Merrylog

The princess is continuing to improve – thanks to everyone for their continuing support! – and is now getting to the point where she thinks it’s time to play. She dashes off, frantically searching the house for toys. After a few unsuccessful minutes, she comes back to me and looks at me just like this.

Makes me feel like such a mean pug mommy, but the eye doc’s warned us that anything she could push her face into needs to be avoided for as long as possible (he’s not specific, but rough estimates are at least two months).

My fiance and I are going to pick up a big smoked bone for her from the market on the weekend to make up for the complete lack of playtime other than some mild chase-the-pug activity.

Bye bye Atropine! Today is Merry’s first day without that drug, and I can’t wait for her poor pupil to start shrinking. She’s been on Atropine in that eye since four days before surgery, to keep her pupil dilated for the surgery and while the eye heals. It’s given her a strange look – one eye lovely brown, the other a blue-y black.

Hopefully this will also help her vision outdoors (day and night) – it must be so disconcerting to have one eye giving you so little light info (since her left still has a cataract) and one eye giving you so *much* light info. :) Should be a few more days before the pupil’s close to normal again.

Pug kisses to you all for your ongoing support.

What a weekend. My fiancé had nasal surgery on Friday. It was successful, but it meant two patients to monitor, feed, drug, etc. Between the two of them all weekend plus trying to pack for our upcoming move just three weeks away, I’m one tired and stressed doggie. ;)

The good news is both patients are recuperating nicely. Merry’s checkup this morning with the eye vet went well – she’s on an additional set of drops to keep her eye pressure low, and it’s working – her right eye was 12/14 this morning. He said everything was clear and looked to be healing very nicely. He’s very optimistic about the long term!

In terms of what I see everyday: she’s still very sleepy and quiet, I think she may be a bit down since none of her toys are around to be played with. She perks up a great deal for food, though, and looks like our old Merry. She is starting, finally, to drink more from the bowl – I had to use a lot of homemade beef broth popsicles and apple juice administered by syringe the first few days to keep her hydrated. Her eyesight seems much better in our home – she navigates very well and can now see treats in your hand, held over her head. But she’s more hesitant than ever walking outdoors. The vet feels it’s a combination of the cone, which restricts her vision, and the drops in her eyes which are still dilating her right pupil to hell and gone until later this week.

As always, folks, thanks to all of you for your kind support during this time. It’s a positive outlook but it’s been stressful as all get out, and stopping in to see your comments has been marvellously rejuvenating.

The princess has continued to mostly rest. While she does seem to find the operated eye itchy, our biggest problems today have revolved around the cone. It’s such a tall cone, and she’s got such a short little snout, that she has a good 4 inches past her snout before the ground, which makes it tough to do so many things for an animal that lives by the nose. :)

After trying several methods, I ended up hand-feeding her. Food must also be cut to bite-size since she can’t put the food on the floor, eat part of it, and come back for the rest. She has been very resistant to going to the bathroom as well – when she tries to sniff the ground, her cone hits the grass, so she can’t actually “sniff around” for the right spot. Which means when it’s dire, she can go – but if we’re just out for one of our regular walks, I might not get anything out of her at all.

Complicating this is the toughest cone problem of all: drinking. We did find a bowl tall enough for her to drink from, but unless she approaches it just right, her cone hits it, and then she gives up. No matter what the coaxing. :) Favorite liquids aren’t doing much to motivate, either, and she doesn’t seem to like licking ice from my hand. Tonight, we’re going to try beef broth frozen on popsicle sticks to see if that works better for her. Tomorrow, we’re going to a) get some syringes from the eye vet during her checkup so I have a better means of getting water into her if needs be, and b) have him review the soft collar to see if it’s OK to put on earlier than planned, so we can maybe resolve some of these problems.

The good news is that we’re getting the hang of the meds routine (it’s quite involved!), she is still loving cuddling, and certain foods (watermelon in particular) is getting her quite excited.

More news tomorrow after the post-op checkup!

