Maybe over?

Yesterday we visited the vet once again, mostly to make a new blood test to see if Niila's any better. And guess what! She's officially better! Maybe it's over now. Though it's never really over. Not with pancreatitis. She has to eat low fat food for the rest of her life. But that's a small price to pay. But what is not a small price... and the vet bills. We could have bought two new dogs with the money we spent on Niila. But yeah. It's a small price too. Like there's any other option really when it comes to your furry family members.

Niila update & Naval ships

Niila's diagnosis is now final. It's officially pancreatitis. She's also officially off her meds too. No more painkillers, no more antibiotics. The only thing she gets is Pepcid and it's for heartburn. She's still not her usual self, but she's not exactly sick either. Something between. She's eating normally and drinking normally, but she's still somehow weak and sickly. Yeah. It's not over. It's over when it's over.


I have some new macro board game photos too. These are naval ships from a board game called Merchants & Marauders:



The ships are painted by my husband, this was actually one of his first painting projects. They turned great, I love the way they are customized with the flags. It's a shame we don't play it that often nowadays. It's a nice game, good game even, but there are so many other games we rather play. One of these common board gamer problems...

Small things big + Niila update

Niila's condition did get worse. She got sick again. We decided to take her to a new vet. Our 40 minute vet appointment turned to be two hour vet appointment and I also almost passed out. A nice nurse gave me a glass of water and an apple. I wonder if the apple was her snack or something. If it was, it was really kind for her to give it to me. Anyway. Now we are treating Niila for pancreatitis. She got pain killers, so she's visibly better now. I don't know much better she is in the inside - if her intestines are any less inflamed. The vet told us to stop with Synulox antibiotics as they had obviously done her nothing. And to put Niila on a very strick low-fat diet to make the inflamed pancreas to heal. We are going to get the official results for the pancreatitis on Monday. We'll see, we'll see. At least it was a smart move to visit a new vet. Niila is still skin and bones, and weak-ish sometimes, and sleepy, but she eats like a normal pup and drinks like a normal pup. And she doesn't seem to be in any pain now, thanks to the pain killers. But like I've said many times, it's not over until it's over. Anything can happen.

Meanwhile I've taken some new pictures. I love our macro lens. I love love love it. If I would have to choose one lens to use for the rest of my life, it would be my macro lens. Ok. Maybe I might get even a better one, like something crazy expensive and awesome. But macro lens anyway.

These are space marines from a board game called Space Hulk. And they're small. They are miniatures, yet in the pictures they look huge. Almost like human size. Or maybe even bigger than human size. Transformers size? See, that's why I love the macro lens. It makes small things big!

Sick. Sicker.

Two weeks ago Niila got sick. She woke up in the morning and started to vomit. And she vomited pretty much all day until there was nothing to vomit anymore. She was restless, couldn't stay in one place long. But we thought she just had eaten something and didn't worried much. It's not unsual for the pups to vomit because something they've eaten outside or something. We just didn't give her food until the next day. She refused to eat. And she got even worse. I can't remember her being that sick ever before. She spent most of the time in this position, shivering, looking miserable:

She got so sick eventually that we got worried and took her to the vet. She got tested and x-rayed. There was nothing in her stomach, but her instestines were inflamed. We got antibiotics and some medicine to prevent her from vomiting. The meds seemed to help, she got visibly better. She started to eat again. We even called the vet to tell them that she's OK again. But that didn't last long. She started to vomit again, started to get restless.  She got even more sick that the first round. She couldn't sleep because her little body was shivering so much. It was pain to watch. She was so tired that when she did fell asleep it was really hard to get her awake. We actually need to shake her a little. She was still on the antibiotics but clearly something was not working right. She wasn't getting better. Sometimes she even tried to sleep standing up, it was too uncomfortable gor her to sleep on her stomach.

We took her to te vet again. They checked her stomach with ultrasound and told us that her uterus is filled with fluids. That she needed surgery. They booked a surgery time for her the following day. But when we got there the next day, the vet said that he wanted to check the uters again. And this time it was perfectly normal. They took new tests and even though she had been on antibiotics, the results show that her intestines had actually got even more inflamed. They took new x-rays. Still nothing new. We had no clue what was making her sick, even the vet was more than puzzled. She was sick, then she got better, then she got sick again...

