Burning the candle at both ends

[WalkedUp]

Had a busy old day yesterday. Out at six in Wales with my moderated .410” walking about with the dogs, two hours and had a woodpigeon, two crows, one squirrel, a feral and a fox that I squeaked in over the brow despite being sat out in the open with two dogs. The farmer told me that she had wanted me there the evening before but didn’t know how to contact me, crawling with crows on the silage. She was glad I was there to deal with the crows. I told her I didn’t have any set up (decoys, nets etc) with me so came home for a barbecue and water fight. Lovely food of roast peppers, bass, salmon, sausages, salad and roasted cherry tomatoes. At the end of the meal I was sat back relaxing with a beer when I spotted 20 yards away a huge rat came off the fields bold as brass and climbed the oak tree to get on the feeder. I told everyone to freeze and went to fetch the S410. It stayed there and to avoid having any child / dog / rabbit in the line of sight I walked up to it, 4 yards away and shot it through the centre of mass. Had a nap in the sun then woke up to a text from my friend saying he’d found an active earth on our shoot near the pen that needed dealing with. Decided to pack the decoys Beretta semi auto and CZ455 and head back to Wales. Stopped off back at the first farm to shoot 50 crows using socks and underwear as decoys. Then headed on to our syndicate and shot two foxes in the dusk light. Drove the hour home and had a packet of Wotsits for supper. 

Edited June 1, 2021 by WalkedUp

[twenty]

Good work, well done 👍

[TIGHTCHOKE]

What a cracking way to spend a day!

[Morkin]

Well done chap , you can have a rest today after a  successful day like that .

[Walker570]

Exhausted .... a good day.

[JDog]

Apart from your dinner I would say that was a highly successful day.

[clangerman]

good effort there much more  enjoyable than the puncture my recon day came with 

[Scully]

Proper day out. 👍

[WalkedUp]

Thanks guys. A very different picture now, elated this morning but sadly I think it may have been too much for my old boy, I’ve just returned home from the veterinary hospital specialising in soft tissue surgery. 😔

The dogs were fine last night, given a light supper of 1/4 feed portion due to the late hour and left out to relieve themselves in the yard whilst I dined upon Wotsits (which were awful as expected but I was simply too impatient to reheat the meal cooked earlier for me). They were shut away before 1 am. At 6am I woke up for work to find sick and urine on the boot room floor. The old boy was ropey so left him out and he was straining uncomfortably. I expected he had a bad belly (drinking swamp water instead of the 10L bucket of fresh water I took with me) and left my wife to look after them. As I left he was drinking but looked very ill. She called to say he threw up the water and she was calling the vet. He was admitted at lunch time and put on fluids for dehydration, painkillers to settle his obvious discomfort and provisionally diagnosed with a suspected perineal hernia. They tried all afternoon to get a referral to any of the north west soft tissue veterinary surgeons but none had capacity. Keeping us in the loop at all times. I told them I would happily travel as far as needed for the right care. In the end there was no success but they decided to force him into the veterinary hospital for ‘emergency overnight care’ rather than the operation to repair the acute hernia. Once admitted there I would petition his cause for survey and it would be harder to reject. That worked very well without me having to even become at all difficult. I simply showed the veterinary surgeon a picture of him from the day before fit and healthy. Their soft tissue specialist is off ill (isolating?) and whilst another surgeon their is qualified in specialist soft tissue surgery it isn’t his primary specialism. I said that was the best chance we had so to proceed. The vet told me that there is a high chance that this type of hernia is caused by a constructive neoplastic tissue (e.g. cancer of the prostate or colon) and that there is a good chance he will not survive the night. She told me she will call at midnight but be prepared for the worst. The best case is a traumatic injury to the pelvic floor which will require surgery and castration. Most other scenarios will result in being put down under anaesthesia.

Fingers crosses for the old boy, but if it is his last weekend he had one hell of a great time. 

Saturday 

Sunday

Monday 

[JDog]

You have given that old dog a hell of a life if your posts from the past year or so are anything to go by.

[oowee]

Great day out. 

[robbiep]

Hope the dog is doing better, and glad to have been able to give you a location for the fox earth !

[WalkedUp]

Was very close to being put down as his condition was awful and he was in great distress even on methadone (he’s an opium fiend now). X Rays and ultrasound scans found a large lump, thought to be cancer. I said I wouldn’t treat cancer in a dog his age. Bloods came back normal so they opened him up just to check and found rather than neoplasticism that his prostate was covered in cysts and abscesses, greatly enlarged and herniated. They popped the cysts, with a single one producing 25ml of puss, and took a small sample of tissue and bacterial culture. They have chemically castrated him, upped the antibiotics and once the cultures comes back they will then operate to abrade the prostate. £3000 so far, which is not good value for money on a dog his age but I owe him much more than that. Insurance covers circa 65% up to £4000. As long as it is in his best interest I’m happy to lend the money and pay whatever it costs.