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.