CASPER IS RECOVERING WELL

Casper is in the Vet Hospital and is recovering from emergency surgery for a bowel obstruction. Two days ago he became ill. He started vomiting, wouldn't eat or drink and was whining with pain. In all the years I have had him he has never once refused to eat and he has never ever whined. I knew he was quite sick.

An ultrasound showed a foreign body lodged in his intestine. He had surgery to remove it and is now on the way to recovery. They removed several chunks of white plastic, a length of a black leash (or collar) and a clump of hair. He had gotten into some garbage 2 nights before so that explains the plastic however I am not missing a black leash or collar so that is a total mystery...

I visited him today and he is sore and looking quite sad. He is still not keeping food down and is a little dopey from the pain meds but he is getting better. He should be able to come home in a day or two once he can keep some food down and is weaned off the IV pain meds.

He will have to take it easy for 3-4 weeks as he has a long lengthwise insicion all the way from his chest on down. That will mean no agility, no doggie daycare, no off-leash park, no wrestling. Nothing but rest and relaxation.

I am so relieved and happy that he is well on the way to recovery. My dogs are my family and this really had me worried.

Casper wants all the doggies in Blogland to know that it is not worth it to get into the garbage. And he advises all doggies to only eat actual food and never ever eat any plastic or any other non-food stuff!

Rally- Oh Fun!, The V-E-T, Seeing Ditto and Pixie's Been Bad!

We went to Rally-O and oh what fun it was!

Here is Nikki.

Momma says Nikki needs lots of work especially on heeling.

Here I am with a headless Momma (LOL) doing a very nice heel.

And another.

Momma - you are not supposed to have a tight leash.

You better work on that!

Here is Buddy showing us all how to do it!

And a nice loose leash Momma!

Wow Buddy- that's awesome heeling!

How did you get your ears to do that?

Don't you usually have floppy ears?

Another thing that happened this week was that

we all went to the V-E-T for our

vax-in-a-shuns and stuff.

Nikki has been to the V-E-T an extra time too.

She has to be a conehead again because of another corneal eye ulcer.

This time it is on her right eye.

Nikki will be going to the Doggie

Opth-a-Molly-Just again too.

Once again we don't know if her name will be Molly or not.

Here is Nikki modeling her cone.

We also saw Ditto again this week.

We all love Ditto very much.

She is about to be adopted out soon from her current foster home,

and Momma wanted to be sure that we saw her before she is adopted.

We had a doggie playdate at the off-leash park with Ditto.
She was so happy to see us and Momma too.
Momma was just as thrilled to see her too.

Ditto leaped and ran and was so silly!
I (Casper) was very happy to see Ditto too.
When she was fostered at our house I hardly played with her at all.

In fact I usually ignored her.
But when I see her at the dog park I just love to play chase and wrestle with her!

We are all hoping that her new people will want to do play dates at the off-leash park too!

And then there is our current foster dog Pixie.

Pixie, Pixie, Pixie...
What is Momma going to do with you?

Didn't your previous people tell you that biting Momma is not allowed?

Momma says "Yes they did but Pixie decided not to listen.
She must have been sleeping."

This is how she sleeps.

Well that's it for now.

See ya,

Woofs from Casper

GOOD NEWS!! MY EYE IS GETTING BETTER!

Woofs doggies,

Look I am now free of my cone and free of that eye ointment too! My eye is not totally healed but it is getting better. And yes I did have to go see my favorite VET a few more times but I like them as they give me lots of treats.

Momma still tries to keep me from playing 'bitey face' and wrestling with the other dogs (although sometimes I can sneak in some wrestling when she isn't looking). Also I still can't go to agility because Momma is worried I might get some of the loose black floor surface into my eye.

Oh and guess what? Sunny might be getting adopted soon. :) More about that later.

Woofs from Nikki

Nikki Sees the Doggie Optha-Molly-Just

Hi doggies,

Yes, I'm still wearing this cone.... (sigh)




This week I went to see the Doggie Opth-a-Molly-Just. Only her name wasn't 'Molly', I think it was 'Lynn'. Tell me, does that make her a Doggie Opth-a Lynn-a-Just???
Ha ha ha, I haven't lost my sense of humour....

Boy, did I ever get poked and prodded. First I was seen by the student interns and they did all sorts of tests on me. They looked in my eyes with lights and all sorts of different instruments, they measured my tears, and the pressures in my eyes. Then they dial-ated my eyes with drops and looked in my eyes again.

