Monday, July 30, 2007
This weekend was full of pampering for the pugs. Although, we clearly did not see eye to eye. The pampering began on Saturday evening with toenail clipping and I don’t think any of the pugs would classify this as pampering. I think they would liken it to torture with a few Cheerios thrown in here and there. On Sunday, everyone got a good brushing which they thoroughly enjoyed. Then, everyone got a bath. Henry enjoyed his bath and Luna would have enjoyed her bath had she not had to get wet. And Benjamin, well he was a nervous wreck. Not only does he not care for getting wet, but he is very antsy during his bath. It is almost like he can’t bear to see his dirt being washed away and that he is afraid that he is going to get sucked down the drain with it.
So, if you were to talk to the pugs, they would say that the only good thing of the weekend was being brushed. Well, that and the pizza crust they got on Sunday night!
Friday, July 27, 2007
As we’ve been reporting, Luna’s eyes have been through a lot. This is the most recent photo of Luna’s “good eye.” Her right eye. As you can see, the scar tissue is completely healed and there is no evidence of a tumor or anything else. (Well, there is a little of her “eye muck” lingering, but hey, that’s not too bad!) We finally got a terrific report from the eye specialist late last week and she is to stay on the same medicine schedule as she has been on for the last couple of months. (That has never happened! Every time we go to the vet, the medicine changes and we have to create a spreadsheet just to keep track of it all.) But we are on a schedule now and even have the schedule committed to memory! It’s a really good routine. We are very pleased. We don’t have to go back to the vet until October! And if that visit is good, then we won’t have to go back until April! (Just in time to leave our tax refund with them for the year!)
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
As you may of read in the previous post, we are recapping some of Luna’s eye issues. She just received a favorable report from the ophthalmologist but when we asked the vet for some of the pictures that they took of Luna’s eyes, it stirred up a lot of history. We talked about her “good eye” in the last post.
Well, here we have Luna’s left eye. Her “bad eye.” This eye has other issues, including the chronic dry eye syndrome. This eye has developed water under the cornea. (I don’t know if they ever told us the name of the condition. If so, I have long since forgotten it.) But basically, the condition stems from trying to fight off scar tissue from the chronic dry eye condition. As you can see in the “close up” that there is the blue discoloration under the surface of the eyeball. That is the water that has accumulated under there. It is hard to see in regular lighting, which is why I hadn’t noticed until a walk one day in the afternoon when the sun had hit her eye in just the right light. Then, paranoid, I would shine a flashlight in her eye every hour until I got an appointment to take her to the vet. The vet confirmed my suspicions that something wasn’t right.
This new malady would be another chronic issue for the baby girl. This issue needed to be tended to not by eye drops but by ointment applied to her upper or lower lid twice a day. The catch with this medicine was that it couldn’t be applied within an hour of any of her other 4 medications. That is pretty tricky. The other catch is that for best application, it takes the two of us to get the right dosage in that little wiggle worm!
Both of her eyes have limited vision. The vet says she can see light & shapes but barely any detail. We have noticed that her hearing is getting more & more keen in order to make up for what she is missing in sight. I guess that is why she thinks she is just gorgeous! She can’t really see herself in the mirror! She doesn’t know that she’s missing fur, going a gray mustache and beard and has a scraggly smile! She just knows that she is a little girl that is made of sugar & spice & everything nice.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Here we have Henry lounging on the raft and soaking up the sun. He has had a lot of fun swimming this summer and it has been almost impossible to keep him out of the pool. As always, I can’t wait to read your captions. You can leave them in the comments.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Beware, that the photos below may not be for the faint of heart. The next couple of blogs will be about Luna and her eyes. You see, we recently went to the eye specialist and this was the first time that Luna’s medication stayed the same as it has been for the last few months. The news was the best it has ever been! Luna’s eyes are as healthy as we could ever expect them to be! The vet was thrilled. (As were we, of course!)
