You are viewing entries tagged with the keyword Luna
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!
Monday, June 14, 2010
I have talked about things I have learned from the pugs over the years (Henry, Benjamin and Luna), but I don't think I have talked much about things the pugs have learned from each other.
When Sol walked into our lives, Luna picked up one of Sol's personality traits very quickly - the act of saying no. Before Solsey arrived, I think Luna did a lot of things because the boys did them. She ate her piece of banana each morning because the boys seemed to love it. But, it was plain to see that Luna was not very fond of bananas.
The first time Luna watched Sol turn down a bite of banana a lightbulb went off in her head. Sol smelled her banana offering, gave a big huff, spraying snot all over the banana and everything else in close proximity and then looked up with her big brown eyes asking, "What else you got?" In a sign of solidarity, Luna turned down her bite of banana that morning too.
In the short 15 months that Sol was with us, Luna took pride in turning her nose up at many of our offerings. And without Sol, Luna continues to carry the torch. This morning, she didn't even bother to come to the breakfast table to turn down her banana. From the couch, she declared "Bananas, who needs stinkin' bananas!"
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
For the last few months we have been noticing a trend with Luna. Specifically, that you have to drag Luna out of bed in the morning. She has no interest in anything going on around the house that happens before 10am. And why is Luna so tired in the morning? Because she stays up all night chewing!
Well, not all night because we take her bone away from her when we go to bed, but from 9pm to 11:30ish each night, you can find Luna chewing one of her bones.
The boys are usually sawing logs by 8:30pm, but little Luna, she is just getting started at that time of night. You can even see Henry sleeping in the foreground of the picture while Luna steady chews.
Whoever named Luna could not have picked a better name her because after dark she is the only one stirring around here.
Friday, June 4, 2010
One day, when we were out and about, we spotted these sun and moon garden stakes. Of course they reminded us of Luna and Sol. And since we are always looking for ways to spruce up the garden, we bought them and couldn't wait to get home and find a perfect spot for them in the garden. Luna enjoyed posing by her moon and the sun is a perfect reminder of Sol.
I also wanted to share with you the garden flag that Sue VDB had made for us. It could not have been a more perfect gift and when we get home from our walks in the evening I always make sure to say hi to Solsey Baby. Thanks so much, Sue!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
I know I talk a lot about Luna's eye drops and how I need a spreadsheet to keep track of them all, but I don't think I have shared a recent rundown of all the eye medicines she takes. But before I list all of her medicines, I think it would be helpful to list what ails her.
Diagnoses Right Eye
Diagnoses Left Eye
And to combat the above issues Luna is on the following drops:
- Tacrolimis 0.03%: 1 drop in the left eye, 2 times a day
- Cyclosporine 1%: 1 drop in both eyes, 2 times a day
- Pilocarpine 0.2%: 1 drop in the right eye, 2 times a day
- KCS Solution/NPD: 1 drop in the left eye every other day, 1 drop in the right eye 2 times a day
- Genteal Gel: As needed
Once I learn the routine, keeping track of the number of times each day she gets a drop is not a problem. I mainly get confused in determing if it is an "every" or an "other" day. I used to make a spreadsheet but that got too tedious. Then I tried marking things on a calendar, but frequently I forgot to mark down the days so that plan didn't work too well. So, I came up with something that has been working well for about 4 months now.
I took a regular piece of paper, folded it in half and created three boxes by drawing lines. The first, and largest box, is labeled "NEEDS". The second box is labeled "ONCE" and the third box is labeled "FINISHED". Inside the finished box, I have an area labeled "NOT TOMORROW".
At the beginning of each day, I move all the appropriate drops to the "NEEDS" section. Then as I give her a drop during the day, I either move it to the "ONCE" section or the "FINISHED" section depending on if she gets the drop once or twice a day. If it is an "every other" medicine and it is done for the day, I move it to the "NOT TOMORROW" section. That way I know not to put that eye drop in the "NEEDS" section the next day. Instead, the next morning, I move it to the "FINISHED" section so I will give it to her the next day. It is hard system to explain, but it has worked very well for us so far.
I have also color coded all the drops so I can figure out if they go in the left eye, the right eye or both.
A few people have asked me why Luna is on Tacrolimus & Cyclosporine in her left eye. To be perfectly honest with you I don't know. I asked the eye vet and she gave me a perfectly reasonable answer, however, I can't recall what it is.
On paper, it seems like I am sticking a drop in Luna's eye every hour of the day, and I probably come close to it, but Luna is an absolute trooper about taking her drops. She sees me coming with a bottle of drops and she just sits down and waits for me to plop it in her eye. I think she doesn't mind the drops because ultimately they make her more comfortable. A chronically dry eye is irritating and can become very painful. But the drops keep her eyes moist and make her more comfortable. And if you miss a few drops a day it is amazing how dry her eyes can get. Luna sees the drops as a good thing, not as a bad thing.
Cost wise, the drop regime adds up quickly. The KCS Solution and Tacrolimus are each $48.00 a bottle. The Cyclosporine is $42.00. The cheapest is the Pilocarpine at $22.00 a bottle. Luckily we can get the Genteal over the counter for about $9.00.
But seeing the difference they make in little Luna's eyes makes the cost and the crazy systems all worth it.
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
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 18, 2010
The Preakness was just run in my home town of Baltimore, MD. The pugs saw the race and thought they would hold a contest of their own
Right out of the gates, Little Luna is in the lead, followed closely by Baby Benny and Dawdling Doody is bringing up the rear.
It was a close race, but Luna won it by half a pug length.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
We are trying our hand at a little, container vegetable garden this summer. So far, we are having some success with our pepper plants (seen behind the pugs). We have a total of 3 plants and we have close to 10 peppers total. I have no idea what we are going to do with all those peppers, but I think that is a pretty good problem to have. At least they are in all different stages. It looks like our first pepper will be ready for picking this weekend.
We also planted a cucumber plant. We have tried cucumbers in the past without much luck, but this year's plant is looking strong. We will definitely need to be getting it a bigger pot.
The pugs enjoy checking up on the plants each evening after their walk. I water the plants and they have fun sniffing around.
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