Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Sweatbands

Since there isn't much fur growth on his back to report, Benny wanted to show off his sweatbands this week. Unlike the shaved spot on his back, Benny thinks the spots on his legs make him look cool

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Fur Update

Another week has passed and Benjamin is just starting to get a little bit of hair growth in his shaved spots. For the curious, Benjamin does have a thyroid condition that he gets medicine for, so we are aware that this will contribute to the amount of time it takes for his fur to fill in.

At this rate, I'm thinking it is going to be months before Benny's fur is completely grown back. On the bright side, summer is coming and maybe this little bald patch will help keep him a tad bit cooler in the FL heat. We'll just have to make sure he doesn't get sunburned!

Friday, February 22, 2013

One or the Other

When Benny smiles, Henry looks like he is falling asleep. If Henry looks interested, Benny makes a funny face. I think this is the boys' way of having fun with the "clicky thing".

Have a good weekend everyone!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Fur

It is standing joke in the OBP household that none of the pugs' fur grows as fast as Solsey's grew. Whenever Benjamin, Henry or Luna have some sort of procedure and get a patch of their fur shaved, we always joke with them that they better channel their inner Sosley so their hair grows back quickly. Or, in Benjamin's case, we tell him how Solsey is laughing at him because his fur grows so slowly.

After Benjamin's CT Scan two weeks ago, we have been teasing him non-stop about his missing fur patches. He has two wristbands and big shaved rectangle on his back. With as slow as his fur grows we are planning on needing to put sunscreen on his bare patch on his back. We have even been taking bets on how long we think it is going to take for his fur to fully grow back. What do you think? When do you think Benny will have a full coat of fur again?

Friday, February 15, 2013

Flashback Friday

Benjamin hanging out on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD in April of 2003.

It was chillier than we expected that day, so we bought the boys toddler t-shirts from one of the shops on the boardwalk. Benjamin's was a little muscle tee that he loved! Henry hated his shirt because it had sleeves. He was willing to brave the elements rather than wear his shirt.

It was super windy that day and I will never forget chasing our lunch down the boardwalk with the pugs. We had ordered a pizza from the Dough Roller and were eating on a bench on the boardwalk (since dogs aren't allowed in the restaurant) when a huge gust of wind swept our pizza box down the boardwalk. The boys knew that pizza crusts were in their future so they happily chased that pizza box down with me. Luckily, the wind just swept the box and didn't topple it so when we caught up with our lunch it was in one piece.

I won't venture to guess how many miles we walked that day, but I remember we walked a lot. The boys kept up like it was nothing. When we hit the car and started the drive back home there was nothing but snores.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Arachnoid Cyst

Benjamin's CT Scan last week revealed some interesting results. The CT Scan showed that Benjamin's spine and discs are in great shape, however, he has an intradural arachnoid cyst. I had never heard of an arachnoid cyst and the specialist informed me that it is actually a pretty rare condition. In the 13 years that our specialist has been practicing, she has seen this condition in less than 10 cases.

It's my understanding that arachnoid cysts are also hereditary. There is a good chance that Benny has had this condition since he was a puppy. It was probably so small at that time that it did not cause him any discomfort. Now that the cyst has grown in size, it is putting pressure on his spine and causing him a lot of pain.

Surgically removing the cyst is a possibility, but not our best option. The specialist informed us that arachnoid cysts are very slow growers. However, removing it surgically causes its growth rate to drastically increase. So, in the short term, surgery is a great option, but it is not the best in the long term.

Right now, Benny is on a course of steroids to help with the inflammation caused by the cyst. Hopefully, that will help him feel better and increase his mobility. However, staying on steroids is not a viable option either. So we need to figure out the smallest dose that keeps his inflammation to a minimum and most likely cycle him on and off that. This treatment with require a lot of trial and error to get the right dosage.

Right now, the first round of steroids has Benny feeling better. He is walking much better and is back to lifting his leg when he pees which is a great sign! Benny not lifting his leg to pee was definitely something that raised a red flag for us. The only thing that would be more out of the ordinary for him is not eating. And now that he has been on steroids for a few days his appetite is stronger than ever!

The other piece of news that has me very concerned is that a chest x-ray revealed that Benjamin has a collapsed trachea. When I spoke to the specialist she described it as more of a "narrowing", but when I read collapsed trachea on his diagnosis sheet I almost hit the floor. I learned all I need to know about collapsed tracheas from Sol and I can't imagine going through that again.

Right now we are adopting a wait and see approach to see how Benny responds to the steroids. I will keep you updated as we know more.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Long Few Days

Last friday we took Benny to the vet because he was having some back trouble. Our vet recommended that we take Benny to the specialist to have things checked out. We got an appointment with the specialist for Monday and we had our initial exam / consultation. They wanted to do a CT Scan and myelogram the same day, but they had a few emergencies so they asked us to bring Benny back on Tuesday. We dropped Benny off bright and early on Tuesday morning to have his CT scan. However, they had another emergency surgery and Benny was not able to get his CT scan done. So, we needed to bring Benny back on Wednesday. By this point, Benny was quite perturbed because he had gone 3 days without any breakfast!

Ben finally had the CT scan yesterday and we received some interesting results. Don't worry. Emergency back surgery is not in his near future. I will go into all the details in another post, but for now, we are happy to have Benny back home. And Benny is very happy that he will get to eat breakfast tomorrow.