Prunella

[annee]

Hello all,

It's been such a long time since I've been on here but I do keep any eye on what's been happening but I've just been so very busy and the days just fly.

As most of you know about Prunella I thought I would just give an update of our lives at the moment.

She is 13 this year and still as puppy like and as bright as a button, 3 months ago I had a call from my ex-partner who asked me if I would take Prunella's daughter on as he could no longer give her the attention that she needed, Ocean Is nearly 8 years of age and very different to prunella, it took a while for her to settle in however you would think that she has always had her paws under the table and now I couldn't imagine life without either of them.

Last Saturday I was throwing a rope toy with knotted ends in for Ocean when I accidentally hit prunella in her left eye with the knotted end and she subsequently ran head first into the corner edge off a shelf in my kitchen, I immediately took her to the emergency vets who checked her out but couldn't diagnose any damage other than that she was very sore and gave her a very strong pain injection, the following day she still couldn't open her eye so I returned her back to the emergency vets who said that he was very unhappy with the look of her eye, gave her another injection and some drops and we agreed that I would take it to her own vets on Tuesday after the bank holiday.

On Tuesday i saw her vet who gave her more pain relief and couldn't really see the damage that had been done because of the swelling so yesterday he saw her again and said that her lens had become detached and have dropped towards the back of her eye so more pain relief given and said he would see her again this Friday.

Today I was unhappy with the way she looked as she wasnt opening her eye, so I have just returned from seeing her vet again who looked atvher eye and noticed that the lens has now moved to the front of her eye and the pressure has increased from 13 to 45 so the risk of getting a glaucoma is rather high.

She will return tomorrow morning to see if the drops that she has been given has eased the pressure on her eye,  if not the option will be taken to remove her eye tomorrow.

I believe she is too old to have the lens removed and replaced and can only take the vets advice, I will not just keep having her on drops that may or may not relieve the pressure, if I can stop her pain by having her eye removed so be it.

The other problem with certain eye drops is that she is still on a very low dose of pred and this makes things more difficult.

She has been through so much in her life and this is just another chapter in the life of my beautiful Prunella.

I hope you all have healthy dogs at the moment, if not, hang on in there

Annee xx

[gschellinger]

Hi Annee,
Good to hear from you and Prunella. Sorry to read of her problems. Accidents like that can happen very fast. I once did the same thing with a Boston I had, throwing a sandy tennis ball. Her eye recovered, but it looked bad for a while. It sounds like removing the eye, if need be, will be a fix. Hopefully she will recover quickly and be back to her youthful self again.

Wishing for the best,
gail

[annee]

Thank you Gail,

I have just left her at the vets as they are removing her eye today, the drops to ease the pressure had not done their job and she's in pain.

I feel this is the best option for her.

On a positive note...I'll now have a dog that can wink, something I've never been able to do

[Jo CIMDA]

It's lovely to 'hear' from you again Annee but I'm sorry it is not better news for Prunella.  Animals do seem to cope well with only one eye and knowing Pru, it won't hold her back. Ocean will have to help her. How nice for you to have mum and daughter together. 

Fingers crossed.
Jo

[annee]

Thank you Jo,

She is such a wonderful dog and she has such a fabulous vet, he will do all the appropriate blood checks etc before he carries out the op.

I will let you know when she's home x

[annee]

Prunella came home about half an our ago, she is a little disorientated but has a waggy tail and has eaten her dinner...very swollen eye (well, what was her eye) but is a happy girl.

[gschellinger]

Isn't that the great thing about animals; that they can go through losing an eye, realize that yes, they can see just fine, and carry on. No mourning, no feeling sad, just carry on. I bet she feels better very soon. It is probably harder on you though.
gail

[Jo CIMDA]

Yes Gail, I'm full of admiration for our animals.  They are so stoical.  I'm so please Pru has come through the op' well.  Knowing her like I do, she will bounce back Annee.

jo 

[annee]

Thank you Jo...Thank you Gail,

She had a restful night and today you wouldn't think anything had happened to her, she hated the cone that she came out the vets with so I found a shop that sold foam ones so she's happier with that.

It is truly amazing how they cope, if it were a human having had their eye removed we would be acting "normal" for quite some time, probably laying in bed for a few days etc.

I took her and Ocean for a walk around the park earlier, Pru on the lead which she wasn't happy about but think she was just glad to be out in the fresh air.

She has to go back for a check up on Monday, the eye socket is very swollen, almost like a golf ball but this is very common, she has no oozing and it's a very neat wound.

All in all I'm very pleased that the decision was made quickly to remove her eye, I'm pleased that I won't be asking myself everyday "is she in pain"

Thank you all for your wishes, will keep you all updated.

Annee, Prunella and Ocean xx

[shawkyelisabeth]

Annee, all good wishes for Prunella's quick recovery. my nephew had a dog that had one eye removed at old age and he did very well . With Oceans help she will be doing great and enjoy her life. itis amazing to see how different generations  of dogs get along with each other, help and respect each other..I have an amazing pack of four (aged 14, 12, 8 and 7 months) and although the 7 months old GSD outsizes the Beagles she has immense respect of them and they teach her good manners..
All of us keep fingers and paws crossed for Prunella here in Egypt
Elisabeth

[Janspack]

Thank you Gail,

I have just left her at the vets as they are removing her eye today, the drops to ease the pressure had not done their job and she's in pain.

I feel this is the best option for her.

On a positive note...I'll now have a dog that can wink, something I've never been able to do

Hi Annee,

Long time no speak - I haven't been on the forum much over the past year either.  I still feel so grateful to you for coming to see me in hospital last year and also feeding the cats for me the day you were dashing off on holiday!  I won't forget that kindness and feel guilty that I didn't keep in touch better.  I'm doing very well now and pretty much back to my old self apart from having to use the wheelchair all the time now.

