Bobbins went to the vet this morning and after a few days of steadily moving in the right direction without any regressing, the vet has said she's ok. So fingers crossed that that will be that now.
What a long time it's been!
We need to get in touch with the vet again in a week's time to let them know how she is - but hopefully she won't need to go back.
We bought Bobbins home from the vet - she'd been staying in for over a week and we really felt that there wasn't much that could be done for her in the vet which we couldn't do at home. The vet has said that she is well, but the virus is lingering giving her digestive problems (which was the diarrhea) and it was a case of waiting for the virus to run its course.
We're glad we did opt to bring her home as the vet bill was increasing rapidly and after over a week, we were facing a hefty vet bill, without feeling we were getting much from it.
So she's been at home and the pattern has been the same - she'd get a bit better and then slip back about 90% of the improvement. So she's been showing signs of improvement but in tiny, tiny increments.
The last couple of days, however, she's taken step forwards without the step backs, so fingers crossed this is a sign that at last the virus is going. She's been kept away from the others - which has been a challenge - however I don't think it has worried her too much as long as she has had something soft to sleep on.
I think this is the first time we've actually missed not having pet insurance. While we have pets with chronic conditions who need medication on an ongoing basis, this costs just tiny fractions of a euro, so it's not something we need to think about. However, with Bobbins treatment, which has been ongoing without a clear ending, we've had to be aware that everything that they try comes with a cost, whereas if she had pet insurance, I imagine everything would have been covered.
In other news, everything just continues as (new) normal. Extremadura is still under a 'state of emergency' however that is so they can keep the night time curfew and make snap decisions to add stricter measures to an area.Usagre, the next village to us, was under a lockdown, but that has been lifted. Spain has been one of the few countries not to have a second national lockdown, instead relying on local lockdowns to contain things. There have been and continue to be big clusters of cases in some cities, but not everywhere . Of course, mask wearing has been mandatory since May, even for children and in schools, so I wonder if that has had something to do with it.
The information available continues to improve and one interesting thing we can now see is data about specific outbreaks. We can see whether an outbreak is a family, workplace, mixed, social... and how many people those people have been in contact with. I imagine this information must be invaluable for councils when working out what to do. Obviously, an outbreak of 10 which is one family is likely to be less challenging and more easily contained than an outbreak of 10 in a workplace who then go home to their own families.
We shall be watching Bobbins closely today - if she continues to improve, she will be allowed out from her doggy lockdown!!!
Poor Bobbins is still staying at the vet, she's been there for five days now. We had expected her to come home on Friday as she had shown signs of improvement, but then on Friday she took a step back again and again yesterday, so she will be there until Monday. This is exactly the pattern we'd experienced at home. We'd been worried she was taking steps back because she was eating (or more likely snuffling) something that was upsetting her, so she was being kept under pretty strict house arrest with as little snuffling opportunities as possible - but if the same is happening at the vet, it's apparent it's not us. They've scanned and ultrasounded her and are pretty confident it's still the virus - so we'll learn more next week. They don't seem to be worried, more bemused by why she isn't getting better.
I hope she comes home tomorrow - she'll certainly be pleased to be back to her morning and evening sausage treat after she's had her eyes cleaned.
I've been smiling quite a bit at the lovebirds. They have accepted each other from day one, however they've been staying at either end of their cage. They have a huge cage and I've hung lots of toys in it, so they can easily ignore each other. But bit by bit they are getting closer and they've started sleeping in adjacent food bowls (I've moved their perches around, but they strangely still prefer to sleep in their food bowls). They've also started cheeping together which I am sure must be a good sign.
Spain is yet to impose a national lockdown. We have the national nighttime curfew from 12 - 6, but other measures are set at a regional level. Extremadura has moved back into Phase 3 (the phases here go the other way from the UK with 4 being the 'new normal' and phase 0 being complete lockdown) which has put new limits on capacity of public places and certain venues. People are being encouraged to do things outside, where possible, for example open air masses, weddings, restaurants etc. I think we stay in this phase for two weeks and then move back up again if things stabilize - here's hoping!!
Miss Moppet because suddenly very ill and died earlier this week. It was a surprise as we had not idea that she was ill or that there may have been anything wrong. Here's a pic of her on the left with Roland, they had become friends.
Of course, with Bobbins having Coronavirus, the first thing I wondered was whether it could be passed cross species. The answer is no and Moppets symptoms were completely different to Bobbins.
Bobbins has been varying between improving a bit and not. It's really a case of one step forward and one back. She currently staying at the vet for tests. She's been in for over 24 hours and we hope she'll come home soon, however it's obviously best they find out why she's not improving.
There's been an outbreak of human coronavirus in Zafra, so hopefully that won't affect the vet, although they'd be classified as an essential service, I guess, the same as last time.
There continues to be localized restrictions, but none have affected us yet. The only thing we are experiencing is the nighttime curfew - which, given that it starts at 12 and ends at 6, doesn't affect us!
Some principalities shut their borders last weekend which was a national holiday, to stop people travelling - (although extremadura didn't). It's recreational travel that they are trying to stop - people could travel to other principalities for work, essential shopping etc, but not for a picnic.
Hopefully this area will stat relatively covid free so we don't have another lockdown - but we'll see...
