July 31st, 2010
#dog #dogs #pets – Yesterday, I took both of my dogs out to the woods for a nice walk which we do on the trails there several times per week. In the middle of the walk, my boy Chester suddenly stopped and sort of licked the inside of one of his hind legs but only for a moment. I didn’t think anything of it but I should have checked right away.
He did the same thing at home one or two times as well as this morning. He spent a bit longer doing that this morning so I decided to check to see what’s going on. Sure enough, he had one of those spurs from the woods stuck on the inside of his leg right underneath his belly which is why I didn’t notice. It was pretty hidden.
So I trimmed it off with scissors to make him comfortable again. This has taught me to check both dogs for those nasty spurs after walks in the woods. Normally, if Roxie gets a spur, she will stop walking right away and just look at me. This is good since it alerts me to the spur.
I would usually try to remove it right on the spot if I can. Chester on the other hand, doesn’t quite do this as his sister does so this is why I missed the spur. In fact, I even missed the spur during their evening brushing since I don’t normally do their undersides.
But perhaps I should check their undersides from now on especially again, after a romp in the woods where sometimes spurs are a common nuisance. It’s probably a good idea to give a quick total body check anyway to not only check for spurs but also anything else like tangles and mats that should be removed as soon as possible before they get worse.
Tags: dog, dogs, spurs
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July 30th, 2010
#dog #dogs #doghealth — Well, we are still using the eye ointment on my dog Chester and certainly enjoying the fact that he has no cherry eye now. It’s so nice to see his beautiful eyes in their real glory again!
He will still be on the ointment each day but for only one single dose at night for another week before we have a follow up appointment at the vet.
In case if some of you are still unclear about what cherry eye looks like again, here are some photos of other dogs with cherry eye. It’s not a pleasant looking condition but is not painful for them fortunately. However, they do have to have this condition corrected or else their eyes will get dry.
photo credit: spacemanor
photo credit: Chris-Gonzales90
You will notice that on one of the eyes in each of the dogs above, there is a red protrusion on the inside corner of the eye. This is the gland that is responsible for about 1/3 of the eye’s tear production. If this gland dries out after prolonged exposure like this, the dog will lose this 1/3 of tear production and the eye will get dry. This will require eye drops permanently.
In most cases of cherry eye, surgery is required to correct it. The vets will stitch this gland back underneath the eyelid. In our case, the eye ointment worked to regress the cherry eye on Chester so surgery was averted.
Tags: cherry eye, dog, dogs
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July 28th, 2010
#dogs #dog #dogtraining #puppytraining #puppy #puppies
Yesterday was a great example of the benefits of having dogs litterboxed trained rather than traditionally trained to go only outdoors for elimination. I left my house at mid-afternoon to beat the rush hour traffic (was not entirely successful as traffic was still quite heavy) to get to the opposite side of town to do a motivational talk at a Rotary club.
After my talk, I went to have dinner at a long time friend’s place which was near that part of town. Since we haven’t seen each other for so long, there was a lot of catching up to do and it was the first time I met his entire family. So needless to say, I didn’t end up getting home until about 10:30 pm.
My friend was wondering if my dogs were going to make a mess if kept indoors all this time. I told him that there was nothing to worry about since both of my dogs are completely litterbox trained. He had never heard of this before and was quite surprised.
When I got home, sure my dogs were a bit hungry but that’s okay. A late dinner is never too much of a problem for them. Best of all, they didn’t mess up my house since being litterboxed trained dogs, they simply use the box whenever they need to.
I just went into the dog room and cleaned up whatever was in the litterbox. Simple and no mess. That’s an example of the great benefits of training your dog to use a litterbox. No need to rush home just to let your dog out for elimination. No need to have your dog hold everything in for hours at a time.
I have a neat video which shows my two dogs using their litterbox. I am currently working on a project to teach new dog owners how to train their dogs this way.
Tags: dog, dog litterbox, dogs, litterbox, litterbox training, use litterbox
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July 27th, 2010
#dog #dogs #doghealth
My dog Chester is in the phase where his dosage of BNPH ointment is down to twice per day and in a day, it will be down to once per day. So far, his eye is looking great. It’s so nice to see him with his normal eyes again. So looks like with the success of the ointment treatment even after his last cherry eye episode where it stuck out for six days, surgery has been averted.
