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Friday, May 28, 2010
Things went fairly well at the eye vet yesterday with Luna. Luna was a trooper as always.
The eye vet agreed that Luna's right eye is extremely dry. However, she noted that it is not because Luna is not producing tears (Luna tested at an 8 in her left eye on the Schirmer Tear Test this visit). It is because of all of the built up scar tissue on the eye.
So, we have added one more drop to our arsenal and have been instructed to give Luna the Genteal drops as often and as frequently as needed. The Genteal drops will help keep her eye moist.
The good news is her right eye is doing great. There have been no changes since our last visit, which is extremely good news.
I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday weekend! Perhaps some lucky puggies out there will get to crash a few barbecues. 
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Luna goes to the eye vet this morning for her usual checkup. I know the news is not going to be good. Her left eye has very low tear production and despite our best efforts we have not been able to get it to improve. We have been tweaking her drops, trying new medicines but nothing seems to work. There is just too much scar tissue on the eye for anything to be effective. So, we have been giving her lots of Genteal Severe Dry Eye Relief drops to help keep some moisture in her eye.
I'm anxious to hear what the eye vet suggests as our next steps because the drops no longer seem to be working in her left eye. They worked well for a few years, but starting late last year they have gradually started becoming less and less effective.
The good news is that her right eye seems to be staying the same. She appears to have good tear production in that eye and the current treatment appears to be working well. That is very good news because that is her "good eye", the one that pretty much gives her all of her vision.
I'll let you know how everything goes.
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.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Sol continues to do well. She slept most of Thursday, which was to be expected. Her appetite is back in full swing which is always a good sign. The biggest problem we are having is that the little bugger can a find a pill in pretty much anything.
For the curious, here is a picture of Sol's incision on her belly that I took the night of her surgery day. If you are squeamish or you happen to be eating breakfast feel free to skip right over that link.
The 2010 calendar submissions came to a quiet close earlier in the month. We received over 1,250 amazing pug photos! I was happily surprised. A huge thank you to all that submitted pictures.
I have been hard at work on the calendar whenever I have a moment of downtime. I am hoping to send it off to the printer by the middle of next week, which would keep things on track for an early October release date.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! You all deserve it! I'm sure everyone is tired after sending all those well wishes to Solsey Baby.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
As you may have read earlier, Sol went in Monday for what we believe to have been her first dental cleaning. She also had the growth removed from her eye. Additionally, she had a skin tag removed from her knee. We were prepared for all of the little “extras” of the procedure. However, we were somewhat surprised to learn that the vet discovered a tumor in her mouth during the routine dental procedure. They removed the top piece of what they described as a “wart”. Since this oral growth was of particular concern, a biopsy was performed. The eye growth and the knee growth were not bothersome to the vet and those did not warrant a biopsy. The vet tech described that these types of mouth warts are common in dogs and that while they can be cancerous, they generally are no big deal. She told us to expect the results within 7-14 days. Waiting a week to two weeks seemed like an eternity until today. The results came quickly. I would have waited the 2 weeks to find out this news because unfortunately, the results were not good. It is Pappillary (verrucous) Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Cancer.
The good news is that it is considered a low grade malignancy. While the vet referred us to a specialist, they mentioned a couple of options. These were aggressive vs. non-aggressive treatments.
The aggressive would be to remove the tooth in front and behind the tumor and the entire tumor which would likely include a significant piece of the mandibular (jaw) tissue. The “problem” with this is that this type of cancer will reoccur and even if we took care of it, it would come back.
The non-aggressive treatment would be to simply monitor her bloodwork every 6 months to see how her lymph nodes are functioning and perhaps the cancer is such a slow growing variety coupled with the fact that she is already 12 years old she would not really be affected for the rest of her relatively short remaining life expectancy. The “problem” with this solution is that we feel like we are “doing nothing” because we would be doing next to nothing.
We will of course consult with the specialist and determine which treatment plan to follow. The specialist is “conveniently” located adjacent to Luna’s eye vet. So, at least we are familiar with the area and while it is not “close” (about 50 miles away) we are due to bring Luna, Sol & Henry to the eye doctor soon. We’ll just double up the appointments on the same day.
There is a particularly sad irony to all of this. It has been barely a year since Sol’s Grammy here in Florida was also diagnosed with oral cancer, received major surgery, had radiation and is just beginning to feel the benefits of being on the road to recovery. As I sit here I am still in somewhat of a denial filled fog. I just have to ask, “what are the odds that your mother and your dog both are diagnosed with oral cancer within a year’s time?” The quick response to that when asked aloud was, “well, obviously better than winning the lottery”. Too true.
Needless to say, there were some tears shed in the OBP household tonight. Between reflecting on the last year dealing with human cancer and imagining the upcoming year dealing with puggy cancer, the emotions got the better of us. Albeit temporarily. We have hope for a positive outcome. We will grab that cancer bull by the horns and fix poor little Sol as best we can. She made it our way for a reason. The reason now is crystal clear. We are here for her. She has a forever home filled with love and support.
For the curious, here is a picture of Sol’s tumor. They took it while she was under for her dental.
Monday, February 18, 2008
February is National Pet Dental Month and I was wondering about your pug’s dental routine.
We brush Benjamin, Henry & Luna’s teeth pretty regularly, but I’m afraid not as often as the recommended daily brushing. My gang loves their peanut butter flavored tooth paste but they are not too keen on me moving the brush around in their mouth. Henry is the best at sitting still and letting me brush and it is pretty much a toss up between Benjamin & Luna for the honor of worst tooth brusher. Luna might barely edge Benny out to take the prize because her mouth is so tiny and she just refuses to sit still. I can usually guilt Benny into sitting still for a second or two by using a disappointing tone while saying his name. This always makes him want to try to be a good boy. Luna, on the other hand, sticks to her guns and fights me all the way. If I am lucky, I can work in a tooth brushing about once a week, but I am trying to do better and work my way up to daily brushings.
How about you? Do you brush your pug’s teeth? (I also look forward to your thoughts in the comments.)
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.
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
We celebrated a birthday in the house last week and Benjamin got in on the action by wearing the birthday bow. (Look close and you will see the little red bow on his head) For some reason, Benjamin really enjoyed wearing the bow. He wore it the whole time presents were being opened.
Benjamin’s toe is doing a bit better. We are still trying to keep him calm and “off his paws.” It has been hard trying to keep Benny quiet while Henry and Luna are little bundles of energy. Henry and Luna have been keeping their normal walk schedule and we have been taking Benjamin on his own special short walks. Despite his injury, Benny always wants to walk farther, but, I think he is enjoying his solo walks.
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