Goodbye Brodey

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to our last border collie Brodey, following his sister Nessa 5 1/2 years ago.

He made it to almost 17 years old! His ability to walk, and even stand for very long, had been declining, although he would sometime show signs of doing a little better. I wondered if the heat was making it difficult for him, so I was trying to get him through the summer into cooler temperatures to see if that helped. But also, he had been having what appeared to be mild seizures every once in a while during this year, but they happened only every few weeks and seemed to not last too long.

And then, we think he got bit by a brown recluse, which ate a hole in the side of his back hind, where eventually you could see the bone. 😯 I try not to just put down an animal if it’s an inconvenience to care for it, so I set out on the project to try to keep it wrapped with antiseptic cream, and then open during the day sprayed with antiseptic, to give it time to heal. Plus, making sure to put him side to side and making him stand so his legs didn’t atrophy.

For the many weeks we did this, he seemed to just go with it — a great patient as I tried to keep the wound clean, and then re-wrap it again every day. While I assume he was in some pain, it just didn’t seem to be that bad. So I held out hope.

Well, the other week, because of the wrapping and moisture, his skin in those areas started to get sores. And he kind of took a turn where he actually did seem to be in more pain when on one side. And so, given it just didn’t look like the wound was going to heal any time soon, more irritations in the sores were occurring and there was nothing I could see to do about that, and then the apparent pain-factor increase, I made the tough decision it was time. 🙁

Here’s a video short of him the end of last year, his last video:

Here he is again, with his sister Nessa, in the beginning when we first got them:

And a video

And later on:

And a video:

And as with basically all the cats and dogs, inspired by him and Nessa, I put together a little song on the names of Jehovah (more details on how that all came about on this blog post):

I originally got the border collies to be herd dogs (here’s their introduction blog post), but just never had the time to train them properly. I will always regret that for them, since it’s their nature to want to do that. 🙁

Sue did use them on a leash though at times to help steer goats running around in our inner field back to their pen areas, so they kind of got to do what they were created to do, and Sue was thankful for the help! 🙂

We thank the Lord for the time with Brodey, and the patience we learned in caring for him here in the end.

Bye B-man, we’ll miss you…