It will be interesting to see what my vet will have to say about possible cause since the ointment was so effective. Also, we’ll need to know what happens from this point on. I’m pretty sure that Chester will get cherry eye again for some reason. Now if the ointment is always effective, then it could be as easy as applying it as soon as there are signs of cherry eye.
I don’t know yet if my vet will recommend a preventative strategy for cherry eye or not. He might actually suggest that I have a constant supply of BNPH ointment at home but we’ll see in about two weeks when we go back for a follow up visit.
During this follow up visit, there’s a chance that both my dogs will get a booster of that new Lyme disease vaccine which I’m sure will result in some adverse reactions again, including another possible bout of cherry eye for Chester. But armed with the ointment this time, things might be short lived.
Have anybody else had much success in preventing cherry eye with BNPH ointment? I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments section.
Tags: bnph ointment, cherry eye, cherry eye ointment, dog, dog eye ointment
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July 24th, 2010
#doghealth #dog #dogs – So I put a call into my vet clinic yesterday to report the great news that the cherry eye on my dog Chester regressed after only one application of the BNPH ointment. They called me back and said that instead of four times per day, I should decrease it to three times per day (eight hours apart) for three days, then to two times per day for the next two days. After that, it’s once daily until Chester is brought back for reassessment in two weeks.
The BNPH ointment by the way is very easy to apply on dogs. It’s just a matter of holding the upper eyelid up while squirting a line of ointment across the eye. Then close the eyelids and gently massage the eye for a few seconds to distribute the ointment throughout the eye. I’m assuming that this was able to reach the cherry eye just fine.
The BNPH has three different antibiotics which the BNP stands for and the H is a hydrocortisone anti-inflammatory. I’m not sure which part, the antibiotics or the anti-inflammatory, was responsible for the quick regression of Chester’s cherry eye. I know that at day six, his cherry eye looked pretty big and maybe even too big to go back under the eyelid. So I think the anti-inflammatory did shrink it enough to regress it back under.
BNPH ointment is made by a vet pharmaceutical company called Vetoquinol. The vet clinic charged about $28 for a 3.5 gram tube which I’m sure included a dispensing fee. I checked with my usual online pet pharmacy to see if they carried this product and they do at just under $19.97 for the same tube.
If Chester had to be on this ointment long term, I could easily get BNPH through my online pet pharmacy. I would order a few tubes either make the shipping charge worthwhile or beat it altogether.
Tags: bnp, bnph, bnph ointment, cherry eye
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July 23rd, 2010
#dogs #dog #doghealth — Talk about weird. My body Chester developed his latest episode of cherry eye on Saturday and we think this latest one had something to do with the new Lyme disease vaccine he and his sister got on Friday. Normally, Chester would get an episode of Cherry eye maybe once every other month and it would regress after about 24-48 hours by itself. He had a previous episode only about three weeks ago prior to his vet checkup last week so when this current one popped up, it surprised me since it was so sudden. Again, we attributed it to the vaccine.
However, this time around, his cherry eye did not regress. In fact, if got worse and bigger. Also different this time was about two days ago, he started to get this white discharge from his eye. So I got my vet clinic to squeeze me into an appointment since it was already day six.
The vet checked Chester’s eye out and decided to try this ointment called BNP which is a combination of three different antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory agent for eyes. He applied one dosage right there at the clinic to show me how. We were to try this ointment for four times per day for a week and if Chester’s cherry eye regresses, I can bring it down to once or twice per day for the second week until I bring him in again for a follow up visit. We would then re-evaluate whether surgery would then be the next step.
Well, after we got home, Chester’s cherry eye regressed all on its own! This was after just one dosage of BNP and after six days of non-regression too. Very weird but of course, a much welcomed sight!
So I’ll keep on with the BNP ointment and adjust dosage if directed. I’ll put a call into the vet clinic with the happy results to see how the dosage will be modified now. So looks like surgery for cherry eye has been avoided for now.
Tags: bnp ointment, cherry eye, dog, dogs
Posted in Dog Health | 1 Comment »
July 21st, 2010
Cherry eye still not regressed on my dog Chester yet today and it’s day five now, the longest he’s gone through without it regressing. Made an appointment to see the vet on Friday about it.