And the end result of that vet visit: one really sick dog and new antibiotics on top the old ones. And it takes days to see if the new antibiotics work! She didn't eat anything for two days. She was all skin and bones already. She slept all the time. We didn't know what to do with her. We just waited. The vet told us to come back if she doesn't eat the next day. But she did eat. And she's been eating since for two whole days now! And she looks better. She doesn't shiver anymore. She's still not her usual self but she doesn't appear to be so crazy sick anymore. We still need to get her tested in the vet to see if the antibiotics have really helped this time. I mean she did seem to get better before but not really. The tests showed otherwise.

Niila's medicines are quite impressive at the moment. The antibiotics she are getting are Synulox Vet (the one that didn't help in the beginning) and Trikozol 400mg (this is actually meant for humans!) Then she has Cerenia to prevent her from vomiting. Then she gets Antepsin oral fluid and Pepcid to calm her stomach, and Inupekt Forte to support intestinal well-being. And on top of everything, she is only allowed to eat Hill's Prescription Diet i/d. 

I hope she keeps getting better. She still has some weight to gain back, some energy to gain back... Yeah. It's not over until it's over. At least it looks really promising right now.

The saga continues...

We visited the vet today with Niila. Her bald spots have been history for quite some time now so she got clean papers for that. She stills has visible spots on her fur but they don't look bald at all. They look like spots... with just less fur. She looks healthier, more normal, better. And the vet said that we can quit using Basiron (acne cream for humans) but that we should keep using Bepanthen (healing cream). Yay.

But we got something else in the change. Last night I noticed that Niila had huge lump on the side of her neck. Huge. We got really worried. Lumps never sound good, or look good, or feel good. Especially on your precious baby girl! But the vet said it's just an inflamed salivary gland and she prescribed antibiotics for two weeks. Nothing serious, thank god.

Miniature pinscher is supposed to be a healthy breed but it doesn't feel like it anymore. I can't remember how many times we've visited the vet already. It feels that there's always something, always something to worry about. It's exhausting sometimes.

Just one and it was dead already

Niila had her second check-up yesterday and it was all clear. The vet took multilpe sample and she was only able to find one little bugger and it was dead already. We no longer have to feed Niila with those ridiculously expensive meds, but we still have to put some lotion to the bald spots. Basiron to help the skin to renew and Bepanthen to help it heal. I wonder when the hair will start growing back.

And here's a completely irrelevant picture:

The check-up

Today we went to a check-up with the vet. The situation is better now. One sample far free of demotex all together and the other sample wasn't bad either. We still have to give her meds at least for two weeks. What ever it takes, I just want my pretty pup back.

I'm little frustrated though with the fact that our pups seem to get only problems that are awfully visible. I felt awful when Papu had her weeping eyes... And now I have a dog that has bald spots! I feel that every other dog owner is judging us.

Poor Niila, allergic to her own tail!

Two weeks ago we noticed a teeny tiny bald spot on Niila's back. We thought they had just been fighting with each other because the spot didn't seem to bother her. She didn't lick it or scratch it. It simply existed on her back. But then the bald spot grew bigger. One day I noticed that her tail usually always touched the bald spot, so I joked that she must be allergic to her own tail.

The bald spot on her back.

But it turned out that I was right. Kinda. Yesterday we talked about how much the bald spot has grown lately and how weird it was since it was only one spot on her body. J.R. decided to examine her just in case we've missed something. And I'm happy that he did. Underneath her tail, where her tail touches her back, he found another bald spot and the bare skin wasn't healthy looking at all. I can't understand how we had missed that. It's not like we're neglecting her. We give her lot's of attention and cuddles. But like you can see in the picture above, her tail curves in a way that hides the bald spot completely.

The bald spot on her tail.

Today we visited the vet. She told us that Niila has a case of demodex canis. The mites had moved from her tail to her back! All dogs have them, but sometimes they get out of hand, like in Niila's case, and cause skins problems such as bald spots.

