum sends over some lunch. She was paid in kind with one Riko to take back to daycare for the afternoon.

Mr. Delivery Man

Nowadays, the new people we see are the delivery men.

Everyone puts their own needs in the weekly order lists. Our Tesco man has been delivering only half of our orders twice in a row since the lockdown began. At least, Riko is glad her cream cheese order came and Hiro is willing to eat vegetables if it came down to that or starvation.

New norms in our daily lives

It is almost a month that we have all been house-bound. Somehow, everyone has managed to find their new norms.

The most significant one would be that we can no longer take their usual walks. As the MCO rules tighten, our walks had become illegal - in front of the house after dark. In the early days, the kids would want to walk further into the next road. Nowadays, they seem to know that they cannot breach an imaginary boundary pass the neighbour's house.... they turn back. For more legal alternatives, we walked in our daycare garden. But, it is quite boring.

Momma is home day and night. We have been sleeping day and night. On good days, we bask in the dining room when the air-conditioner is turned on.

Car rides became the main highlight of the day.  Nobody wants to sit in the middle seat. Everyone wants a window seat. For some reason, mummy is covering her nose. So, Dori wants to do the same too.

We are also served lunch and tea everyday now.

Weekend highlights

Tea time is always exciting in our house.

First, the waiting game. One of the main stakeholder has started queuing in the kitchen.

 Then, the anticipation.It's strictly a no sharing policy. Everyone is agreeable to this rule!

Voices of discontent

My girl Riko has been most affected by the confinement. During the past two weeks, she had refused to eat twice. The first time, she landed her at the vet because she vomited gastric juices and still refused to eat.

Faces of boredom

Movement Control Order for Kids

 It will be challenging to explain to the kids that we cannot go out so often now.

The Age of the Innocence is now Gone with the Wind

It's coming to three months since Hiro's surgery and weeks since his heartworm treatment, I was counting the days till Hiro completely finish his medication.

Recently, I noticed the boy has been losing weight rapidly. So much so that, his skull now has two prominent indentations on his forehead. He has lost his boxy face now. My self-investigation on the net had diagnosed it as some kind of Myositis from his physical symptoms. So, we went to the visit last Sunday.

After some blood test etc, the vet said that it is likely due to the prolonged anti-inflammatory meds that contains steroids, which he has been taking for the past months. The steroid medication is causing side effects like increased hunger. For the moment, he still needs to finish his course of medication to fight any cancer spread.

In spite of his apparent weight loss, his appetite has been voracious. He is seems to be constantly hungry.... even right after meals. In the early days when a walk in the garden meant Hiro smelling the flowers and fertilising the plants in the garden. Nowadays, he is foraging the grounds from fallen papayas and other unknown stuff. Last weekend, he went through my compost pots for prawn shells and egg shells!

Last Wednesday morning, he was unusually busy in the garden ... so much that he was late for breakfast. I went looking for him and found him in the bushes. A closer look found him with a rat in his mouth! No photos... too grossed out to capture the moment. I shouted for him to let go. The more I called out, the faster he wanted to swallow the rat. So there, he ate the rat like a snake. One big blood-less swallow.





So, we were back to the vet again.

Eating a rat can lead to many more dangers that I first thought. My first concern was whether he could digest the swallowed rat. Then, whether it was a dead or live rat that he ate. Due to his laid-back nature, I cannot think that he has the hunting instinct to catch one live. So, now the fear was if it was dead, it could have died from rat poison... and now being digested by the boy. The vet said I had to watch out for rat urine disease too....which will show symptoms of jaundice over the next few days.

So, Hiro was prescribe another series of antibiotics and anti inflammatory medication. It's been five days now. He seems to be OK. No signs of jaundice or other poisoning reactions. Still hungry.

During his first vet visit last December, he was 36 kg and he is at 32 kg now. It has been about one kilo loss, each time he is weighed recent vet visits. Now, we have to feed him lunch to compensate the weight loss.

Nowadays, walking in the garden has become more of a hunting outing for food. We are left with praying that he ate a healthy rat who had already did his morning pee before death.

Very Important Dog (VID) status

Hiro was back in the vet to resume his second and third heartworm injection. It was required to be taken on consecutive days (Monday and Tuesday). So, the boy spent those 2 days at the vet in the daytime under observation in case there was a reaction to the medication given.

He was mighty glad to see me during his pick-up! After the treatment, he was instructed to be under full house arrest. No outdoor walks till his next check-up which was in 3 months time.

On Thursday night, I noticed that he was settling down to sleep like he usually does when we got home. He kept coming to me as if something was wrong. I thought he was pacing about (at first, I thought he was still hungry) .... but after giving him some fruits, he continued walking about and not wanting to sit down. That's when I noticed that there was some swelling in his abdomen. This is probably causing him some discomfort to lie down.

Worried that it was some internal bleeding, we rushed to Gasing Hospital because it was already 10 p.m. Waited an hour. There was apparent swelling but the vet couldn't do much except to administer some anti-swelling tablets. Since the vet said that it did not appear to be life threatening, it was decided that he go and see his regular vet in the morning.

The next morning, we are back to his regular vet.They found at least 3 swollen areas on one side of his abdomen - the same side of his earlier mass cell tumour (MCT) surgery. Blood tests should normal levels except for his WBC (due to infection). For the moment, there is no signs of cancer cells.

So, he was kept under observation at the vet for the whole of Friday.

On Sunday, we are back at the vet again for a check-up. Most of the swollen areas have subsided except for the one near the MCT surgery area. So, his medication was extended for 3 more days.


With all these vet visits, I think my boy has achieved VID (Very Important Dog) membership status. I think he likes going to the vet.... except the bit that he has to stay in the "lock-up".

Second dinner

The boy has an appetite of a horse. Apparently, his main dinner is insufficient. He decided to come into the kitchen to rummage the dustbin for seconds.

He decided to lick the aluminium foil paper which had wrapped the otak-otak fish in.  Had to quickly clean up the mess before Po-Po sees it.

What a mess!

My Under-table Dogs

Most nights, my kids will hold a congregation under my study table ..... conducted largely in dreamland.

Full-time maid

Since returning from my holidays last Tuesday, I thought I would be well-rested for work in the new year. Instead, I found myself working as the home cleaner for my kids.

The boy began vomiting on Wednesday afternoon four times. The next day, the same thing happened. He also had a bout of diarrhea. What a lethal combo!

If things could get any worse, it did. My late getting up on Thursday morning saw a melted dark chocolate poo puddle in my living room. He came to wake me up earlier but I put him to "snooze". My bad.

Things have recovered since then.

I think his vomiting is due to him swallowing his breakfast.  I noticed that he eats so fast and that he hardly chews his food before swallowing. I can still see the undigested meat remnants in the vomit. As much as he loves drinking milk, I think he might have become sensitive to lactose lately. So, he has to abstain from mid-day milk for the time being and all his food has to be small-size. Now, fingers crossed - no vomit. His poo is re-forming to solid state again. Hurrah!

Boot camp at Daycare

I am taking a long weekend off away from home. So, the kids are at daycare full time (3 nights). This is Hiro's first overnight stay.

Hiro has set up his command post in his favourite room known as the kitchen.

Popo said he managed to round some support to occupy the kitchen for his famine cause.