Friday, April 4, 2014
I am so happy to report that Henry is home and is doing very well. He was super happy to see us yesterday. Once he said hello, he marched right out of the vet's office and was scanning the parking lot wondering where we parked because he was ready to get home.
Once we got home, he made no bones about wanting to eat. We gave him a bit of food and he was ready for more. I thought it was a really good sign that his appetite was already back.
I think the hardest thing for him to manage has been the cone. His cone is catching on everything and when that happens he's not sure if it because of something he can't see or if it is because he has a satellite dish on his head. I'm sure in a day or two he will be doing much better getting around with the cone of shame. For now we are super glad he is home and doing so well.
Thank you for all your warm thoughts and kind wishes. It meant so much and was such a tremendous help in getting through these last few days. Have a great weekend!
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Today Henry turns 12 years old!
To celebrate Henry's birthday here are some of my favorite pictures of Hank - one from each year he has been with us. If you can't get enough of handsome Henry, check out more pictures of him on Flickr.
June 2002: Ironically enough, it took Henry a few months to grow into his eyes as a pup. He had such a dark mask and the most velvet ears I had ever felt. To this day, his ears are silky smooth.
July 2003: Henry has always been a water lover. He has never been an excellent swimmer, but that has certainly never diminished his love for the water. Whether it be a pool, the ocean a lake or just a really big puddle, if Henry can splash around in it and fetch something out of it Henry is having fun.
November 2004: The beaten path is never where Henry wants to be. Henry was always running off and exploring. The less worn the path, the more he wanted to go that way. I guess you could say that he has always been one to blaze his own trail. After all, that is how he did find that peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
January 2005: Henry has always been a big chewer, however he is the only one of the pugs that actually chews the Kong. When we give the pugs a kong, we usually fill it with peanut butter. Benjamin, Henry and Luna lick and lick until they get all the peanut butter out of the inside of the Kong. At that point, Benjamin and Luna give up. But that is when Henry is just getting started. He collects everyones kongs to make sure no one left any peanut butter behind and then he goes to town chewing on the kong like he is going to be able to crack it open and get every last drop of peanut butter.
June 2006: You can't talk about Henry and his favorite things and not talk about lounging in the sun. You can be assured that Henry gets the recommended dose of Vitamin D every day.
July 2007: Being a pug, Henry of course loves food. One of his favorites has always been noodles. Since we frequently call him Hanky Doodle, when he has noodles, we like to call them Doodle's noodles. Overall, Henry likes surprisingly healthy foods. He loves most vegetables, including the gross ones like brussel sprouts 
July 2008: Henry has always been the official ear cleaner and takes the ear health of both Luna and Benjamin very seriously. It has worked great for Luna and Benjamin. Whenever they are at the vet they always get a great report on their ears. Unfortunately for Henry, neither Luna nor Benjamin return the favor to help keep Henry's ears clean.
February 2009: Henry has always been the co-pilot. He loves car rides and his preferred way of travel is with his head out the window. The faster the car is going the more fun he is having.
April 2010: Curious would be a good word to describe Henry. He is super smart and is very laid back, so when he encounters something new you almost see the wheels turning his head trying to process the situation. This makes him a lot of fun because he is game to try anything!
October 2011: Don't get me wrong, Henry likes his creature comforts, but he loves the great outdoors. No matter what the season he loves to be outside and exploring. He's never been camping, mainly because his humans enjoy the finer things in life, but we have always surmised that he would love it!
March 2012: While Benjamin has always been an early riser, Henry is perfectly content to turn breakfast into brunch and catch a few extra winks of sleep in the morning. Not only is he a man after my own heart with sleeping in, he also makes the best hug up buddy.
April 2013: Because of his calm demeanor, Henry sometimes gets to go on little trips by himself. A yearly tradition for him is to go to the Bark at the Park event for our local minor league baseball team. Henry loves the yearly outing because he has made friends with a few of the concession workers. So, as soon as he gets to the park, he finds his friends and scores plenty of ballpark snacks.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Recently, our steadfast and always strong Henry has been having ear and eye troubles. His ears have rebounded (infection-wise, not hearing-wise), but his eye woes have not only not cleared up - they have gotten worse.
At the follow up appointment on Thursday of last week, we weighed all of the options about what to do about his eye. His vision in his left eye is lost. Due to the size of the cataract in his eye, there is no hope of vision coming back if we are able to get the glaucoma under control. And despite our best efforts, we have not been able to come close to managing the glaucoma. He has not responded to the stringent course of treatment that was recommended. So, the best thing to do for Henry is to remove the painful, angry eye and allow the true healing to begin.