The skin still doesn't look so bad. The vet took some of her hair so now the spot is even bigger.

The vet prescribed Niila some super expensive mite drugs to get rid of them and some acne cream. Apparently she's going to be fine because she's young and because it hasn't got so bad yet. We'll see. Maybe this starts a whole new series of vet related posts...

This pill costs 10€. She's supposed to eat ½ pill per day.

I felt so guilty for not noticing the bald spot on Niila's tail that I decided to treat her with a new toy; "no stuffing" furry softie with two squekies:

Masked bandit.

But I guess this day turned out just fine for Niila. She got a special walkie with mommy and daddy, some dog biscuits at the vet, some pills that smelles (and probably tasted) like meat fondue.. .and she got a new toy too. 

Happy Birthday Niila!

Today is Niila's birthday, she's finally one year old. It feels like we got her yesterday, like she was a puppy yesterday, but now she's all grown up. You know, she was like this when we got her:

 And they were like this:

And now she's like this:

 And they're like this:

  

Of course Niila got some presents too. We couldn't decide in the pet store what toy we wanted, so we got her both toys we liked. They both make noises and they're crazy about them. Never seen them so excited about new toys!

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.

Visiting dog parks again!

We are finally able to visit dog parks again! First Papu was on heat and then Niila was on heat. Of course we could have taken them to the dog park separately, but neither one of us liked the idea of going to the dog park alone, so that's why there has been a really long break between the visits. But at least the weather favors us now! It's been so warm and sunny in Finland recently, and it's probably gets warmer and warmer as we approach the summer.

Yesterday we visited our regular dog park. It's usually pretty empty after six, but yesterday it was quite busy. Niila made friends with a white bichon frise. They ran couple circles around the dog park. Papu was her usual self, stood distant and minded her own business.

Today we visited a dog park that is located further away. We visited the regular dog park too, but there were some kids running around and Papu wasn't too keen on that. She hates kids and she hates kids than run. So we decided to move on to the next dog park. And I'm happy we did! We met a new dog who was also called Papu, and he looked almost exactly like Papu. Except he was Manchester terrier. The owner of the other Papu was surprised to meet another dog with the same name, but for us it was already a second time. Funnily, all three dogs have been named after different things. Our Papu is named after a can of beans ("papu" is bean in Finnish), her Papu was named after the shape and the color of the puppy, and the third one was named Papu because when he was a puppy he liked to sit on her shoulder like a parrot (in Finnish parrot is "papukaija"). Anyway. Niila played with the other Papu, and our Papu, once again, stood distant and minded her own business. She's not exactly a social butterfly...

And then some other news: Papu is not on eye drops anymore and her eyes still look nice! I think it's pretty safe to say now that her eyes are healthy now. My pretty girl is pretty again!

And Niila... she stills looks stupid:

She sits like that all the time, and it's so embarrassing. Why won't she sit like a dog?!I can't understand how Papu always looks so ladylike and elegant and Niila looks like a... silly joke of a dog.

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.

They grow up so fast!

Our baby girl is so grown up nowadays. Last month she had her first heat, and today we bought her her first harness and a new leash. No more baby collar, no more pink baby leash!

Niila is now seven months old. It's a funny coincidence because Papu was also seven months old when she got her harness and her leash! Here's a picture of Papu wearing her harness for the first time:

There has also been some progress with Niila's canine teeth. Remember, this is how they used to be:

Then she got all her four canine teeth removed by the vet and today they look like this:

And they're growing where they should be growing. There also used to be a hole in his palatine:

But now the palatine looks like this:

So I think we're safe now. She will have normal teeth she can eat, chew and play with. And bite with. I'm so happy that everything turned out fine, even though it took quite a lot money to get where we are now. Dogs: Even if you get the puppy for free, they're still going to cost you a lot of money.

Funnily, Niila still looks like a baby. Especially when she sleeps.

Tooth fairy should bring her lot's of noms.

