Friday, June 21, 2013
This flashback is from February 2008.
It has been sort of a heavy week around here with all the vet updates, so I thought this flashback was much needed. Not only is Luna showing off just how flexible she is, but who else's dogs would have a dog bed on a recliner? 
Thursday, June 20, 2013
As I mentioned earlier, Benjamin also had an appointment at the vet last friday. Our concerns with Benjamin were a nagging cough and his hearing.
A month ago, Benjamin had a similar nagging cough and the vet determined that he had an upper respiratory infection. A round of antibiotics cleared things right up. Last week, his cough returned, and even though it didn't sound quite the same as before we decided to take him to the vet just to rule out an infection. Our vet ruled out an infection and said that the cough sounded like it is trachea related. To help Benny, we are going to try out a cough suppressant and see if that helps.
As for Benny's hearing, we have come to the conclusion in the last week or so that Benny can not hear. Benny has had selective hearing his whole life, but lately he has missed some auditory cues that would have never slipped by him. The sound of the refrigerator door opening. The sound of a zip lock baggie opening. The clinking sound the dog bowls make. He has slept through these sounds on more than one occasion in the last week. A hearing Benjamin would never miss any of these things.
The vet checked Benny's ears and his canals were clear and there was no sign of infection. His "dullness" in hearing is being classified as degenerative and being chalked up as part of Ben's aging.
Having 3 aging pugs with health problems is emotionally taxing. The only bright side is that Sol gave us great pointers on how to handle trachea problems as well as hearing loss. We have already started teaching Benny the hand signals that we taught Sol, so that we can communicate with him in a different way now. And let me just say, Sol picked up on the hand signals a lot quicker! But, I know, Benny will learn them in his own time.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Good news! We received Luna's test results and her ticker is working just fine! After the specialist reviewed the EKG, they also reviewed Luna's chest x-ray. The chest x-ray showed that Luna's heart was enlarged (and that was what has led us down this path), but the specialist's opinion is that Luna's heart is slightly enlarged but it is not a problem. She just has a big heart (and who didn't know that already)
This is stupendous news, but it does leave us with the question of what is causing her cough and breathing troubles. The thinking now is that it is more airway related. Tomorrow Luna is going to go in for a few more tests which will hopefully give us a better picture of what is going on and allow us to get the miss back in tip top shape. I will keep you updated as I know more.
Thank you all for the well wishes and good juju!
Monday, June 17, 2013
Last Friday, Benjamin and Luna took a trip to the vet to get some things checked out. Henry, even though he didn't have an appointment, went along for moral support.
Our biggest concern of late has been Luna's breathing. Since "unofficially" being diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension we have tried a few different medicines to help with Luna's labored breathing. However, things have not been going so well as of late, so we took Luna to the vet to have an EKG done so we can find out more about what is going on.
The EKG as it was explained to us sounded like a simple procedure. Four alligator clips would be attached to the loose skin by Luna's elbows and knees. Once the clips are attached, the machine will be able to monitor Luna's heart. Sounds easy enough. But, then they informed us that Luna would need to lay on her side for the test and that she would need to not be panting during the test. That was the real issue. With her labored breathing, Luna is pretty much always panting. After all, that is why we are coming to the vet! Luna has been panting more and more around the house and we knew that the excitement of going to the vet is sure to get Luna worked up.
Luckily, we found out this information the day before the appointment, so we had time to come up with a plan. We called the vet and asked if Luna could go into the room where the EKG would be performed as soon as we arrive. Skipping the waiting room, would spare Luna from interacting with the other dogs and the nervous excitement that comes with waiting. The other key to this plan would be that Benjamin and Henry would not accompany Luna into the EKG room. This would keep Luna away from all of their nervous energy. This plan sounded like a stretch, but we knew it was really our only hope of keeping Luna calm enough for the test.
Step 1 of the plan, whisking Luna away to her own private waiting room, worked so well that Benjamin and Henry were left sitting in the waiting room wondering what happened to Luna.
Surprisingly, our plan worked and Luna was able to lay on her side, without panting, and have the EKG done. She did such a wonderful job and I was so incredibly proud of her!
Now that the test is over, the hard part of waiting for the results begins. We should have the results later in the week and will let you know how things went.
Friday, June 14, 2013
This flashback is from June 2005.
Benjamin and Henry are 3 years old in this shot and they are quite tuckered out. When this photo was taken, we had lived in Florida for about 3 months. With everything being so new in FL and so many new parks to visit and explore there were lots of nights like this for the pugs.
One of the other things that struck me about this picture is the dog bed. We got rid of this dog bed about a year ago, but when I looked at the picture I was surprised at how clean it is. Let's just say it did not look that shade of white when we threw it out last year.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Last Saturday was a super hot day. The pugs went out a few times in the middle of the day, but they didn't last long in the blazing sun. Warm days like that typically bring a good evening storm. And on Saturday night, the pugs got to enjoy time outside as the storm was blowing in. The clouds shielded the sun and there was a nice, cool breeze.
Its not even officially summer and the pugs are already taking advantage of any respite they can get from the FL heat.
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