The princess came home around dinnertime tonight after nearly 36 hours of post-surgery monitoring. She was shunted back and forth between the eye vet’s clinic during the day to an emergency clinic to be monitored overnight, and then back to the eye vet’s clinic for more monitoring today. So luckily I got to spend a fair amount of time with her moving her back and forth between the two places.

She’s been very quiet this evening, and overall since the surgery very prone to getting chilled – even the quick sponge bath I gave her lower half when we got home to clean up the effects of being in a cage for two days got her shivering like crazy. I’ve got her wrapped up in her flannel jammies, a warm blanket and have been cuddling up with her on and off throughout the evening. And of course, the cone, which will be on for at least four more weeks.

The eye doc is still very positive about the results of the surgery, though her ocular pressure has continued to rise as high as 27 earlier today. The doc feels Merry may be on meds for the rest of her life to prevent the pressure in that eye from going too high.

Her vision seems not bad – she was able to follow me to the restroom well enough, without hitting any doors – but when I called her name to get her to pose for this shot, she looked over towards the light instead. I had to wave my hand several times for her to notice the movement and turn her head to face me. I’ll be calling the eye doc tomorrow to discuss that; it may be a side effect of the pressure in her eye.

I am very glad to have my baby home. Thank you to all for your kind words and ongoing support; it has meant so much to us. I don’t believe we’re 100% out of the woods yet with her eye, but it is wonderful to be able to touch her and hold her again.

I know many of you have been checking the blog today to see how the princess is doing. Here’s what I know, as of now:

• The doctors were a little concernd with ocular pressure prior to surgery so they gave her meds to lower it, and it lowered very well – down to “10″ (normal for the pug is usually more in the 12-24 range, when we first got to the vet’s it was over 20)
• Retinal function seemed better in the right eye, so that’s where they operated
• She got through the surgery fine, recovered from the anasthetic, and they may give her food later tonight

For now: so far, so good. Thank you – so very much – to everyone for your kind words and thoughts. All of us appreciate the support very much.

A shot of happy miss Merry playing with her favorite pink ball (now using the bigger one, since she tends to lose the smaller one visually these days). Thanks to everyone wishing us well for the surgery on Monday. Keep this picture in your mind folks, and wish on it hard – hopefully we’ll see a lot more of these shots by 2008!

So the princess will be having her cataract surgery on this upcoming Monday. They are very careful at the eye vet and so will be keeping her overnight; I’ll be able to take her home on the Tuesday evening.

Are we nervous? Absolutely – and I’m sure it will get worse as we go through the let’s-blind-the-pug eyedrop routine starting tomorrow morning and continuing 4x daily until her surgery. At least up until the actual surgery, I now know what to expect.

I have also purchased an alternative to the Elizabethan collar for the pug, a softer version that will bend a little, allowing her to more easily eat and drink and sleep while still offering her protection from scratching herself. I looked at some of the other options suggested, but pugs don’t have much of a neck – the inner-tube like styles would really not work as well as I’d like. However, I may keep her in the hard collar for at least the first few days – the hard collar will protect her from walking into walls and corners, somewhat, just in case.

New to the eye saga? Here’s the original post, and why the surgery was postponed.

As some of you noted last week, yes, my partner and I got engaged recently (and I’m still getting used to calling him my fiancé). Merry will “officially” have a Daddy – not that he likes that moniker, but it’s what she and I will call him when he’s not around. :) She already loves him to bits, so it’s a good thing indeed!

Between the engagement and planning our move (next month we’re moving in to a house together, along with his two kids), Merrylog photos have been thin on the ground the past week! I hope to get better over the next week or so – I plan to shoot lots so I have many photos saved up for your daily dose of the pug.

Another update, on her surgery: the eye doc finally has the new equipment in, so her surgery has been planned for next Monday. More details will follow.

Managed to snag this the other evening while we were out back playing. I loved the feeling of movement – wind in her fur, big grin on her face – it shows just how happy the princess is when she gets to play outside. ;)