Our dogs, our babies...

So - this is our sweet Phoebe.  This year has been a challenging one as far as her health goes.  She's a little over 8 years old and for quite a while we have battled with her weight, her allergies, and skin issues. 

Her adrenals were out of whack which caused her to feel like she was hungry all the time, which caused her to overeat,  which in turn caused her to be way overweight.  Also, problems with her adrenals also caused problems with her skin.  If I didn't bathe her almost every other day, she would get terrible sores all over her.  I'd put her on antibiotics and steroids, but that was only a temporary band-aid.  We tried Melatonin implants but those didn't really work.  Our vet recommended a medication that we tried for a while, and it worked for a time, but all of a sudden threw her into adrenal crisis.  We caught that just in time and now she goes for an injection every 25 days to keep her "up"where her adrenals have failed.  

Shortly after that crisis, we ended up in the Doggie ER one night because she wasn't acting right and doing a funny thing with her eyes.  I worried that her injections were having a bad reaction on her and I was still frightened from the crisis we had just gone through. Turned out that she had a corneal abrasion (no crisis - thank goodness!)  which we treated for several weeks with antibiotic eye drops and her eye seemed to get better. 

                                      

A couple weeks after that we were back at the Vet once again for seasonal allergies and a skin infection.  Her skin was so itchy that none of us could stand the scratching, but at least she didn't have the big sores all over like she used to get she used to get. Two rounds of antibiotics later and things were once again looking up. 

This week, I noticed something wasn't right with her once again.  Her left eye looked funny to me and she was only blinking with her right eye,  and when she would walk her gait was just off.  We went to see our Vet and sure enough something is wrong with her eye.  Her left pupil is dilated and she isn't blinking on the left.  Poor baby girl.

Since the Doggie Opthamologist only comes to town once every two weeks, we are off to see him on Monday to see what is going on with her eye.  

She seems to feel okay - she's bossing me around as usual, and her gait seems to be back to normal.  I'm putting artificial tears in that eye but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her tear duct and her eye is staying moist, even without the drops. 

If you are so inclined, would you please say a prayer for our girl?    

And while you are at it, could you also say a prayer for our other baby who needs it too?  This is Niles. 

 He's our 12 year old little guy who almost got killed last year at Doggie Camp.  His arthritis is getting pretty bad.  I'm trying to keep him medicated but the medication is not holding him quite as long as it used to. He's limping around a little more and it may be time to up his pain medication.  Unfortunately, the medication is not good long term on his liver.  Ugh.

Why can't they stay young and healthy forever???

The other two babies seem to be just fine. 

Nestle is still nervous, but that's just "'cwazy ol' Nettie!"

Then of course, last but definitely not least - sweet, sweet Teddy Bear - he really is just a baby!  Not a mean bone in this baby's body.  I just want to squeeze him until I get a pop!

Wow - if you've made it all the way to the end of this post - I appreciate you taking the time to read about my babies.  Since we don't have human children, these are our kids. When they are out of sorts, so are we.  We can't stand it when they don't feel well.  ;(