Sweet Phoebs

Phoebe is our sweet but bossy female Yorkie. She rules the roost around here and tells us what to do and when to do it.  If we don't do as she wants, she will not so gently and very loudly remind you until you see things her way.  ;)

Over the years, we have battled with weight issues, skin issues, and allergy issues.  She had an issue with her adrenal glands that not only made her hungry *all the time* (which made her overweight too) but her skin was itchy and she would have terrible skin rashes that I had the worst time trying to  keep under control.

 Even with bathing her a couple times a week, her skin would sometimes get so bad it almost looked like someone was putting cigarette butts out on her.  It was heartbreaking and frustrating that I couldn't keep her feeling good.  Occasionally we would resort to steroids and antibiotics but I didn't want to keep doing that either - first it's not good for her and second, it's expensive.  Finally we tried a drug that would suppress her adrenals and hopefully help with her skin and her appetite.  It worked for a while and then suddenly it sent her into an adrenal crisis.

I went into panic mode when I could see that she really wasn't feeling well. She spent the night at the doggie hospital and was able to come home once she stabilized.  Adrenal crisis is just that - a crisis.  She could have suffered a heart attack, respiratory arrest - a number of things had we not caught it in time. But we did and our vet assured us that now, she would be easier to "maintain".
 So, every 25 days for the rest of her life, she will get an injection to keep her "up".  Her skin is 98% better and her appetite is no where near as ravenous.
Things were cruising along nicely for about 3 weeks when the other night when we were getting ready to go to sleep, her eyes looked "funny" to me.  All I could think of was the look drug addicts get when they are way past high and ready to pass out.  Her eyes were half closed and half rolling back into her head.  I rationalized that maybe she was just overtired and trying to go to sleep and I was bugging her.  But then, about 10 minutes later, she got sick.

Again, panic set in.  I jumped out of bed and rushed her to the emergency vet.  
Once we got there she was alert and acting fine (of course!) but would still do that crazy thing with her eyes.

Turns out, she has a corneal abrasion which can be quite painful.  We got medicated eye drops and she is now on the mend and quickly getting back into her supervisory mode.  Thank goodness!