Mara's travails

[Bill Ryan]

Dear Friends, thanks once more for all the messages and various forms of great kindness. It's very difficult.

Besides the pharma meds, I'm now giving her C60, NAC, cannabinol eye drops, and I've just posted a question here about DMSO. (If anyone knows more than I do, please help! )

I saw the vet again this morning. He's a very kind man, and he gave me a hug. He said he 'doubted' that Mara would see again. But that actually raised my spirits. He did not say it was impossible.

~~~

Separately, I'd like to share something quite interesting. It's the kind of thing that might better belong in a Disney movie for kids than in real life.

Here's a photo I just took:



This is not Mara. I promise you.

It's a dog that lives just down the road, not more than half a mile away.

I first saw this dog about a couple years ago when driving home, just a few minutes from my house. I was so astonished that I did a double-take (and a U-turn!) to go back and check that Mara hadn't somehow wandered on to the highway.

This dog is (a) identical, and (b) has a short docked tail, just like Mara — the only other dog I've EVER seen here that has a docked tail.

It immediately struck me that this could be a dog from the same litter as Mara, and might, very miraculously, be a lost brother or sister. I parked my curious thought, and after that I never noticed the dog again.

Then this morning I was driving into town. I saw a completely different dog on the highway (there are lots of them!), and the thought popped into my head right out of nowhere:

Wow, I can remember seeing that dog that looked just like Mara. Maybe if it really is a brother or sister, I could somehow find it, make the owner an offer they couldn't refuse, and that'd be (a) a companion for Mara that she would happily accept, and (b) just maybe, another mountain dog just as tough and strong as Mara is... in case Mara can't ever go to the mountains again.

On my way back from town, I played one of those interesting little thought-experiment games with myself:

Okay, I haven't seen that other Mara-dog for two years. If I just somehow happen to see it again right now, then it'll really mean something.

And then I saw the dog straight away. I was astounded. I could hardly believe it. I rushed home, grabbed my camera, and returned to the spot. I still do a double-take each time I see the photo I took.

So my plan is to recruit my friend here who speaks fluent Spanish, go knock on the door of the house where this dog lives, and explain as nicely and kindly as possible what my problem is — that I'd like to borrow their dog for a few hours, see if Mara will be friendly (or even seems to recognize it), and if the remarkable thing happens, then to offer to purchase the dog from the owner.

I'd be prepared to make a very generous offer that the owner, who is likely to be a local farmer with an extremely modest income, can't turn down. And the local people regard their dogs in a different way than most North Americans, Europeans or Australians/ NZers: they don't form such close bonds at all, and dogs are often regarded as more of a nuisance here than Man's Best Friend.

It still seems remarkable. People connect and reconnect in life in miraculous ways... and maybe dogs do, as well. I need to get myself very grounded to make sure I'm not fooling myself, which is surely very possible. But one just never knows.

[wondering]

What an amazing tale of "coincidences", Bill. At the very least, Mara might find a loving, supportive companion, which would also give your heart a little boost.

[Ravenlocke]

Hi Bill,

I’m glad Mara is recouping as best she can. I’m still catching up on here but I wanted to mention something about the glaucoma. My husband has it and almost lost his eyesight before we found out twelve years ago. The damage was more in the right eye, he lost the bottom half of his vision in that eye. He described it as foggy.
Anyway I went and researched about this silent disease and although there is no permanent cure for it, the meds, eye drops, is all they can do but our eye doctor recommended fish oil supplement. (Omega 3s for vision,) which we take already and we take vitamin C and Nac.

I also started supplementing with Vitamin A, and Lutein with zeaxanthin, and Astaxanthin.

All three above are good for keeping vision healthy, clear, especially with onset of old age.

Also I later found a supplement from Life Extension called Eye Pressure Support, vegetarian supplement.

My husbands vision in his right eye improved with supplements, the fog cleared up a lot, but not completely but the pressure stayed. However one month after taking the Eye pressure support along with the eye drops, and the supplements, his eye pressure dropped to almost normal, so the doctor has kept him on the lowest potency of the eye drop prescription.
In the meantime he takes all the above supplements to keep his glaucoma in check.

I don’t know if this helps for Mara or if they make any of the above supplements for dogs or if they are safe for dogs I didn’t reasearch that, Im just passing my information hoping it might be helpful for her.

Take care,

Ravenlocke

[RunningDeer]

Hear, hear, Bill, it’s heart warming to see manifestation in action for you.

♡

[Isserley]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
... Maybe if it really is a brother or sister, I could somehow find it, make the owner an offer they couldn't refuse, and that'd be (a) a companion for Mara that she would happily accept..

Great minds think alike

[Franny]

"Besides the pharma meds, I'm now giving her C60, NAC, cannabinol eye drops, and I've just posted a question here about DMSO. (If anyone knows more than I do, please help! )"

I first found out about DMSO from an equine vet I worked with years ago, so I used it on horses and on myself. Injured my foot/ankle/knee recently and have been using it twice a day. Never had a problem in decades of use - just keep treated area clean.

However, it is not recommended for dogs or rabbits. It actually causes several eye problems for dogs and use should be carefully regulated by a vet if at all.

