Thursday, September 28, 2006
Luna is sure a tough as nails little pug! She came through the surgery with flying colors. She came out of the anesthesia early, wasn’t cranky and was simply a total trooper. Heck, she was barely even tired. She is totally unfazed by the lovely “E” collar she has to wear for the next week. She looks like a satellite dish that you would have on the side of your house, but she is still our pretty girl! Headgear and all!
The vet stitched her upper and lower lids together at the corner of her eye with just one little stitch in order to help her eye heal and not be so bulgy and prone to infections. That has made it so you can barely see the wound itself. (Which is sort of nice for those weak in the knees.)
Benjamin was so sweet, though. He wanted to hug up to her while she napped. He checked in on her eye by trying to inspect the inside of her cone collar. He just gave it a little sniff and then he stood by her awhile as a protective older brother. He stayed with her until she settled. He settled next to her for a little while, too. They made quite the pair.
Henry used this time to get a little one on one time with mom. He is such a smarty pants. He takes advantage of every potential opportunity to get a little extra Henry time. They are all good little soldiers.
It will take about 2 weeks for the biopsy to come back, but it already sounds like good news because the vet said that Luna’s eye had responded so well to the million eye drops we have given her over the last week and that cancer wouldn’t respond to any of those medications. So that sounds like great news. She’ll still be on all the same medications for at least another week. They will see how it goes when she goes back for her follow up exam (and to have that one stitch removed).
It is all so relieving. She did such a great job. We will all sleep well tonight!
Thanks to you all for your support and prayers. It helped to pull us all through!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
The drop has been made. Little Luna is now at the ophthalmologist awaiting surgery. We should have an update from them around lunch time. Can’t wait until we can pick the little one up.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Tomorrow, Luna goes in for surgery on her eye. Needless to say, everyone here is a bit anxious. We have been keeping busy so that has been a good distraction, but as we get closer and closer to the actual day we are growing more and more anxious.
Much of our anxiety comes from not really knowing what is the cause of the growth on Luna’s eye. It could be something as simple as a bad fungal infection or it could be something as serious as cancer. The doctors may be able to save Luna’s eye but depending on how bad the growth is she may have to have her eye removed. There are so many lingering questions and unfortunately we won’t have the answers for another week or so. Not knowing is the part that drives us crazy.
The other thing that is a little troublesome to us is that other dogs keep smelling Luna’s eye. When we took her to the ophthalmologist there was a Black Lab in the waiting room and he immediately went to her eye and kept smelling it. I found this odd because when dogs meet the first thing they smell isn’t the eye. They usually concentrate on the other end! Benjamin and Henry are constantly smelling Luna’s eye and two other pugs in the neighborhood have shown an unusual interest in Luna’s eye. This concerns me because I recently heard that studies show that dogs can smell cancer. Now I know this is all a stretch, but this is what the non-stop worrying has driven us too.
We’ll just be glad when tomorrow is over and little Luna is back home safe and recovering. I think Luna will be happy to get things over as well. Since her visit to the ophthalmologist last Tuesday, Luna has been on extra drops to help prepare her eye for surgery. The little girl now gets 13 drops of 5 different medicines in her right eye now! It is crazy! We had to make a chart to keep it all straight. But luckily, after the surgery, she will go back to her normal drop schedule and the number of drops she will get per day will decrease significantly.
We’ll keep you updated.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
The clamshell chair in the living room is one of Benjamin, Henry and Luna’s favorite sleeping spots in the house. It seems like there is always at least one pug in the chair at all times and most of the time, all three are piled up there. Benjamin and Henry have always been partial to that sleeping spot because they can catnap and still see out the front door. So they can bark at passersby from the lap of luxury.
While they all sit in that chair pretty regularly, I have had a hard time getting a picture of them. Every time, I go near them with the camera, Luna jumps from the chair and comes running up to the camera. I must have caught her while she was extra sleepy because she didn’t budge when I got out the camera this morning. The little one is so tuckered out that I even got a picture of her mid yawn. Although, she looks like she has had a little bit too much to drink. She’s a trip!
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Today we took Luna back to the optomologist. Her appointment wasn’t for another 3 days but her eye has been looking increasing worse and the medications did not seem to be helping at all. It had also become noticeably uncomfortable for her.
As a result, back to the vet we went. The vet took one look at it and said they have to operate. It seems like we are back to the beginning. They are treating it as if it could be cancer. They referred to the fungus as a “complication.” I guess I see their point when they explained it. Since Luna already has the prominent bulging pug eyes (especially her right eye) and her eye never really fully closes. So, she started to get the growth and her eye continued to not be able to close. As that occurred, the fungus crept in there. That is why the skin scrape came back as a fungus. She has a fungus but that is just the top layer of the problem. There is still a tumor under there.
Consequently, Little Luna is scheduled for surgery next Thursday. They will remove only the growth unless they find there is something more significant under there, in which case, more tissue and maybe the entire eye would have to come out but they feel confident that they can just remove the growth. The growth will then be sent to the pathologist to find its nature.
While we are worried as before, because it is so necessary for her comfort that the tumor be removed that it is also sort of a relieving situation. We don’t want her to “go under” but recognize the necessity of it all. It is an unusual feeling for us with Luna because we don’t know how she responds to anesthesia. Like with Benjamin, we know when he comes out of it, he is very whiny and his eyes are all mucousy. Henry is very laid back after he’s been under anesthesia. But with Luna we don’t know. She hasn’t even thrown up or had diarrhea since we’ve had her. We know all about these things with the boys but Luna is still new to us in that regard. It will be a learning experience for us.
So, again we thank you all in the pug community for your care and support in this hectic time of worry, wonder and medical miracles. May we offer to you and your beloved puggies, that you are always pro-active when it comes to doggy’s health. It is so important to brush up on common health problems. It is also crucial to know when to call the vet and if things aren’t getting better, then call back or get a second opinion when you don’t feel comfortable. Do for your pug what you should do for yourself. He won’t actually thank you for it but you will both feel better in the long run.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
According to the teenage relatives in the family, no wardrobe is complete without a “wife beater” type of tank top. What we loved about this one is that it shouts “girl power.” That’s Luna’s theme. She is the sassy one in the bunch. So, this is really representative of her style.
Monday, September 18, 2006
This is Luna’s Mama’s Girl outfit. It has a little bandana that she can wear around her neck or like a little kerchief like they wore in the olden days. It doesn’t make her eye sore look very flattering and she does look a bit orphanly, but she is such a sweetie she can pull anything off! She even let her sister, QP cat, wear it, too. It is so sisterly to share clothes! Cupid likes Luna the best of all the pugs. Must be a girl thing.
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