There's finally something about Niila's teeth that is worth blogging about! Her permanent canine teeth finally showed up and like expected, the milk canine teeth didn't get loose at all. No matter how much we played tug-o-war with her, her lower canine teeth just refused to loosen. So today we visited a vet to get her canine teeth removed. We checked her with a different vet and he said that all four could be removed, but this new vet said that only the lower canine teeth could be removed, that the upper canine teeth are still too hidden inside the gum. It suited us even better.

Niila fell asleep really quickly, and I think the whole operation was over quite soon too. J.R. helped the vet but I waited in the waiting room. The vet only wanted one to help and it's easier for J.R. to hold her. We got one canine tooth to home with us but the other one got broken while it was being removed. Niila was one shaking whimpering thing when she got out. I felt sorry for her, but her teeth needed to be removed.

Hi! My name is Niila and I just got my canine teeth removed and it kinda sucks!

Hi! I'm Niila's milk canine tooth and it kinda sucks to be away from her gum!

Strangely, we didn't get any information from the vet how we should continue with her teeth. Should we just wait and see or should we start the pushing therapy again. We might have to visit her again for the upper milk canine teeth though, so we can ask her then. I'm just worried that the new teeth might be wrongly positioned too, even though I can't tell it for sure yet.

Autumn leaves and my little Autumn ladies

There have been some signs that the winter is just around the corner. Days have became colder and it has also snowed a little. It still looks like autumn outside, though. There are even some leaves on the trees. Papu is prepared for the winter. She has her coat and her little tube hat. Niila, on the other hand, is not prepared at all. She doesn't even know what winter is. And she doesn't have a winter coat yet. I've been looking for a human coat that I could turn into doggie coat, but I haven't found anything suitable. The time is seriously running out, so I hope I find something before it gets seriously cold.

The girls have been enjoying the autumn too. Last weekend we visited my parents because of my dad's birthday party. We let them run loose in the backyard and they seemed really happy. Viiala is like a paradise for our pups. There's plenty of room to run, indoors and outdoors, and there's lots of play mates too. My mother's dachshund is now also Niila's good friend and she also made friends with my sisters' Labrador retriever, Dachshund and Golden retriever. The Golder retriever is a new acquaintance for Papu too. My sister's family just got her and she was actually younger than Niila.

They also tried out their new sweaters against the chilly autumn weather. The blue sweater that Papu is wearing is knitted by me, and J.R. has knitted the greenish sweater Niila is swearing. 

The ladies don't always manage to look so smart.

Papu is actually shivering from cold in this picture.

Niila is one serious super model.

Sniffing, sniffing.

There is also one new video of Niila on Youtube. They were playing just the other day with a stuffed mouse. Niila got it and she didn't want to give it back to Papu. It seems that our little one knows how to benefit from her smaller size...

Tooth update

Yesterday we took Niila to the vet again. We wanted to make sure that there's nothing too dramatic going on in her mouth now that her teeth have grown more and we also happened to get an appointment to some kind of a dog teeth specialist.

The vet was really positive and said that in most of the cases like Niila's there is a high possibility that the permanent teeth will become completely normal after all. He also said that there's no sign of inflammation in the hole in Niila's palate and that we shouldn't be worried about that unless the hole becomes red, swollen and really sore.

The vet also gave us a tip that we should give a ridiculously large raw bones to Niila. According to the vet it will help the teeth stretch toward the right position and that it works better than just pushing the teeth with fingers. We are little suspicious, but naturally we are willing to do anything to help her achieve the perfect smile.

We took a new picture of the hole in Niila's palate. The picture is not as sharp as the previous one, but it still shows some difference. We believe that the hole is slightly wider nowadays, which would indicate that the left canine teeth is moving. The hole is not helping the process, though. Niila places the canine tooth to the hole because that's where it probably feels most comfortable. When we move her jaw where it "should be", the left canine tooth is actually quite close to the right position. So I would say that the pushing therapy works, it just works really slowly and you have to have lots of patience.

Anything else is fine in our dog kingdom, by the way. Papu is her usually cute self and Niila is the nuisance she is supposed to be during the puppyhood phase.