By this time I was freaking out. Squirmming and jumping back. I wanted out of there. My left eye is sore you know and they were all surrounding me. It was scary!

So they took a break and Momma held me and I started to feel better. After that I was okay and stayed pretty still for the rest of the tests. Of course then the Doggie Opth-a-Molly-Just Resident came in and then they dyed my left eye florescent green to make the eye ulcer show up better. They said the ulcer was even bigger than originally thought. Finally the actual Doggie Opth-a-Molly-Just came in to see us and she looked at my eye too.

The confirmed diagnosis is an indolent corneal ulcer which we already knew. The Optha-Molly-Just did another Striate Keratotomy but this time they were able to do it just with just a local a-nest-he-tic. This Optha-Molly-Just said she has an 80% success rate, so we are hopeful. We have to wait 2 weeks to see if it will heal.

When my regular VET looked at my eye afterwards she said that the Striate Keratotomy that was done was much more extensive than what my VET was able to do. Even Momma could see the grid of scratches on my eyeball! And they couldn't believe that it was done without a general a-nest-he-tic. Yikes! I stayed very still while they used a needle to scratch a grid of lines into my eyeball!

I go every day to the VET so I can get my eye ointment 4 times a day. Momma is making me be very careful. She won't even let me play with the other dogs! I'm kinda sad about that.

Well that's it. I'll keep you updated.

Woofs, Nikki

Here We Go Again- Eye Surgery #2

Hi doggies,

It's Nikki here. My eye was only healing good for 2 days after the first surgery and then it started to get bad again. It was watering alot and I started closing it again because it was bothering me. So the VET lady and Momma decided I needed the surgery again. Here is a picture of me last night after the second surgery. I still don't want to open my left eye.

I am very tired from the general anesthetic so all I want to do is sleep. Our new foster puppy keeps on trying to play with me. Momma has to keep her away from me so I could rest and keep my eye safe away from paws and teethies.

This time instead of Momma putting ointment in my eye 2-3 times a day, I have to go and spend each day at the VET place so they can put ointment in my eye every hour or so. Momma will take me there when she goes to work and pick me up after work each day.

We are hoping with the added eye ointment my eye will heal this time. The VET place is nice. They are very nice and I have a kennel where I have a prime spot to watch all the goings on all day long. It is actually a lot more exciting than staying at home while Momma is at work. The VET people say I am very well behaved ;) Of course I am!

I am even getting used to this cone too. It's been 9 days that I've been wearing it- but who's counting? Ha ha ha

I'll keep you updated on how my eye is healing.

Woofs, Nikki

Nikki's Back From Eye Surgery

Hi doggies,

It's me Nikki. Yup, I'm back from my left eye surgery. Momma says it went well and they are just waiting to see if my eye will heal. We will know in about a week.

Remember I told you about the V-E-T going to sed-ate me? Well I found out that sed-ate was NOT yummy food! I decided right then not to co-oper-ate! Ha ha ha!

So they put me under a general a-nest-he-tic. Luckily when I woke up there was no nest- of -boy- tics anywhere near me. In fact there were no tics of any kind on me. Whew!! Close call!!

However there was this cone on my head! This is what I think of the cone:

One thing though the a-nest-he-tic sure did make me tired. So I've been doing lots of this:

See ya doggies,

Woofs , Nikki

Wordless Wednesday

Nikki Goes To The V-E-T For Eye Surgery Tomorrow

Hi it's Nikki blogging here.

Momma took me to the V-E-T on Jan 3/09 because suddenly I wouldn't open my left eye. I was walking around with it closed all the time.

Casper and Buddy thought I was just winking at them but Momma knew better. This happened once before and I had to have eye drops and eye ointment which I HATED! Good thing that time it was only for about 5 days and it healed.

So Momma has been putting eye ointment in my eye twice a day. I do my best to struggle and fight. I try to make sure that no ointment gets in my eye and instead it gets all over Momma (LOL). However Momma always makes sure to get it in.

The V-E-T told Momma it should heal in about 4 days. Well it's been 10 days and although it's better it's still not healed.

So back to the V-E-T we went again today.
The V-E-T says I need to get some of the ulcer scraped off so it will start to heal. Apparently it can be done under a local a-nest-he-tic for a cooperative dog. There ain't no way I'm gonna be cooperative! No No No! I'm gonna struggle and fight them all I can!

