Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The last few days have been extremely hot and that means the pugs have been checking in on the outside world from the comfort of the couch in the air conditioned house. Barking at all that pass seems to be quite fun for them. Of course, I would prefer if they brought the barking down a notch, but they have to fill their days with something, I guess.
Luna prefers to spy on the outside world from ground level. I caught a shot of her in mid bark. I just love how her normally bulging eyes are extra bulgy in the photo. Get 'em girl!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Another one from the puppy files. Looking forward to your captions in the comments.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Benjamin has recovered well from his surgery. His incision has healed beautifully and he is back to his usual self.
Now that he is felling better, I think Benny is peeved because it is too hot to go for his usual walks. He lives for his walks and the quick little jaunts we have been taking just haven't been cutting it for him. Not to mention that the only suitable summer exercise for the pugs is swimming. And while Benny is a great swimmer, he prefers to keep his paws firmly planted on dry ground.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
A Caption This from the puppy files. Benjamin is just a little over a year in this photo. Looking forward to your captions in the comments.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
The shaved patches on Benny's front paws from his surgery keep reminding me of wristbands. Which for some reason has the song "Physical" by Olivia Newton John stuck in my head.
Don't ask me how I made the leap but for the last few days all I have been singing is "Let's get physical, physical,..."
In other news, Benjamin had his stitches taken out and his incision is healing very nicely. I am very happy to see him on the mend and getting back to being his spunky little self.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Getting the pathology results on Friday helped us enjoy the holiday weekend. Benny started feeling better and was almost back to himself and after just one day of Luna's new eye drop, we started to see an improvement in her eye. Both of those things were very relieving and helped make for a relaxing weekend.
Good news, good friends, family and fun. Those were the ingredients of our much needed and much enjoyed holiday weekend.
Friday, May 28, 2010
We just received the pathology results for Benny's mast cell tumor. It came back as a Grade II tumor with clean margins. I am so very relieved that we got clean margins. I was hoping that it would come back a Grade I, but I knew that was highly unlikely. I am very happy it is a Grade II and not a Grade III.
In any case, our next course of action is to keep a very close eye on Benny to see if any other tumors develop. Which just means more petting or him.
And for those who like to see the gory details, here is a picture of Benny's incision. It was taken in low light with my phone, so it isn't the greatest picture, but it gives you a good idea of the size of the incision.
It is such a relief to know that the vet got clean margins. Hopefully, there won't be any more tumors popping up on Benny anytime soon.
Enjoy the holiday weeekend!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
One good thing to come out of Monday's sedation/surgery is that Benjamin got a very good toenail clipping. There was no fight, no fuss, no Cheerio negotiations, no "We'll do the back ones another day". Just a nice, short toenail trimming. However, I'm sure he is expecting some Cheerio back pay.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Yesterday, we dropped Benny at the vet to have a chest x-ray taken. Benny, has been coughing every now and again and after Solsey's chronic cough we are paranoid whenever one of the pugs coughs. So, last week we made an appointment to talk to our vet. We explained the situation and our paranoia and our vet thought that the best course of action would be to bring Benny in one morning and they could lightly sedate him and get a good chest x-ray to see what was going on.
Funny side note, Solsey never needed to be "lightly sedated" for her x-rays. She was such a good girl that they could just plop her down and she would remain completely still while they did the x-rays.
Benjamin also had a bump on his chest that we showed our vet during our appointment. He said while Benny was sedated he would take a better look and possibly aspirate it to find out what was going on.
So, we dropped Benny off yesterday morning for his procedures, hoping to find out what was causing the tickle in his throat from time to time.
Just before lunch, I got a call from the vet. I thought it was a bit early for Benny to be finished, but I thought maybe they were just running ahead of schedule. Instead of it being a vet tech, it was my vet on the other line. As soon as I heard his voice, I got nervous. The vet never calls just for an update. Sensing my nervousness, he quickly reassured me that Benny was lightly sedated and doing OK. However, they aspirated the growth on his chest and had a look at it under the microscope and it is a mast cell tumor.
My stomach sank.
Since it was a mast cell tumor, my vet wanted to put Benny completely under and remove it and get it sent off for testing. I gave the go ahead and yesterday, Benny had the tumor removed from his chest.
The incision runs vertically on his chest and is closed with 10 stitches. It is in a really awkward spot to bandage, so the vet told us to keep Benny in a t-shirt to help keep the wound clean.
Benny is still pretty wiped out from his big day, so it is a little too early to tell if he is in much pain. After we got him home, we tried to set him up on one of the dog beds, but he wanted to be on the sofa. So we made him a nice little place to rest on his favorite spot on the sofa. He has been comfortably resting ever since.
In the meantime, the waiting game has begun. We could have the pathology results back as early as Friday, but more than likely we won't know anything until after the holiday weekend.
Needless to say, I am sick with worry. We don't have a great track record of getting good news with pathology reports. However, I am hoping that our luck will change.
As far as the chest x-rays are concerned, Benjamin's trachea looks very good as do his lungs. However, his soft palette is elongated. This is the most likely culprit of his cough. So, after we know the pathology results and he chest incision has fully recovered it is off to the specialist to have his soft palette shortened.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Benjamin has a bit of an obsession with ping pong balls. He has been this way since he was a pup. Playing with a ping pong ball is the closest Benny comes to fetching. Toss the ball across the living room, making sure it takes a few wild bounces, and Benny happily bounces behind it, jumping and bumping into things.
Once he finally tracks it down, he rarely picks it up on the first attempt. Instead, in his excitement, he attempts to pick it up, but it just bounces away. Not at all discouraged, Benny goes bounding after it and keeps at it until he finally picks it up. With the ball in his mouth, he runs back to you and gets sorta close before he drops it and is ready for you to throw it again.
We repeat the whole process again and play our little game until Benny inevitably crushes the ping pong ball and it thuds instead of bouncing.
