C'est la Vie

 My perky pal hasn't been so perky of late. At first I put his quiet manner down to the fact that he was tired at the end of the shooting season. But he stayed quite tired.
So I attributed it to the youngsters: since my attention and time is now shared amongst the three of them, Gunner is only getting a third of what used to be all his.
But that didn't explain why he stopped eating his morning and evening treats. For the past 8 years he's keenly looked forward to half a dozen bickies at either end of the day.

But not any more.
Not a good sign. He's always had a proper appetite - never greedy but always ready for his food.
Maybe it was the change to raw feed?
But the youngsters are absolutely full of energy on the same diet.
Eventually I took him to the vet.
"He's just not right" I said.
Then tried to explain all the subtle changes.
When I got to the biscuit bit the vet's eyes lit up. Anyway, he took his temperature. "Nothing unusual there" . So he did a rectal exam. And that explained everything.
"He has benign prostrate hyperplasia" said the man. "You can google it". I did.

Not good. The vet gave him a hormone injection and prescribed steroids and within 24 hours Gunner was back to his old self!
And then went downhill rapidly when the injection and the steroids wore off.
We went back to the vet who took some bloods: the results were all over the place.
Only one thing for it.
The jewels will be removed on Wednesday next and I'm keeping everything crossed that the problem will then be sorted, blood will return to normal and my old mate, when he gets over the shock, will get the smile back on his face...
Fingers crossed..............