Bruno goes to the vet

So Bruno had a visit to the vet bright and early this morning. We went to the vet with another PPRA volunteer who also had to get her new foster pug (a very cute, svelte 3-4 year old black boy pug) vetted due to the large ulcer on his eye. The newly surrendered pug was adorable! He was really playful/happy, but he had a big cone on his head to protect his eye, and he kept banging it into everyone. Bruno is not very keen on other dogs... he isn't aggressive towards them, he just seems to not care about them one way or the other.

So we packed the dogs into the back seat car and were off to the vet. Bruno was sitting calmly for a while, but then started to get a bit anxious (and a bit irritated at the hyper cone-head he was sitting next to) so he came up and sat on my lap. He did really well in the car from that point on... calmly looking out the window, or at me, and trying to crawl over the glovebox into the lap of the driver when we hit a red light. :-p

The visit to the vet was pretty anti-climactic. The vet assistants weighed him. He still weighs 23 pounds damnit! The vet told me that I should start mixing his food with Trader Joe's High Fiber O's instead of giving him a full serving of kibble. So, from now on I will give him 1/8 cup kibble and 1/8 cup Fiber O's twice a day. I was told that it takes 2-3 months for a dog to lose even 3 pounds so I might not be able to see the fruits of my labor before he's gone, but I want to try and get him started on the right path. I also think I'm going to have to find more nutritious treats for him. I'm going to try the carrots tomorrow. He wasn't that interested in them last week, but I'll try steaming them a bit and dunking them in low fat/sodium chicken broth to see if that helps.

The other main issue that I wanted the vet to look at were his eyes. Since the very first night he's been with me I've had a feeling he had vision issues. He looks up "at" you when you speak to him, but never directly in your eyes and when he gets tired he has a tendency to bump into things, and run into curbs and miss steps. The vet looked at his eyes and concluded that he has exposure keratitis and he was 90% blind. Apparently breeds of dogs with the big protruding eyes are prone to this problem. Because of the protrusion of the eyeball, often times they are not able to close their eyes completely which causes the eye to get very dry and eventually the corneas will get irritate which oftentimes leads to scaring of the cornea and changes in the pigment of the eye.... all this leads to decreased vision. So apparently that's the cause of Bruno's vision issues... The vet gave me 2 ointments to put in his eye. One is an immunosuppresant and the other is just to lubricate his eyes. He will have to have them put in his eyes (the immunosuppresant 1x/day and the lubricant 2x/day) for the rest of his life. I've been putting antibiotics in his eye every day until this point and he's really good about letting me do it.

So Bruno was given a, pretty much, clean bill of health! YAY BRUNO!

The other PPRA pug's eye prognosis wasn't quite as good. He had a huge ulcer on one of his eyes. The young woman surrendering the dog was told that the ulcer was probably due to a infected scratch that he got at some time. Pugs stick their noses in everything and since their eyes protrude so much it is easy for them to get scratched/injured. Turns out one side of the pup's face was actually partially paralyzed and most likely the ulcer formed as a result of the paralysis and not an injury. Because that part of his face had no feeling he no longer had any need for the cone. He was much happier when he left the vet without the cone, but unfortunately he will have to be back soon to have the eye removed, and be neutered. He was a really sweet dog. I might be interested in taking him once I have an idea about his personality post snipping.

So that was our day at the vet. I have a feeling Bruno is going to be ready to go pretty soon. It makes me sad b/c I know he's growing attached to me (and vice versa). :-( ... but I guess I'll cross that bridge when it comes...

Over all it was a great day for both of us and Bruno is back to doing what Bruno does best...