Monday, September 8, 2008
Well, as promised, here is the follow up to Luna’s day at the dentist last week. I have been putting off writing this post because things did not go quite as expected on her teeth cleaning day. We knew her teeth were not in super shape as she did suffer from doggy halitosis or as we call here in the OBP household “stink breath”. When we got Luna her breath was terrible, but that was mainly due to other medical concerns. Well, this time, her breath was awful because her teeth were terrible. We just didn’t know how bad it really was.
She has severe periodontal disease. She lost a total of 4 teeth in the process of her teeth cleaning, one of which just fell out during the procedure and the other 3 were extracted. She lost one around the house last week, too. So, she is down 5 teeth this week. This has been a mortifying experience for us and a painful one for her. We don’t get around to brushing the pugs’ teeth each day. However, we usually work in a brushing at least once a month and during the brushing Luna is by far the worst in terms of cooperation. Plus, her mouth is tiny which gives us almost no room to work. So, I guess you can say we aren’t very diligent about brushing their teeth. The boys have had this type of teeth brushing routine their whole life and we had never experienced anything like this before with the boys. Henry’s teeth are actually pretty good while Benny’s are a little worse, but apparently nowhere near as bad as Luna’s.
The only real saving grace in all of this was that the vet said that there was no way for us to tell just how bad her teeth were until she was under sedation. When you look at her teeth, from above the gumline, they look alright. The vet saved her teeth and we have them here now. She showed how terrible and decayed they were under the gumline. She did say that her past life history plays a contributing role and that Luna’s tiny mouth of course play a part, but it definitely makes us feel like bad pug parents when we have our little girl in for routine care and when she comes out we have this overwhelming feeling that we have been neglecting her. It is just so disheartening.
We knew when we rescued her that we would be giving a spoiled forever home but feeling like we dropped the ball on her dental care is just devastating for us. We feel like we let her down. Our goal was to have her be just as healthy as the boys once we “got her up to speed” and we felt like we had finally done that once we got her on a good diet, found a specialist for her eye care and got her eye medications regulated.
The silver lining around this gray cloud is that we are more aware than ever as to what we have to do to be sure that Luna keeps her teeth. (We will of course do the same for the boys and Cupid, too.) We have always known that poor dental health leads to other medical issues,but somewhere we got side tracked and we are ready to get back on track. It is even more important in pugs to maintain teeth brushing and dental care because their teeth are such a jumble in their crowded little pug palate.
So, we took a couple of days to have a pity party for Luna and kick ourselves a little bit, but now we are ready to get serious about good dental health. We can’t get back her lost teeth, but we certainly can keep her other teeth in tip top shape.
Here is a picture of the teeth that Luna had extracted. The points on top of the teeth are below the gum line, and as you can see, the area that was actually below the gum line show the most signs of decay.
Friday, July 6, 2007
So, it has been about a year and a half now that Luna has been with us. While she did come to us with some issues, the biggest one has been her chronic eye problems. She has dry eye. She also has another issue where water congregates near her cornea. (If they ever gave this condition a name, well, I wasn’t paying attention and/or probably couldn’t pronounce it anyway.) So, Luna has a very diligent schedule for eye medications. The medications have been changed a few times and the schedule numerous amounts of times. It seems like as soon as we remember the routine, it changes again. Usually after a trip to the eye specialist, we will have to create a new spreadsheet to keep track of her medication schedule. We will have to go back in 2 weeks for a recheck, but currently, her medication schedule is as follows:
- Muro ointment first thing in the morning every day (left eye only)
- Cyclosporin at lunch time and dinner time every day (left eye only)
- Neopolydex at lunch time every day 5 minutes after the Cyclosporin (both eyes)
- Tacrolimus mid afternoon every other day (left eye only)
- Muro ointment again at dinner time every day (left eye only)
- Cylcosporin again at bedtime (left eye only)
See why the need for a spreadsheet? It can be a little daunting when the routine changes but there’s still always a routine. The last time we went to the vet she asked if Luna gets a treat for taking her meds. I told her heck no because on a schedule like that she’d weigh 500 pounds! Fortunately, the vet was supportive and told us that if Luna was good about taking her meds, then no treat was necessary anyway. We are very thankful because Luna does do a super job when she gets her meds. There are no problems when she gets drops, but on a rare occasion, she will get a little wiggly when it comes time for the ointment. We can’t really blame her, though, she puts up with an awful lot. She is a really good girl. It’s almost like she knows how much they help her. It’s a real shame, though because no matter what we do, her vision still deteriorates slowly. She does better in the daytime but nighttime is another story. She doesn’t seem any worse for the wear, though. She’s our little trooper.
Thursday, October 5, 2006
Great news, everyone! The results of Luna’s biopsy came back today and the bump on Luna’s eye is not cancerous!
Earlier in the week, the ophthalmologist called to let us know that the culture results were in and that the test showed that there were no “infectious agents” present. My heart sank as soon as I heard this because I naturally assumed if it wasn’t an infection causing the bump that it must be cancer. However, the ophthalmologist reassured me that this wasn’t necessarily the case and that the extra drops we had been giving Luna could have cleared up her fungal infection.
And it turns out that this is the case. Since the bump is not cancer, it is presumed that the bump was caused by a fungal infection and that it required a strong course of drops to cure it. Initial tests showed that Luna had a fungal infection in her eye, but the ophthalmologist recommended a biopsy after being on medicine to treat the fungal infection showed no signs of improvement in Luna’s eye. The week leading up to Luna’s surgery for the biopsy, we increased the one set of drops and added another new drop to the routine. This one, two punch is what finally cleared the fungal infection.
So, the fungal infection is now cleared! We went to the ophthalmologist this morning and they said that Luna’s eye is healing very well. We just have to keep a close watch to make sure things continue to progress. If another one of these infections occur, which the ophthalmologist warned us about since Luna’s eye has an odd shape and is very bulgy, they may recommend that we permanently seal the corner of Luna’s eye. This would help protect her eye. However, this procedure may not even be necessary.
The white bump on Luna’s eye is what is left of the bump. When Luna’s eye was at its worse, this bump was about three times the size and a very bloody, red color. We are so glad that little Luna is on the mend. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and positive thoughts! We couldn’t have done this without you!
