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.

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.