I'm also using a far infra red light on the injuries. I have read it's useful for healing eyes as well but have no other details. I can look into it if needed, have a book...somewhere.

[iota]

dearest bill

i am so very sorry for the situation your precious companion is experiencing

any update on the dog that looks so much like her?

what i came to write and ask is if you have per chance heard of Astaxanthin?

it has many wondrous properties but one primary one is the ;improving of eye sight

i recently gave it to a childhood bestie who has suffered a stroke and this greatly impacted her eyesight

she can only see STRAIGHT AHEAD .. not left or right like most of us

well .. after taking Astaxanthin she reports her eyesight now opening up on both sides where before it was completely restricted

it is completely natural and has a host of other benefits as well

it is on my MUST have extras at all times right along with NAC that i also give my baby Tella as needed

Astaxanthin: 19 Known Medical Benefits, Uses, Side Effects & Conditions ...

will keep you both in my prayers and in faith opening possibilities yet unfathomed

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by iota (here)
what i came to write and ask is if you have per chance heard of Astaxanthin?

Thanks — yes, I have some here. (I'm already giving her NAC, Fish Oil, Citrulline and C60, so I'll add it to her regime. )

Some comedic light relief — which may be needed! Last night after the sun set Mara was fast asleep in the grass outside. So when I went to bed I just left the doors wide open so that she could snuffle around and find her way back in any time she wanted to.

Several hours later, I awoke to a huge commotion, and thought that Mara had to be in some kind of trouble. What I found was that a skunk had got into the house and Mara, as blind as a bat, was chasing it around everywhere, barking and crashing into everything all the time. It was chaos.

I managed to usher the terrified skunk into the kitchen (where the outside kitchen door was still open), and shut the inside door so that Mara couldn't reach it. I assumed the skunk would find its way home again — and come the morning, the only sign of it now is a lingering VERY strong skunk smell absolutely everywhere.

(The doors and windows will now stay open all day... )

[Matthew]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
...skunk...

I would have had a meltdown lol. I would have found it hard to muster the spirit of "Don't cry over spilt milk". I think the phrase needs expanding though: "Don't cry over spilt milk but do clean it up or it's gonna start stinking". All the best with the clean-up operation

[Casey Claar]

Omg. hahahahahahahahahahaha........ I literally picture that all the way through. ( funny and not funny all at once )

[wondering]

How amazing that her spirit of protector, guardian and all around skunk deterrent is still so there...go Mara!!

[Bill Ryan]

Diane/wondering was typically kind enough to send me this Visitors Message, which can be seen on my profile page:

Bill, I would love an update of Mara's ability to get out and walk and her adjustment in general - and yours. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Diane

Well, first to respond to Matthew:

Posted by Matthew (here)

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
...skunk...

I would have had a meltdown lol. I would have found it hard to muster the spirit of "Don't cry over spilt milk". I think the phrase needs expanding though: "Don't cry over spilt milk but do clean it up or it's gonna start stinking". All the best with the clean-up operation

No chance of any 'clean-up'. Even with doors and windows wide open 20 hours a day, the smell still lingers. It'll disappear sometime!

Re poor Mara, she's blind, or 95% blind (just, just maybe... that 5% of very fuzzy dim sight may make a big difference if it's actually there and not just my imagination or wishful thinking).

She bumps into table and chair legs, but at the same time, she can mostly navigate her way through open doorways and sometimes she seems to see me, even when I'm deliberately being very silent as a test. She moves around slowly and carefully, and isn't coming to any harm.

It's all rather difficult, and my simple but very healthy life here has radically changed overnight. (Hers too, of course. ) I'm adjusting fairly fast, and I think Mara may be adjusting better than I am!

One of the very small but impactful things, though, is that she doesn't seem to be able to tell the difference (or much difference) between day and night, so she's often (e.g.) wanting her breakfast at some midnight hour when I have to get up and deal with that. So I've been wrestling with my sleep cycles, sometimes coming up short. But that, too, is something I'm slowly learning to manage better.

There are many ongoing challenges and tricky hard-to-solve little problems everywhere and every day. One was how to keep her safe outside, as there's a lot of thick undergrowth she can get tangled up in (or get her eye poked by). And 50 yards/meters away, there's a dirt road where farm trucks sometimes rumble by. If Mara got tangled up with one of those, that really could be dangerous. So I had to build a kind of enclosure.

This was my best shot, but it seems to work fine. It's all soft plastic, and when she bumps her nose against it she just backs off.





As I mentioned above, she does seems to be adapting well. We often project human feelings of pathos on to animals we perceive to be suffering, but quite often they're completely fine as they live so much in the present — unlike humans.

This human has had a little more trouble with the sudden change. I reported above on my first local hike on my own — a one-hour climb, a kind of moderate workout, up and down and round in a two mile circuit. I've now done that solo half a dozen times, and it's not so bad at all. I approach it as a kind of meditation, and each time the hour has passed extraordinarily quickly. At the same time, I most definitely get an hour's worth of exercise and close contact with nature. (It really is very green around here!)