So the V-E-T is gonna sed-ate me and try to do the procedure. Sed-ate that sounds yummy doesn't it? If the sed-ate doesn't work then they are going to put me under a total a-nest-he-tic.

I'm kinda worrried about that! You see, I had 2 tics this summer. I don't know if they were he-tics or she-tics but I didn't like them so I don't want any a-nest-he-tics at all.

Momma just gave me supper and then no more food or treats tonight. Momma also says I'm gonna take a break from agility. She wants to make sure my eye ulcer is all healed up before running around in the dirt again.

So cross your paws for me that my surgery goes well tomorrow!

Woofs, Nikki

The Answer To Why Meeko Was A Conehead (As Told By Meeko Himself!..)

I Was Sent to the V-E-T place

And

They Un- Dewclaw -ed me!

But Most Shockingly ...

They Neuter-al-ized me!

However in the spirit of getting back at all of them

I waited till Momma was asleep.

Then I slipped my head out of that silly cone

and proceeded to pull out all of my stitchies.

Ha ha ha ha

Oh what a suprise

Foster Momma had

when she woke up!

Yes, there was blood all over.

So she had to clean me up and apply pressure.

Luckily she took pity on me

and decided that I only needed steri-strips

instead of more stitchies

- or dog forbid -

staples!

The bad news was that I had to endure the cone

for an additional 6 days!! :(

Thank dog that my time is done.

I am now parolled

from the cone.

Yay!!

Tell me all you beautiful girlie doggies-

Do I still look manly to you?

;)

Woofs from Meeko

Nikki's V-E-T Adventure

Hi everydoggie and GG,

It's Nikki blogging here,

Guess what? I had to go to the V-E-T two times in the last week! Not good! . I guess Momma noticed about 2 weeks ago that my right eye was tearing alot and I was rubbing it. I was closing it alot too. I would only look through my left eye and walk around with my right eye closed. I tried to tell her I was winking, but she wouldn't believe me.

So off we went to the V-E-T. Although I like them, it had only been a couple of months since I had been there. That was when they cleaned my teethies and stole 4 of them! So I was being really careful not to let them near my teethies, but they didn't even try to take more teethies. Instead they pinned me down, and MUZZLED me! :0 Oh My Dog !! Can you imagine??? And Momma told them to do that!!! Bad Mommma!!!!! Bad Bad Mommma !!!!

Well, Momma knows that if I get hurt or think I am getting hurt that I will protect myself with a nip or a bite. So I guess they thought it was for the best. Then they put a bunch of flourescent green dye in my eye, shut off the lights and brought in a special light to look for ulcers (scratches) on my eye. Well sure enough, one area lit up and it showed that I had an ulcer on my eye.

They think that maybe Buddy scratched me when we were wrestling or possibly I scratched it when I was running my face along the ground trying to get the EVIL HALTI off. I personally think it happened because of the EVIL HALTI and I don't think I should have to wear it anymore!!

Since then I've had to get drops and ointment put in my eye 3 times a day. Yuck! Momma has to bundle me all up and lie me on my side so I don't struggle and then she puts the drops in. I do my best to get away from the drops and ointment each time. ;)

And I had to wear a cone sometimes at home too. I kept running into the walls and so then I was afraid to move and just sat in one spot all the time and Momma kept calling me "Nikki The Conehead" and laughing at me.

I had to go back after 5 days and get the flourescent test done again. This time they only had to hold me down and didn't have to muzzle me as my eye wasn't as sore. And guess what? It's all better. I still have to get drops and ointment once a day, but I don't have to be a "conehead" anymore!

Woof Woof from Nikki

It's Family Friday!

So that means one of us other doggies gets to blog rather that Casper. This week it's me Nikki blogging (can't you tell by my pretty pink colors?)

So yesterday I went to the V-E-T. They are very nice there, but you know what they did? They took away 4 of my teethies! Momma says that my teethies needed cleaning real bad and 3 teethies were rotten. ROTTEN - nothing about me is ROTTEN! So teethies went bye -bye yesterday. When Momma picked me up from the V-E-T, she was laughing at me. She said I wasn't myself. ( I ask-who else would I be?) Okay so I was a still a little "under the influence" you might say. They give out good drugs there so doggies are not in any pain. Today I am back to myself- barking and growling and keeping everyone in line. I still won't let Momma look in my mouth and I have to take anti-bark-otics, but I get them with peanut butter! Yummy !! And the anti-bark-otics won't stop me from barking!!