So sorry that Prunella has had to have her eye removed but I'm sure she will cope well.  Muddle's mother, Kya had an eye removed several years ago due to a tumour and she adapted very well and I lost her eventually to kidney failure - nothing to do with the cancer at all.

I do hope she has made a good recovery and is back to her old self.  If you are ever up this way, would love to see you again.  Keep in touch

[annee]

Hello Jan,

Lovely to hear from you too, I'm glad all seems well with you

A quick update on Prunella..

...she is coping remarkedly well with only one eye bumping into things once in a while but nothing too problematic, she had her stitches out last week and she's healed brilliantly.

We do have one other problem which is causing some concern.

4 days after having her eye removed she started sneezing a lot..maybe ten times in one go, also the left side of her nose appeared to be blocked with dried blood which she would sneeze out, the vet didn't think it was related to her eye even though it is the same side.

I would pick the dry from her nose but within another day it would become blocked again, so last Wednesday she was back to the vet who said that he didn't think it was an infection has she had been on antibiotics for her eye, We discussed having a tube put up her nose with a camera so he could look around internally and also x-ray her nose, so thats what we did last Thursday, he flushed her nose internally and noticed that there was a lots of mucus and blood, he  thought that there was something going on but didnt know what, he couldn't actually find anything like a grass seed etc.

So she is now on a weeks course of another antibiotic to see if that works but four days on she has started to sneeze again and her nose is blocked once again.

She is certainly not sneezing as bad as she was but it seems to be getting worse once again, She is more than happy in herself but I obviously want to find out one way or another what is going on, the healthy side of her nose is very moist but the one side is dry and crusty.

She doesn't seem to be having difficulty breathing, she has had blood tests and all is well in that dept.

Her vet took a sample from her nose which we will hopefully get the results from later this week, failing that is the next option would be for her to have a Ct scan to find out what's going on.

I feel that at her age, nearly 13 I have to do take all options that are open to me, she has been through so much in her life time that if I didn't do anything to try and rectify that problem and I lost her then I would never forgive myself if it was something that I could have helped prevent.

I would very much welcome anybody's  experience or views on what may be going on with Prunella.

Love Annee xx

[Janspack]

Hi Annee,

Oh dear that is such a worry for you specially when she was doing so well with her eye.

I really hope that the antibiotics do the trick, but like you, I would want to take any action available to find out what is going on if they don't work.  It does seem a bit of a coincidence that it is the same side as the eye she lost doesn't it.  After all, the tear ducts go from the eyes into the nose don't they.

I'm waiting for histology results for my collie JJ too.  She had a lump removed from between her shoulder blades last week.  It's a worrying time isn't it?  I do hope the results for both our dogs turn out to be nothing to worry about.

On another note, I'm about to have a lot of work done to the house with the help of a full Disabilty Facilities Grant - new bathroom, ramps, widened doors and a stairlift.  It will be so good to get upstairs again and sleep in a bed again for the first time in over a year!  Would love to see you sometime - perhaps we could meet up for a pub lunch or something when you aren't too busy.

[gschellinger]

Sorry to hear about Pru's nasal problem. When you think about the eye surgery, it sure does seem like the two could be related. At least to people who are not vets! Does her nose actually bleed, or is it just a sort of seeping of blood which then dries? I wonder if her nose problem actually started before the eye problem and could have caused the eye problem?

You may remember my Lola had terrible sneezing and nasal congestion, for 18 months. It was dreadful. I had her to two vets, but because of her ataxia we could not scope her or do biopsy. I was advised against it and totally agreed. We did cultures twice, anti-biotic as well as anti-fungal. Nothing helped her. I tried some natural remedies and inhalers type treatments. Once in a while she would spontaneously seem to get better, but within days would relapse into the same condition. Some days it seemed like all I did was clean up nasal mucus from walls and floors and furniture, my clothes even our other dog, when she was in the line of fire. So bad that it would wrap itself around Lola's head sometimes.

I did quite a lot of digging on the internet and I believe she had a fungal infection, ongoing. The cure for it is worse than the condition, and with us not being able to sedate her, it wasn't an option to treat. The drugs are not very effective. It takes more drastic measures which we could not even consider. 

There is also the possibility of a nasal tumor, sorry But if the congestion and bleeding is on one side the possibility of that is more likely. Lola had it on both sides. She only had blood a few times and never a nose bleed. If it were cancer, then your chances of saving her life would be slim. The treatment is invasive and dreadful. At her age really not an option.

Let's hope it is something less drastic and clears up with the anti's! The thing I came to realize, because we had to wait it out with Lola, was that it was what it was. If it was cancer, no treatment. She did not have cancer and we will never know for sure what it was either. Only guesses.

Keep us updated. Hoping for the best for Prunella and you
gail

[annee]

Hi,

Her nose doesn't run exactly with blood it just gets clogged up, I clean it then the next day it appears blocked again.

The vet did all X-rays needed and couldn't see anything on them, the nose problem came after her accident with the eye so the nose wasn't the cause.

There obviously is something going on but what exactly is the million dollar question.

An X-ray would show any tumour I'm sure and he didn't see anything and her bloods are fine.

I guess I'll just have to wait until Thursday to see if anything showed up on the swab that was taken.

I remember all the problems with Lola, I am thankful Pru's does t seem anyway near as bad as that...poor little Lola.

She sneezes a lot in the morning which I find a bit odd too.

Jan, I hope all goes well....you won't know yourself, I am so very busy but will certainly pop in if I have the time

Thank you all.

Annee xx