A New Theory

Yesterday we visited a vet to get both Papu and Niila vaccinated. And since we were there, we decided to get Papu's eyes checked again. They've been the same for a long time now. They are weepy and watery, but not as weepy and watery as they were once. They don't look as bad but they are not normal either. Anyway. According to the vet her eyes are not irritated or anything, but her tear production was quite low. She tought the dryness might be causing the weepyness and suggested that we start using moisturizing eye drops.

And that's a new theory. Again. I remember that the tear production test have been done before, but I think the result has been more normal. Now it was like borderline normal or a bit less. But we bought a bottle of moisturizing eye drops and started to use them right away. It's too early to say whether they help or not though. We'll see. At least the drops won't do any harm and Papu is OK with them too.

Eye spy water fun and funny sausages

J.R. and Papu visited the vet yesterday. Her eyes have been quite bad after the last eye drop regimen. This time she was given two different eye drops. They both contain the same antibiotic than the eye drops that helped her while ago, but these new eye drops don’t contain cortisone, so they should be relatively safe to give her. I hope we’re finally on to something. According the vet this antibiotic is very effective one, so effective that they’re supposed to be saving it in case of some epidemic rather than giving it to dogs with eye conditions… But hey, whatever works. I gave her the drops this morning and I think her eyes looked better than they usually in on the morning, but that could have been just a coincidence. It’s way too soon to say anything.

There are some happier news too. Niila has started to show signs that she might enjoy swimming. There’s a brook near the dog park and people let their dogs cool there before they come to the dog park. Couple days ago we let Niila to play in the brook too. She seemed to be pretty excited about it, jumping after the pebble J.R. threw for her. Now we just need to find a lake where we can let her swim properly.

Papu put all her four paws in the water too, even though we didn’t especially encourage her to! Apparently she was appealed to it after she saw how much fun Niila was having. Maybe we’ll even get her to swim once Niila swims first.

We’ve also found a new type of food that works well for our pups. As you know, we’ve always searching for quality food for our pups. We’re currently feeding them with Acana Grasslands, which seems to work really well with both of them. And now we’ve replaced the regular canned dog food with this new raw food. They look like weird sausages when they’re frozen, but they’re nothing like that once they’ve melted and opened.

Nutrition wise they’re nothing but raw minced meat and vegetables. They’re intended for BARF feeding, but I don’t think we’re going for that. You never know though, BARF feeding is getting easier and easier these days.

Quick eye update

Just when we thought that everything's fine in our furry world... Papu's eyes were great for days after we stopped giving her the eye drops, but now they're back the same. They're exactly like they were on the first day when we started to give her the drops. It's like nothing has changed. I think we're running out of ammo soon. It could have been pollen... but her eye problems started way before there was pollen in the air. I guess she might be allergic to something, but I don't know what that could be. Maybe she's allergic to Niila?

It's a miracle

Papu's eyes don't weep anymore. I know, it's a miracle. After all, she was on cortisone/antibiotic eye drops for a month, got her tear ducts punctured and tried some super expensive eye drops for dry eyes and they did nothing to her eyes. Absolutely nothing. We had already given up hope. We thought that her eyes would weep forever and that I would always feel guilty for not being able to make her better.

But then after one dry windy day her eyes started to produce yellowish eye discharge. Lots of it, so we took her to a vet again. First the vet wanted to inject her with cortisone and to give us some antibiotic eye drops, but I told the vet that eye drops that only contain antibiotics and no cortisone has rarely worked for us so she then gave us some cortisone/antibiotic eye drops.

She was a full month on cortisone/antibiotic eye drops but they didn't help her. This time however we got different cortisone/antibiotic eye drops... and after a day or two her eyes started to look healthy and completely normal. No more yellowish eye discharge... no more weeping! You can only imagine how happy I am now... though I kinda wish they'd given us those eye drops in the first place as it would have saved us some money. Anyway. We're still on the eye drops so we don't know if the weeping comes back after we stop giving the eye drops to her, but I'm staying positive. At least we know now that there is something that helps her.

And I really thought that I would never see her beautiful eyes healthy again, but here they are:

The fur under her eyes is completely dry! Remember, her eyes used to look like this on a good day:

 What a difference!

