Pug’s eyes

This is my darling Pugsley. I adopted him in September 2011. He was 5 years old, very shy, he had been badly abused and had to wear a “thunder shirt” much of the time when he first came to help with anxiety but he settled in nicely and has been one of the sweetest pugs I have ever had. He is my darling, the oldest of my pugs, he will be 12 in July, which isn’t quite so old. I have adopted 11 pugs in as many years and they have typically lived 14-16 years. But Pugsley has had a challenge this last year. Last June he was diagnosed with a collapsed trachea. From the x-rays they thought that it was bad enough that I might only have him 6-12 months but he has done remarkably well on the medication and most of the time you wouldn’t know that anything was wrong with him. Today we faced another challenge and it is scary.

I took the above picture of him over the weekend. You can see that a problem was developing and it came on so fast I only noticed it after I took this picture. It is his left eye. By yesterday it was draining and he was not opening it all the way. I called the vet and got him in early this morning. By today the eye looked really bad. It is a “severe bacterially infected ulcer.” These things apparently can come on over a 24 hour period. It seemed to have happened overnight. Worst case scenario is that they can lose the eye and it is very painful. I was simply horrified. To have this happen 3 1/2 weeks after losing Tanner has shaken me badly because it is more complicated than it ordinarily might be. If it gets bad they can usually remove the eye and the dog does very well without it, but it is a surgical procedure and because of Pugsley’s collapsed trachea he is not a good candidate for surgery. This had my vet really worried and she sent us right to a specialist this morning, a veterinary ophthalmologist. This was not my first trip there. I have had 3 other pugs that had to go to this office. Because pugs have protruding eyes they can be easily injured or develop problems. It is always a scary business.

The specialist felt that it might be able to be treated, that the eye might be able to be saved, but the treatment is aggressive. He has 3 different types of eyedrops that must be administered several times a day and 2 different meds he must take by mouth twice a day. We came home and got right to it. He is not thrilled but he is being really sweet as he always is. I have to take him back in early Thursday morning so she can check and see if the treatment is working. I am asking for prayers and good thoughts for my little boy. And he will of course get whatever treatments he needs but the vet bills are really scary, they are my biggest worry. But I just want him to get well, I can’t stand to see him go through this. He is my baby (even though he is the oldest).

I am trying to relax. He needs to be cuddled and loved and tenderly cared for in addition to all of the medications. That is what I am doing. But it is just coming so close on the heels of losing Tanner that it has me completely unnerved. I am going to stop here for today. I know, once again, it isn’t much of a blog post but I wanted to let you know what was going on. Again, prayers are very much appreciated.

I hope all of your babies are well. Hold them close, we never know how long we will have them, it is never long enough.