That regular workout is important for me in a number of obvious ways, so I'm very thankful I can maintain that. But longer trips to the more remote 'real' mountains may now be a much rarer thing. I need to brace myself to try a long high multi-hour mountain day on my own, and just maybe that'll be okay too. As some of you may know, I have a personal Christmas (and birthday!) tradition of a long high mountain hike, and I've already firmly decided this Christmas will be no different.

A relevant thread, maybe... The Impermanence of All Things.

[wondering]

What a beautiful, safe, lush space for Mara, Bill. It exudes energy and welcoming. She must be very grateful in her inner knowing of such good care. Your courage and devotion to her are so apparent. Did she ever meet her look alike from down the road?

[onawah]

My friend Norah who is an "animal whisperer" has said that animals pass to the other side with much more ease than most humans,
And that they have often told her they have returned again and again to the same humans with whom they have created the kind of bond that you and Mara have, Bill.
People often have a hard time contemplating getting a new pet after the one they've had for years has passed, but the chances are good that they will get the same animal soul in that new pet that they had in the last.
( I think the new animal doesn't necessarily have to be the same breed or species as the last one, but I would think it could help if it's the same.)
(Though animals may need some time between lives before incarnating again, so a pause between pets may be a good idea if one is hoping to have a reunion with the pet that has passed.)
Animals have also told Norah that they are grateful to their owners for euthanasia when they are suffering in pain, and repair is not possible.
They completely understand their owners are just trying to spare them pain, so there is no reason for feelings of guilt if and when that decision has to be made.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by onawah (here)
My friend Norah who is an "animal whisperer" has said that animals pass to the other side with much more ease than most humans,
And that they have often told her they have returned again and again to the same humans with whom they have created the kind of bond that you and Mara have, Bill.

Yes, I'm certain this is the case. There are some posts abut this very thing on this interesting thread:

• Can your dog or cat that has passed away make contact with you from the hereafter?

There was even a fun (and unusual!) 2017 Hollywood movie about this, called A Dog's Purpose. The storyline followed a dog who kept returning in a number of different incarnations until he found his original beloved owner again.

[Alberto e Daniela]

Hello Bill,

We're so sorry about this situation, but are confident this will continue to improve.

We join the big hug around you and Mara!

Alberto and Daniela

[Bill Ryan]

Look at this:

'Only' $2700. (But maybe there'd be savings on dog food...)

I bet it can't climb mountains, though.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=xdfmhWQyp_8

[Matthew]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
Look at this:

'Only' $2700. (But maybe there'd be savings on dog food...)

I bet it can't climb mountains, though.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=xdfmhWQyp_8

Drone's flight details are already centrally logged, and I BET this little fella's movements are intrinsically, centrally tracked. I can't bring myself to trust something dog like that's so clean. When does it drink out of a muddy puddle?

[Bill Ryan]

Dear friends, quite a few kind people have been asking me for an update, so here's the latest. It's really all about adapting to a very new situation and solving a bunch of problems I'd never once anticipated. In bulletpoints!

• Mara is almost totally blind, but I think she can see vague, large contrasting shadows, etc — at least sometimes. She can usually navigate her way through open doorways, for instance, but continually bumps into small things like table and chair legs.

• So I've wrapped soft foam around everything I can think of, both indoors and out, that she can possibly bump into with her big soft doggie nose. That seems to be working very well.

• I built a fence (from soft plastic sheeting) to border the grassy area round my house (I daren't call it a lawn! ). I posted a couple of photos just above. She found a few ways to escape (and then got all lost in the bushes, quite a dangerous place as she could easily poke her eye badly with a sharp stick), so as an iterative process I've been improving my very amateur handiwork. It now all seems a lot better.

• Good news: I've found a local walk we can do which is a 20-minute, 2/3 mile (1 km) round trip, with 250ft altitude gain up a steeply sloping open field, with no hazards of any kind — so she can do all that without a lead, roaming around where she wants to. We do that every morning, and now that this is the only real exercise she gets, she greatly looks forward to it. (Before that, we were often doing many hours and miles and thousands of feet height gain on rough ground in the high mountains. So it's a pathetically small substitute — but in truth, still more than many town dogs might enjoy.)

• It's been harder for me to adapt than her. A couple days ago I went on my first high mountain hike without her, something I'd not been looking forward to at all, but I knew I had to bite the bullet and do it. I was relieved to find it was actually fine: nature really is a healing balm all on its own. So I now think that very one thing I'd been pretty concerned about, my own mountaineering workouts (not just trivial funtime, but the core of my health and well-being) I'll be able to continue without feeling too bereft. That was important.

• The other main problem to wrestle with has been that because she can't seem to tell night from day, she often wakes up at midnight wanting her breakfast, invariably waking me up as well. So my sleep has been rather broken most nights, but I'm figuring out ways to circumvent that which are slowly seeming to work better.

• No news [yet] on Mara's theoretically possible brother or sister just down the road. I'm going to stay on that until I can find out something definitive.

• As Ive posted elsewhere: The Impermanence of All Things.
  
  

[Matthew]

With seriousness had you thought of peeing round the boundary you want to contain her in? Smell paints is its own landscape.