This whole scenario took us by storm. Henry has always been the "healthy" one. He's barely been on oral medications. Rarely eye drops. Always been able to walk far distances. Trachea still a perfect circle. Could see. Could hear. Well, in the last 10 days he basically went deaf and blind in one eye and now we have to have is eye removed.
One of the harder pills to digest is that the surgery is tomorrow. And tomorrow is Henry's birthday! The guilt I feel for scheduling Henry's eye removal surgery on his birthday is enormous. I almost put the surgery off for another week, but Henry is in a lot of pain from the glaucoma. The eye vet describes it as having a constant migraine in his eye. And it just breaks my heart to see him push he eye into the furniture or to paw at it to help alleviate some of the pressure. So, I took the first available surgery day, which happens to be his birthday, in hopes of bringing him some much needed relief.
We will keep you posted. And don't worry. We are worried enough for everyone. May good health and happiness be with you all. Squeeze your babies today! We will stay as positive as we can. Thanks for all your love & support.
Monday, March 24, 2014
It turns out that Henry's ear infection was really the least of his problems. Last weekend, we noticed that his left eye was getting really cloudy. By the time Sunday night rolled around, his eye was super red and seemed extra big. We made an appointment for him at the vet on Monday. After seeing his eye, the vet did a pressure test and quickly confirmed that Henry has glaucoma in his left eye. The pressure in his left eye was a 22 and normal eye pressure is between 10-15. It was also confirmed that Henry had no vision in his left eye. However, if the pressure in the eye was reduced, there might be chance for him to regain his vision in that eye, assuming the pressure in his eye never goes above a 30.
We left with 3 different eye drops to give to Henry in hopes of reducing the pressure in his eye, making him more comfortable and potentially restoring his sight.
On Thursday we went back to the vet to check on Henry's progress. Unfortunately, the pressure in Henry's left eye was even higher (25). Our vet recommended that we take Henry to the eye specialist and in the interest of time we do it the next day.
We made the trek to the eye vet on Friday morning. The vet confirmed that Henry does indeed have glaucoma in his left eye and that he can not see out of his left eye. However, she also told us that the very small cataract that Henry had in his left eye has exploded in size. The size of the cataract means that Henry has no chance of regaining the vision in his left eye once we get the glaucoma under control.
Our main question was how did this come on so suddenly? The eye specialist explained that there are a few possibilities and we are currently waiting on blood work to help us determine what is the cause for the sudden glaucoma. The first scenario, is it is the result of an infection (most likely from a tick bite). We are waiting on the results of a blood test to confirm if this is the case. A second scenario is that this is the result of an auto immune disorder. A third possibility is that the glaucoma is caused by cancer that has spread to Henry's eye.
Of all these scenarios, the simple infection would be the easiest to treat and would offer the best long term outlook. The worst case scenario would be cancer of course. And while I immediately worry that it is the worst case scenario, I think if it was cancer that has already spread to his eye, Henry would be showing some other signs of sickness.
For now we wait and see how the blood results come back. From there we will figure out the next steps. In the meantime, Henry goes back to the eye specialist for a follow-up visit later this week to check on the status of his eye. Hopefully, the pressure in his eye will be much better.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Well, look who I found sitting in the shade! The sun loving pug!
The weather has been so gorgeous that we have had a hard time getting Henry to come in the house. The sun is getting a bit stronger so Henry lays in the sun for a bit, then moves to the shade, then moves back to the sun. Benjamin and Luna are such polar opposites of Henry that we have taken to calling them the house dwellers. They go outside, go potty and then want to go right back in. If the weather is nice enough Benjamin can be persuaded to spend a little time outside, but not Luna. She wants no parts of the great outdoors.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
We have been noticing that Henry's hearing has not been as sharp lately. Even with duller hearing, Henry shines in the hearing department compared to Benjamin and Luna who are practically completely deaf. But, one day last week we noticed that Henry was not being his normal self and we noticed that he couldn't hear anything at all. Later that day he started scratching his ears like crazy and we had a sneaking suspicion that he had an ear infection. So, off to the vet we went and the vet confirmed that Henry did indeed have an ear infection. Henry was prescribed ear drops to tackle the infection and we vowed to be more diligent about cleaning his ears.
The hope is that after Henry's ear infection is cleared up, his hearing will return to normal. Although, I must admit, I'm kinda concerned that it won't since there hasn't been any improvement so far.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
I was doing some work from home last week and Henry stepped down from his guard on the sofa to lay in the sunbeams in my office. Just like old times. When I worked from home full time this was the coveted spot that the boys used to vie over.
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