"She is a weeping dog, her eyes are meant to weep"

Yesterday we visited a vet with Papu. It was a completely new place, and when we got there, we were greeted by six gigantic mastiffs. They were there for an eye check too. Despite the rush hour our turn came quickly. The vet asked about Papu's eyes, like what kind of treatment she had got already and how had they worked. She then decided they should check Papu's tear ducts. Blocking tear ducts may cause the weeping.

So she was sedated and they took her away. We got her back in less than an hour. The poor baby was so sleepy! They had checked the tear ducts but they were fine and open. Her eyes started to weep as soon as we got her back. The vet gave us some different kinds of eye drops. They're basically for dry eyes, which Papu definitely don't have, but the vet said that the drops may chance the way her tears are. That maybe her eyes weep because her tears are too runny or maybe she does produces too much tears. If these eye drops don't work, then her diagnosis is that "her eyes just weep".

This is how her eyes look... when they're looking pretty good.

It's good to know that there's nothing wrong with her eyes causing the weeping. But I would like to see her pretty eyes again. Now I only see the tearfulness. And I'm afraid that's what other people see too. That they see a dog with seriously weepy eyes and think that I'm a bad dog owner because I don't take care of her weepy eyes. If only I could. I can wipe them, but after a second they're as bad again. No tear drops work.

Still my precious, that's for sure.

 I wish I had taken video of her sleepiness. She looked so funny! Her ears were bent down and she looked nothing but sad, and then she walked around like a very, very tired duck.

Here we go again!

Just when we thought everything would be alright in our dog hairy world... Last time it was Niila's teeth, now it's Papu's eyes. She has had a series of eye infections and her eye problems just keep on coming. First we got an antibiotic eye drop regimen for two weeks. Then week off and the problems came back. Then two weeks with antibiotic cortisone regimen. Teary eyes again. Now we have given her antibiotic cortisone eye drops for a month and guess what? Her eyes are still teary! The vet doesn't have anything else to do, so she suggested we go see an eye specialist. Here we go again...

I'm just worried that it might be something that can't be fixed. My dogs are my babies and I can't stand the idea of losing them. Ever. I hope they live forever. I know that their vet history could be a lot worst. There's one Finnish blog where the min pin owner has described her dog's clinical history and it makes me cry every time. I'm happy that so far we have only had such minor problems. Teeth. Eyes. At least it's not epilepsy or cancer or anything. Probably.

I think I should talk about something happier too. Like the fact that we made the pups to sleep outside the bedroom. Papu was never allowed to go in the bed in the first place, and she never really tried it either. It was like she knew that the bed wasn't her area. But Niila, the stubborn, lovely Niila. She wanted to sleep in the bed. She really, really wanted to. She started sleeping in her own bed like a good girl, but during the night she always insisted to sleep under our duvets. And imagine trying to teach that little dog when it's 3am and you only want to sleep before the alarm bell rings. So she had her way and slept happily in the bed.

But it was unfair to Papu, so eventually she was invited to the bed too. Which was mistake obviously because our bed is ridiculously small. And J.R. started to complain that he doesn't sleep well anymore because the pups are sleeping on him.

But Niila has one embarrassing feature. She likes to pee in our bed. She was quite house trained but this was just a habit she seemed to have. "Yay, peeing in mommy's and daddy's bed is so much fun". Fun for her, but not to us. Especially since we usually noticed it only after we got to bed. Stupid tiny bladders, stupid tiny brains!

Anyway. Since Niila is so eager to pee in our bed, we decided that they're not allowed in the bed anymore. And to make sure that they don't keep us awake with their requests to sleep in the bed, we decided that they're not even allowed to sleep in the bedroom. So now they sleep in the living room in their tiny little beds.

At the first night Niila whined and whined and whined because she wanted to sleep with us, but the next nights after that has been all quiet. It seems that they don't really mind sleeping in the living room. After all, they have each other so they're not completely alone and isolated.

But I miss them. I miss them sleeping in the bedroom with us, not necessarily in the bed with us. But I miss them. They're my babies like I said, and I worry about them when they're not close to me. What if Papu gots an upset stomach and can't wake J.R. to take her out? What if?

But look at their tiny little beds! And they have matching sleeping bags nowadays!

I've noticed that the pups don't prefer much where they sleep, but there's one pattern they have: they always seem to sleep next to each other, cuddling.

I think they're just precious when they sleep like that. They look like best friends or real sisters. When I watch them sleep together it makes me happy. It makes me happy that they seem to like each other genuinely.