I explained to the ophthalmologist that we do a website about pugs and write stories detailing Benjamin, Henry & Luna’s adventures. I asked if they could possibly email some of the photos that they have taken of her eye over the last year and a half. I explained that we would like to share the photos with our readers and do whatever we could to help our readers learn a little bit about eye issues, especially in pugs since they are so common.
But I must say, when the email came, I was taken a little aback because the photos sure are an up close and personal look at Luna’s eyes in various stages of healthiness (or unhealthiness, if you will.) When we got Luna, we knew that she had dry eye. We definitely felt that that was a condition that we could easily manage. Unfortunately, her eye issues developed further and she developed a tumor on her eye. As you can see from the photo, the bright red bulbous spot was unsightly. I am quite sure it was very uncomfortable, as well. (Initially, there was some concern as to whether or not it was cancerous, too, but fortunately, when all was said and done, Luna had a super prognosis.)
Luna went in for surgery and had the tumor removed.
The vet said it wasn’t too bad and that she would be fine in no time. (What made it so unfortunate was that while we knew that Luna had not really been taken care of very well and was used mostly for breeding, that her overall unhealthiness was a result of moderate neglect and could have been prevented with reasonable care.) It was just the tip of the iceberg for us because while we knew that she would have some health issues, it just seemed to be one thing after the other. Our bubble would be repeatedly burst each time a new issue would come up. We just kept thinking that we could make her well. We would just feed her right, medicate her properly and love her to pieces and she would be 100% sometime soon. Well, the reality of it is that she had been taken for granted for too long before we rescued her. There would be no amount of love, kindness and special treatment that would make her medicine free for the rest of her life.
This photo is the “after” shot of Luna’s eye following her tumor surgery. As you can see, she there is a scar on the eyeball. It has healed nicely. This is her right eye. Her “good eye.” This eye has chronic dry eye and doesn’t close all the way since it is so poorly lubricated. The vet says that since there is so much scar tissue, she doesn’t have the sensation to know if her own eye is open or closed. It’s a shame. As sad as it, though, she truly doesn’t seem to know the difference. She never feels sorry for herself. She never doubts that she a beautiful princess! She really is a princess. Inside & out!
Friday, July 20, 2007
There is nothing the pugs seem to enjoy more than freshly cut grass. As soon as we are done mowing, the pugs are very anxious to get out int the yard and run and roll around. There is just something about the smell and feel of the grass that just gets them all fired up.
Benjamin really runs around like a mad man and with the summer heat his face gets dirty real quick. Just look at how filthy his wrinkles are in the picture above. His face gets dirty so quickly and he has the deepest wrinkles. We use Malacetic wipes to clean him up and while he isn’t fond of them he does let us wipe out his wrinkles. More details on wrinkle cleaning to come, I am just amazed at how quickly Benny’s wrinkles get dirty compared to the other two. What about your pugs? How often do their wrinkles need to be cleaned?
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Last weekend, the pugs were pretty restless. I really wanted to take them out on a long walk, but it was just too hot for them outside. So, I decided to give them a peanut butter filled kong. It is not as great as exercise, but it sure does keep the pugs busy for at least an hour. It gives them something to focus on and is mentally stimulating, which in turn tires them out.
Benjamin loves peanut butter so you can rest assured that he will not stop licking the kong until every spec of peanut butter is gone.
Unlike the others, Henry likes to chew on the kong. So he will spend hours chewing on the kong even after he has licked all of the peanut butter. When he chews on the kong, it makes an awful squeaking sound that just drives me crazy. But Henry really seems to like chewing on it so I just try to drown out the noise.
And little Luna, she gets very excited when she gets a peanut butter filled kong. She is still working on mastering holding the kong while feverishly licking the peanut butter out, so I guess she does get some exercise in because she is always chasing the kong all over the house. She has gotten a lot better at holding the kong, though. The first time we gave her one she would lick the kong for a few minutes and then look at us with a look that said, “Hey, why did you stick my peanut butter in there? Couldn’t you have just put it in my bowl?”
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