Does anybody here have any experience with a dog who has had a case of cherry eye? Please share the experience at the comments section.
Tags: cherry eye, dog
Posted in Dog Health | No Comments »
July 20th, 2010
#doghealth #dog #dogs – Okay, it’s been about three days and the cherry eye on my boy Chester still has not regressed yet. Previous episodes of his cherry eye resulted in total regression in about 24-48 hours so this is the longest he’s been through with the condition so far.
I am a bit concerned because according to my vet and other online research I’ve done, surgery is the only treatment option. Of course I would really like to avoid surgery if at all possible because of the necessity of putting my dog through general anesthetic as well as the costs associated with surgery.
I also understand that in some cases, a second surgery is sometimes required for full correction of cherry eye.
So, I’ll see what happens in the next while. I have a feeling that the current cherry eye episode was influenced by the new lyme disease vaccine on Friday. Both Chester and his sister Roxie ended up having some side effects from this vaccine. They were both feeling pretty well down and out for almost two days.
They have to go back to get a booster shot in three weeks so we may end up having another two days of these side effects unfortunately. There will certainly be some options to discuss with my vet soon.
Tags: cherry eye, dog, dogs, lyme vaccine, vaccine
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July 17th, 2010
#dog #dogs #doghealth – For the first time in their five years, my two dogs Chester and Roxie experienced some adverse effects from their vaccines yesterday. They never did before.
During their annual checkup yesterday, my vet (who I trust completely since he also looked after my first two lhasa apsos for most of their lives) explained that they had switched over to a newer vaccine against Lyme disease. Since my two dogs do go into the woods and grassy areas, they would therefore be top candidates for such vaccinations.
In addition to the usual such as rabies and bordetella (since they do visit dog parks and will be boarded from time to time), they got their shots for this year. Interestingly enough, they never complain when they get their shots.
After a few hours back home, I noticed that my boy Chester started to have some discomfort along his back where the injection sites were. He certainly did not want to be running around and even going up and down the stairs was a slower process.
Later in the evening near bedtime, his sister had similar adverse effects as well. Both really slowed down and walks were cancelled for the day. What was a bit disturbing to me was that they both at times wimpered which meant to me that there was definitely discomfort. It was not a serious type of wimpering, just mild. But as dog owners know, any type of wimpering from your beloved dogs is not a good sound.
I hoped that after a night’s sleep, both will feel much better. When morning came, they seemed to have improved significantly but not quite 100% yet. At least the wimpering was gone but I could still see in Chester’s case, he was still licking parts of his back area.
I have to bring them back to the vet clinic in three weeks for a booster for this new Lyme disease vaccine. Has anybody else experienced similar adverse effects from this or other vaccines with their dogs?
Tags: adverse effects, dog, dogs, lyme disease, vaccines
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July 16th, 2010
#dog #dogs #doghealth – In a previous blog post, I talked about how my boy Chester has cherry eye which is suppose to be common in some breeds. That blog post has a photo of my dog at the time of his cherry eye. It did regress in 24 hours much like the other times he had it.
Today, both my dogs went in for their annual check up at the vet clinic. The vet examined my boy’s eye and said that it appeared okay. He doesn’t know what might have brought the cherry eye on. He said it could be an allergic reaction or an overdeveloped gland in there.
He said that is was strange because most dogs who get it are younger. My boy didn’t really start getting his cherry eye episodes until just the past several months or year. My vet also said that most dogs who get cherry eye do not get the regression that my boy experiences. So it’s just a wait, monitor and see situation for now.
The cherry eye on my dog is always on the same eye and always regresses on it’s own in 24 hours, usually overnight.
I saw a YouTube video where there was this one guy who showed how he massaged his bulldog’s eye during a cherry eye situation and it popped back under the eyelid. I tried that with Chester and I don’t think it worked. But again, his cherry eye regresses on its own.
My vet asked if there was any increased eye discharges, scratching or itching during Chester’s cherry eye episodes and I said no. So the whole thing is still very much a mystery.
If you have had episodes of cherry eye with your dog, I would love to hear about it and what happened. Please use the comments section below as I’m sure the dog community here would be interested.
Tags: cherry eye, dog, dogs, vet
Posted in Dog Health | No Comments »
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