Pugsville – Lord Byron and Lady Isabella

Today we had a miracle happen at Pugsville. Byron wanted to play.

It probably doesn’t seem like a big deal to most but Byron hasn’t wanted to play, with or without a toy, since he went blind. We thought that we would never see Byron be that sporty pug again. He seemed depressed and mopey. But today a door was opened.
He went into his toy bin and started looking for a toy. He found his ball that he use to play with when he was a sighted dog. He immediately wanted to play tug with it. This sort of thing has not happened in months.

Continue reading “What Do We Have Here?” →

Always in search of products to help Byron get around, adapt, navigate, adjust and be safe, we’ve tried a few products that seem to be better than others.

Our first product that we bought is a Muffin’s Halo, which has very nice story behind its design and testing. The product has been featured in a lot of sites which gave it a lot credibility. They have won the SuperZoo award for best dog product for 2015. Continue reading “Byron’s First Product Review: Muffin’s Halo” →

This week we looked to the east. Byron had his second treatment of acupuncture. He was an impeccable patient and handled it with the poise and elegance of the regal pug that he is.
A few weeks ago we came to the conclusion to give acupuncture a try. Byron had one of his last defining tests to see if there is a physical reason for his blindness (and maybe a cure). An ERG test (Electroretinogram) was performed. We hesitated about doing this test for a time. We didn’t want to put any more undo stress on him. But thankfully we had a very understanding ophthalmologist who understood our concerns and fears and worked with us to make us comfortable about having the procedure done. We worked it out so Byron would not have to be there all day, being in a cage and not knowing where he is. We would bring him in, have the test done and then bring him home again. Here is a link to the what the test is, as I am not going to to get into the technical aspects of it.  ERG article and information

Continue reading “Looking East: Acupuncture For Lord Byron!” →

Our home will by no means ever win the ‘House Beautiful’ award.
But it is getting to be highly functional. We bumpered all the hard edges of the chairs and sharp corners with foam pipe insulation. It was inexpensive and it works great. That in combination with the Tracerz scent markers and things are moving smoothly. It is a small apartment so we don’t know if the size is a hindrance or a benefit to Byron when losing his site is still so recent. Everyone is adjusting to the new situation and with love and patience (and maybe a little luck) anything is possible.

Lady Isabella finally had her long awaited spa day today. Her wounds are healing nicely and the hair that was shaved for the surgery is ever so slowly starting to grow back.

The Pugsville Royal Staff was on hand for the occasion with a supply of warm towels, scented oils, and Isabella’s favorite shampoo and creme rinse.

A wonderful warm cleansing bath was first. That was followed by a relaxing massage. Then it was on to the “paw”icure.

While loungeing afterward in her robe, cooling cucumber slices were prepared to rejuvenate tired eyes but before that was posssible somehow they were eaten.

Well guess where we were again today. That’s right, the vets office. Fear not though, it was just for MORE testing.

Here’s the run-down on what Lord Byron went through today:

• Ultra Sound: They were looking to see if any organs were enlarged, tumors, or anything else that wasn’t suppose to be there. Also because they wanted to rule out Cushings, they did look at the adrenal glands for tumors and found nothing.
• ACTH Stimulation Test: The test may identify adrenal exhaustion (also known as atypical Cushing’s disease), the test is also known as cosyntropin, tetracosactide, or Synacthen test (I don’t know how they get ACTH from that). The test came back with a normal level for Byron.
• Urine Cortisol Test: This came back negative which is another indication that rules out Cushings. We brought in a sample from home as the catheter at the vets office is stressful and can cause a positive result (who wouldn’t be stressed).
• Blood: They looked at his blood levels again, concerned about the anemia, and was at levels not to be worried about, check that off too.

Continue reading “We Were Back Again At The Docs Office” →

Byron went to the vet again today for chest x rays to see about the pneumonia and how everything else looks. His chest is fine, just a slight trace of the pneumonia remains. He doesn’t have to use the nebulizer any more, even though he kinda liked that part. But he has another nine days of antibiotics to take. Thank goodness for ‘Pill Pockets’. They make giving pills so much easier.

The doctor took a urine cortisol/creatine level test, and we’re waiting on the results. Doctor “A” also took some blood for a few other tests, including those for thyroid and estrogen levels. The complete CBC blood panel came back already and he is little anemic, and his liver looks okay after all those steroids. Continue reading “Lord Bryon Update: More Tests” →

Isabella was really trying hard to be a good patient. She calmly waited for her name to be called. But she was just so happy because today was the day she gets her stitches out. She was so  pleased with how everything went that the famous Izzy yodel was heard throughout the office.

There was a great deal of fanfare this morning; Byron is coming home! He’s well enough to leave the hospital but still not 100% as he will have to be nebulized and coupaged every few hours, with lots of pills to take for the next two weeks. We went out and bought a nebulizer (not as easy as you’d think in Manhattan) and watched several videos of how to coupage small dogs.

Coupaging is giving him firm, but not too firm, alternating pats on each side of his chest with a cupped hand. This would help to break up the remnants of pneumonia still in his lungs. Continue reading “The Pack Is Whole Again!” →

Isabella is home form the hospital and on the road to recovery. We bought the inflatable collar for her which seemed to work better than the cloth collar she had while in the hospital. We also needed to cover her back feet with something so that if she scratching her stitches in her underarm, there wouldn’t be any accidents. We tried socks for dogs but that was a wasted of money, they kept falling off. We bought a pair of Ultra Paws Durable dog boots (Izzy takes a petit size, and Byron takes an x small) and those did the trick. We got little dog tee shirts that she had to wear to keep the sutures covered as we had to be putting ointment on them. I found one that said ‘recovering from surgery be gentle’ on Zazzle.com. Continue reading “Isabella Home and On The Mend” →

These are a few photos the doctor was kind enough to take of Isabella getting prepped for surgery. She looks like she is handling it with her normal grace and unflappable good nature.

We also can not begin to thank enough Dr. A (A as in Awesome) for her compitance and expertise in handling this situation. She also was very understanding and compassionate with us in our time of extreme stress. Most doctors are not like that. So we say thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for us and our Pugs. We are so glad that we found you. We would also like to thank all the wonderful staff at the hospital for their professional and understanding nature. It gave us much comfort to know the pugs were in good and knowledgeable hands.

The day before Isabella was to go in for her surgery, Byron started to cough a little. We looked at each other and thought “Now what.” Throughout the night it got worse with our little guy coughing every few hours. By morning, we knew we had another problem on our hands and called the vet. By this time I am confident that the vet had our number on speed dial as we had theirs.

We took Isabella in for her surgery that morning, and Byron was to follow a few hours later.

We showed the vet a video we took of Byron coughing, thinking that he might not cough while in the doctors office. And we wanted to make sure that she knew exactly what it sounded like. She listened to his chest and decided to take chest x rays, and more blood work. She immediately thought that it could be kennel cough. The Bordetella vaccine should be given in NYC every six months, because she said that NYC is near epidemic levels of the virus. Continue reading “Byron Has Pneumonia” →

Let me start off by saying that if these words will help maybe one dog get help or one person find comfort in the sheer fact that you are not alone, then this blog will have been worth it.

It all seemed to start a few months ago when we noticed that Byron just seemed sad. His tail was down, and with pugs, the tail is always their barometer for happy. There really isn’t a better word to describe how he was acting. We also started noticing at the same time a weight gain, but again it wasn’t anything that raised red flags. He always got the same measured amount of food so we just thought that he is getting older and maybe to cut back a little on the food. But that was it. Continue reading “Let’s Start At The Very Beginning With Lord Byron’s Blindness” →