Teresa's Blog (52)

I just realised that for some reason, one of my most important blog posts ever did never get published! But better late than never, so here goes:

After finding out Romã had HD, and finding a lot of second opinions, I took her to one last second opinion and for some fortunate reason forgot her x-rays. She had to redo it and amazilgy, something had gone wrong at my usual vet, because the image was definetely not the same! Later that week, my usual vet called and confimed there…

We have finally and officialy moved to our new home in Évora. It's in a totally diferent part of the city, but my girls already knew thw house and new roomates. We are now living with two other human girls and a doggie young man!

It's an apartment with a huge balcony and we have an amazing garden right outside our building door. It's a garden with  a playground, wich I though at first is a terrible combination, but it turns out every family has a dog in the neighbourhood, so the kids…

After a week of waiting and wondering, we finally found out why Romã was complaining about her left leg for the past week. We decided to redo her HD test, just to be sure... And there it was!

Romã's hips progressed from an A to a D on the left side - we think this must be due to a compensating mechanism, to avoid pain on her left arm (the one she broke as a pup). There is a lot of destruction in that hip, and we are all amazed how she managed to go for so long without giving us any…

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and hope all the Setters out there enjoy their gifts!

4 years ago, my personal little miracle was comming into this world.

It's been a wonderful journey so far, and my girl never stops to amaze me!

Today, we have done her favourite: A walk in the fields right after getting up, wich she enjoyed a lot!

Later, we'll have a special dinner to celebrate her birthday!

Here's a photo of the B-Day girl in her morning walk (camera phone =(!!! )…

These three cuties are 5 week old Rafeiros Alentejanos, a portuguese cattle/guard breed. They are very young, but their mum is a sheep dog, and earlier this week decided she had done enough parenting, left her babies behind and has been living with her herd ever since! I decided it was best for them to be around people and other dogs, instead of being alone, hiding out most…

Ok, she is not a setter, but she is my eldest, and has been with us for a long time now!

She has earned the right to a birthday post on ES!

She lived in Madeira for 6 years and is now living in Portalegre! She is a very brave girl, adjusts to everything we put her trough without ever complaining. She is a very good companion and her favourite hobbies…

Dear Romã,

I can't believe that it has been two years since I saw you coming into this crazy world of ours. You are now becoming a lovely young lady, and I feel you are old enough to understand most of what I wish to say to you today.

I was having trouble choosing one of you, because you were such an amazing lot of 12 happy puppies, but there was something in your eyes and the way you looked at me and came to me when all your brothers and sisters were done…

Today I took my girls to our little "lake" for a swim!

On our way, we stopped to say hello to Lord:

We also visited my very old stallion, Israel:

He was busy, calling my very young mares, Espanhola an Esperança!…

Today I can officially say everything is back to normal with my girls., or maybe better than normal!

Romã got all her weight back and looks like she is going to put so extra weight on, wich is great! She is back to eating dry food and barking. There were no damages at all to her tongue or mouth - truly a miracle. I have my happy girl looking better than ever, shinny coat, bright look in her eyes, lots of joy and a bit more confidence than before!

Pitanga has…

We went to the vet to pick up Romã, who was very quick to get in the car =)

Now that I have both girls at home, it's going to be much easier to manage all recoveries!

Mother and daugther were so happy to see each other again that it was a shame I did not have my camera to record the moment, it was worth to watch. They are now resting in one of my horse boxes as they are quieter and fresher. I let them out for a short run every now and again as they still need to be as…

Hi again,

Pitanga is doing amazingly well. She has adjusted to her new hearing skills and her ear is not itchy any more. For the first time in many months she is not trying to rub her ear in everything all the time, despite the stitches she still has. Her belly is doing fine as well, nice and clean scar. She is bored out of her mind as she still has to be in low exercise mode. 30 minutes of total and restricted exercise everyday is definitely not enough to a setter!!! "just"…

First of all, thank you all for your support and wonderful words of encouragment.

Pitanga is doing just fine, she is back being a Setter at times. She tried to chase some birds this morning and is eating and drinking well, so as long as I keep her calm and not running around like a mad dog, she should be fine in a week. Her hearing has already improved and she is a bit scared of the loud sounds as I think they are now a lot louder, but she is adjusting very well - no more…

Pitanga is recovering slowly from her surgery. She is still in the hospital since her night was not so good, but doing a lot better now. We are hopping to have her at home by dinner time.

While Pitanga is recovering from her surgery with me in Évora, Romã is staying with my parents in our small farm in Portalegre. She was doing fine, but this morning she somehow got a pine tree larvae in her mouth. They are very toxic and normallu cause necrosis of the place they touch. She…

So, Pitanga is just off her surgery.

She is still recovering from her anesthesia, but her vitals and temperature are OK. I'm actually inside her kennel in the hospital monitoring her as she recovers - one of the previleges of being a vet student here =).

I got to assist her surgery and good thing I was there. As soon as we opened her up we found a big hernia that was undetected so far - that would have been a lot of trouble had I done another litter!

Her ear surgery went…

Well, after our morning apointment at the vet with Pitanga, we decided that the nodule she has in her ear has to come out, so next week is surgery week for my girl.

After a long conversation we decided that she will also be neutered. She has had these nodules before and after last heat there was a very suspicious looking nodule in one of her mammary glands. 

He love Pitanga to much to be risking her health for the joy of another litter. We had a litter planned for this summer,…

Today was a very special day for my girls. 

We finally went to a Breed Evaluation in order to get them accepted into the Portuguese Kennel Club.

This was the girls first time near a show ring and everything was new to them. We also did not have a lot of time to train them in their walking and stopping.

Romã is a very shy girl and got a bit scared with all the fuss around her. Pitanga was a star!

Both girls were aprooved, Pitanga got two "excellents" in her…

Merry Christmas to you all!

Teresa, Pitanga and Romã

I recently met a man during a walk with my dogs, that were running around like crazy, as a normal setter will do. When he called me. I honestly expected the usual "oh these dogs are crazy/stupid/both". I was completely wrong, and had a wonderfull suprise! I wish I had recorded what he said, but I'll try to pass on the general idea:

The Irish Setter:

"Their feet touch the ground with the legance of a horse, their backs have feline elasticity. They look up in a…

It's Pitanga's birthday today and I woke up to a very Winterish morning... Cold and rain! Romã was brave enough to go outside but soon gave up and came back to bed. Pitanga didn't even bother :)

We slept in for an extra 3 hours and I had Irish spread all over me - there were heads and paws and tails from my two girls everywhere! I used this extra time to look at my 3 year old girl and her (now) crazy daughter and thought about how far they have come and how my life has changed since I…