Jake

Our golden retriever, Jake, has more problems than any dog I know. From his head to his rear, he is literally full of issues! If it weren't for Hudson, I'm not sure if Jake would still be with my family today. Hudson freaking LOVES that dog. He gets so excited when he sees Jake. He even gets excited when we start going down the basement stairs because he knows Jake is down there. When we lowered his pack n' play, he had so much fun being able to watch Jake through the mesh sides. Jake is wonderful with Hudson as well. That's about the only good thing I can say about the dog! Hudson climbs all over him and pulls on his fur, ears, tail, and collar. It doesn't seem to phase Jake one bit!

Looks like somebody's been in the trash. 

Trying to squeeze into spots that are too small for him.

The cone.

Busted with Thom's trail camera

However, I can only do so much for a dog (especially one that drives me crazy)! He sheds like crazy - that's why he's banned to the basement and our bedroom (at night) so we can keep the fur under control as much as possible.

I get the pleasure of taking the 99 pound dog to the groomer and vet since Thomas works strictly days. I don't weigh a whole heck of a lot more than him and he most certainly doesn't obey my commands since he can't hear me! I'm that person who takes her dog in public even though I can't control him at all.

After a vet appointment, he wouldn't get out of the car.

He's had recurrent ear infections all of his life which is common in golden retrievers, but it's been worse this year. His right ear has been infected for over 7 months despite multiple oral antibiotics, steroids, and antibiotic ointments. At one point, we think he ended up with Horner's Syndrome where the inner ear infection caused damage to a nerve which led to bulging, drooping eyes along with dizziness, trouble walking, and vomiting. That was a SUPER fun trip to the vet, let me tell ya! He could hardly walk - I would pull on his leash in the opposite direction that he was leaning to try to keep him on his feet. So he obviously couldn't jump in or out of the vehicle... I got quite the workout that day. The vet eventually did a culture since none of the meds were helping much at all. Of course the culture was positive for MRSA (staph). No wonder the meds weren't working! It was resistant to all of them! So then we did 3 weeks of an antibiotic that worked against the bacteria. The ear cleared up! It's been about a week since we finished the antibiotic… and his ear is terribly infected again. Sigh. Can't we just remove his ears completely??

Horner's Syndrome

He's a butt-surfer. One snowy morning when I let him outside to potty, he butt-surfed/slid all the way down the hill in our back yard, pooped, then puked. I'm glad he did all of this outside, but I sure as heck didn't want to let that animal back in my house! He gets his anal glands expressed every month at the groomer, and any time he has to go to the vet (which is about once a month as well). This helps with the butt-surfing, but the glands seem to fill up again immediately. I once attempted to express his anal glands on my own several years ago at Bill's house. Let's just say it didn't go so well and I will never try that again!

He also randomly licks the bottom of his paws - to the point that they are raw and infected. Then he limps around with a cone on his head. But wait, now he's figured out how to get to his paws even with the massive cone on his head! He's also had to take antibiotics for his paws. At night, we will hear him start licking his paws. He can't hear you yell at him to stop, so you have to crawl to the end of the bed and reach down and swat him on the head to get him to stop. Naturally I'm the only one who hears the licking so guess who has to get up??

Monday he is going to the vet for oral surgery. I guess he will get his ear looked at again while he's there! He has a mass developing in his gums that has continued to get larger so it needs to be removed with a laser. I'm pretty sure they send it off to be analyzed for cancer so we'll see how that turns out.

Jake is just over 8 years old.

The average lifespan for the breed is 10-12 years...