Life with Benny involves a lot of bone holding. We spoiled him when he was a pup and would hold his bone for him while he chewed so needless to say we have raised a pug that couldn’t hold his own bone if his life depended on it. You reap what you sow, I guess.
In any case, Benny loves to chew so we do a lot of bone holding for him and when we are unable to hold his bone we must come up with a creative way to simulate us holding the bone. Like wedging it between sofa cushions. But, while Benny loves to chew he certainly isn’t a very effective chewer. This goes back to my do the things you love even if you are not the best at them thing that I learned from Henry.
When Benny chews a rawhide bone all he does is soften it up with his slobber. He will work for hours on end, but never really gets anything. When Henry chews we have to keep a very close eye on him to keep him from eating too much at one time. Even Luna, who has the smallest mouth I have ever seen on a pug, can chew circles around Ben.
But it is all moot because there is really nothing Benny likes to do more than go to town chewing a bone while you graciously hold it for him. And this, my friends, is what that is like.
I have been on a quest to get a good video of the pugs playing to share with you and until now, I haven’t really been able to capture anything good. Most of the times when the pugs are playing I don’t have the Flip handy and by the time I go get it I end up with 3 pugs just staring up at me.
But, the other night I was able to get a little video of the pugs playing around the pool. Benjamin & Henry love to chase each other around the pool. Luna, as you will notice in the video, isn’t too fond of circling the pool. Since she doesn’t see too well, she tends to hang back while the boys are chasing each other near the gigantic puddle in the yard. You will see her in the video a bit, and I would like to point out, that she is running no where near as fast as she can. She takes it easy on the boys
My favorite part of the video comes at about 1:32 when Benny turns into a mad man and circles the bench.
Hopefully, there will be more playing videos to come. I will try to get one of little Luna outrunning her big brothers.
You may recall last Spring that we planted a tiny little Mimosa tree that we grew from a seed. Well, look how that little tree has grown! The Mimosa tree made it through its first FL winter and is in bloom now. I simply love the blooms.
The tree is finally big enough that it is starting to provide some shade in the yard. This works out really well for the pugs as they love to lay around in the yard. Although, the cat seems to enjoy the tree the most.
I had a few people ask about Luna’s eye drop schedule so I thought I would post about what seems to be the never ending cycle of drops. So here we go:
Tacrolimus: Luna gets Tacrolimus in both eyes twice a day. If I can catch her before she heads back to sleep after breakfast I give her her first round of drops for the day. If I don’t get a chance to give it to her after breakfast, I give it to her about mid-morning. I give her the second dose shortly before dinner.
Cyclosporin: Luna gets one drop of Cyclosporin in her left eye. I usually give her this drop when I take my lunch.
NeoPolyDex: Luna gets one NeoPolyDex drop in each eye every other day. If it is a NeoPolyDex day, I usually give her these drops in the afternoon around 3pm when I have a little pick-me-up snack. The hardest thing with the NeoPolyDex is remembering if it is NeoPolyDex day or not. I have this one marked on my calendar as my days tend to blur together.
Muro Ointment: Luna gets one little strip of Muro ointment in her left eye each day. I usually do this right before bed.
OptixCare Ointment: Luna can get this ointment up to 3 times a day in her right eye. It is a lubricant and its main purpose is to keep her eye moist. I always give her this before bed and only if her eye is looking really dry during the day. I prefer to use the Genteal drops during the day as they are easier to administer, but she has been doing a good job and I haven’t had to give her many moistening drops during the day.
Luckily, the drop schedule remained the same with our last visit to the eye doc. The hardest part is getting down a new schedule. It can get quite confusing as to which drop goes in which eye and how many times a day and all that stuff. When her drop schedule changes, I usually have to make a spreadsheet so that I can make sure I get it right and learn the correct routine. It takes me a good week, to get a new routine down. Luckily, we have this routine down to a science as she has been on it for several months.
If your pug is on any eye medications, I would love to hear your schedule.
Update:
I was also asked and forgot to mention the name of Luna’s eye doctor. Luna sees Dr. Denis, who we really like, at Animal Eye Associates in Maitland, FL
Luna’s eye doctor is about an hour away from home so rather than just making the drive to go to the vet we decided to stop at a dog park in Sanford that was on the way. Luna’s appointment was for 10:45 am so we figured it would be best to stop at the park on the way there to beat the heat. We got up extra early and managed to get to the park at a little after 9:00 am which gave the pugs plenty of time to play.
A few years back Dog Fancy magazine featured Paw Park in an issue that named the best dog parks in the nation, so I was very excited to check out the park and see what it was all about. The park was very open and in the middle of the park was a huge tree that had fallen during hurricane Charlie. They decided to leave the tree to give the dogs something to climb on, which I thought was pretty cool. The pugs were immediately interested in checking out the tree.
And it wasn’t long before Benny was climbing all over it.
After they investigated the tree, the pugs made their rounds and introduced themselves to the other dogs at the park.
The park has a time out area for dogs that get overly excited and I just couldn’t resist taking this photo.
My favorite thing about the park was that there was a sidewalk that went around the perimeter of the park. We walked along the sidewalk and the pugs happily followed along. It was like being on a walk in a regular park only not having to use any leashes.
Last Friday Luna had a checkup at the ophthalmologist to see how her eyes are doing. We made a little day trip out of it, more to come on that, so Benjamin & Henry came along for the visit. Luna tried to have Henry get the eye exam in her place, but the doctor noticed that it wasn’t little Luna on the table and Henry happily switched places with her.
Going into this appointment I was bracing myself for bad news. Luna’s eyes had been looking pretty dry to me and I thought she had a little bit more water buildup on her good eye. But, the exam just proved that I don’t know what I am talking about. Luna’s eyes were pretty much the same as our last visit. Her tear production in both eyes remained the same and there was no additional water buildup. The doctor was actually quite pleased with the condition of her eyes. It looks like we finally found the right combination of drops to maintain the vision that she has left. So we are going to stick to the same drop routine and Luna does not have to go back for another follow-up for 8-10 months! We are super excited about that! Usually, we have to go back every 4-6 weeks!
While we were at the ophthalmologist office, we also re-stocked on all her meds. I knew we were running low on everything so I knew this visit was going to be a hard hit on the wallet. When we were checking out, the receptionist went over what was done and the meds we were getting and said our total for today was $246.00. Before I could process anything the words, “THAT’S IT?” immediately left my mouth. The receptionist, who has swiped my credit card on countless occasions, chuckled saying that we got off easy on this visit. She also told me about their new handy dandy computer system and within a few seconds was able to tell me that we have spent over $4,000 on Luna’s eyes alone in the last two years.
That’s very handy to know for budgeting purposes. That works out to be a little over $1,000 per eye per year!
Money aside, I was very pleased with the good report that Luna got in this visit. It has been tough trying to figure out the right combination of drops for her, but I think we finally have a routine that works.
