Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Last Friday, Luna went to the eye vet for a checkup. I am very happy to report it was the best checkup she has had in some time. The tear production in both her eyes was great and there have been no major changes since the last visit. Which means all the drops stay the same and we don't have to go back for another checkup for 6 more months. Go Looney!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
The boys recently had their annual checkups and many of the things that cropped up in the exam were related to age. Since then, I have been wondering how the pugs will age. I have also been thinking about Henry and his cataracts a lot and how they will progress over time. Will they remain fairly small or will they grow and eventually take most of his vision?
I try not to spend too much time worrying about it because, ultimately, these are things out of my control. But the thought of Henry losing confidence and some of his spunk because of bad vision does worry me. Henry has always been the adventurer. The first to stray from the path, the one that always wants to go new places. I would hate to see bad vision take that spark away from him.
So rather than focus on things that I can't control or that may never even happen, I have been thinking about things that I can actually do to help.
While brainstorming, I thought of a dog I met at a dog park a few years back. I didn't meet the dog up close and personal when we first arrived. Instead, I spotted him meandering around the dog park having a good time meeting other dogs and smelling all the dog park smells. I could tell by how the dog walked that it was on the older side, but I thought it was great that the dog was at the park because it was clearly having a fantastic time.
The dog started to come my way and as it got closer I could hear someone calling out the command "Slow".
When the dog got up to me I could tell that it was blind. A few seconds after the dog arrived at me feet, I met the owner and they confirmed that the dog is blind, but gets around great by listening for verbal cues. I got to see the cues in action when a few minutes later the dog was quickly approaching a tree. The owner called out "Slow" and the sure enough the dog almost came to a complete stop, started to sniff a bit more and then found the tree without bumping into it.
What struck me the most about this dog was that it was completely comfortable in the new environment, where it does not have a good idea of the lay of the land. Plus, there were other dogs zipping around, but none of that seemed to bother the blind dog.
So, I am going to try and teach Henry some verbal commands while he still has all of his vision. That way, if the cataracts do start limiting his sight, hopefully it will be an easier transition for him.
I haven't started training yet, because I have no idea how to even start. I was trying to come up with a small list of words that would handle the most amount of situations Henry might encounter.
It's an ambition goal, but I like training with the pugs, so I figured I might as well teach them something that could possibly come in very handy later in life rather than go for something that is just cute.
I'm sure progress is going to be slow, but I'll let you know how it goes.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Just a reminder, there is less than a week left to enter the raffle for the painting above of Sol that benefits the Sol Sunshine Memorial Fund.
Complete raffle details, along with how to enter can be found here.
If you have purchased a raffle ticket and have not received your raffle numbers from me yet, please leave a comment below.
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
If Henry's super power is using his height to peer on table tops, Benny's is his ability to tame any pillow pile and arrange the pillows for maximum comfort.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
As far as pugs go, Henry is longer and taller than most. At the very least, he has the distinction of being the biggest of his pack. Sometimes his size doesn't work to his advantage, but to Benjamin and Luna Henry's size gives him a super power. He can stand on his hind legs and see on to the table!
Henry seems to understand that this indeed a super power because he does not wield it very often. Instead he reserves it for extreme cases. Like when pugkin bread or noodles are just hanging out on the table. He is smart enough to know that if he used his power to peer on to the table too often, it would mean trouble. He keeps it cute by using his power only when some of his favorite things are in need of rescuing.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Over the last year, I have noticed that the top of Henry's nose is very dry and has even started to crack. Concerned that it might be a sign of a more serious issue, I talked to the vet about it during Henry's last checkup. He assured me it was nothing to be worried about and gave us KeraSolv Gel. Our instructions were to apply it to his nose once daily for the first 10 days and then as needed. Today is the one week mark and I am impressed with how quickly the gel seems to be working.
Above is a before and after closeup of Henry's nose. After a few days, the dry bits of Henry's nose actually started to fall off (gross). He isn't 100% back to normal, but a lot of the buildup has started to come off and I'm sure the rest will continue to come off over the next several days.
I'm not sure if you need a prescription for the KeraSolv gel. Ours came from our vet with a prescription sticker on it with application instructions.
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