Paw Prints now on WordPress September 7, 2006
Posted by josiethedog in administrata.trackback
Well, jennimi and I decided to move over to WordPress. Still ironing out the kinks, but so far so good. Only thing is previous posts didn’t import with the correct usernames, so it looks like I wrote everything. Wish I were that good… but with the sometimes confusion and all the time arthritis, I can’t do all of them.
I haven’t been up to much lately because I have developed seizures. Happens early in the morning and nobody is quite sure why yet. They probably don’t want to know anyway because what would they really do about them at my old age? Anyway they don’t bother me that much, and I haven’t had one in a week.
Back to administering and configuring.
Until next time, wuh-oof.
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Hi Josie,
I stumbled upon your page while looking for information about Glaucoma. You and my girl, Abbey, look a lot alike except she is a Black Lab. She even has the same right eye that looks like yours in the photo.
You two have a lot in common, and right now i’m just all torn up inside because i dont know what to do for my poor Abbygirl. She is 12, born on the 4th of July! We’ve had her since she was a pup. We are from Fredonia, not far from Buffalo…but live in Seattle right now. She’s had cataracts for a while now, but about 2 weeks ago her right eye started to look infected. After putting drops in since then, it looks swollen and red…I am just dying inside while I write this because i don’t know if this is ‘the end’ or not.
Do you have any advice for me Josie? I am just so sad, and i’m sad at what my kids are going to have to go through. They are 8 and 6.
Abbey is my baby, and I know about the whole circle of life stuff…but i just dont know what to do.
When do you know ‘its time?’
Best of luck to you,
~Sherrie
Dear Sherrie, first of all, welcome to our blog. We are sending good thoughts for your girl Abbey. It’s never easy to go through health problems especially with us doggies, whom you can’t always explain things to. That’s why jennimi and I do this blog… it’s catharsis and helps us cope with all these “later life” issues.
Not sure if we got this from your comment… it seems you ARE bringing Abbey to the vet’s for drops, but if not, she should go in. If the eye looks swollen and red and drops aren’t helping, please take her in to see a doctor.
I was 12 years old when I had my eye removed and I did recover (it was difficult, but doable, because everything else about me was fine). What the wonderful doc explained at that time was that glaucoma feels like a constant migraine. I couldn’t tell Mistress about my pain but I was throwing up and refusing food. After the surgery, which ended up finding there were minitumors on the retina, those behaviors stopped. I am going on over a year since the eye removal. BTW, my right eye is a silicon implant. The surgery was so expensive, and mom borrowed money for it, that by the time you tallied it up having the implant was just another expense and well worth it.
I can’t say for sure whether your Abbey has the same issues, so I have to encourage you and her to see the vet or possibly even an animal eye care specialist. I CAN say that the surgery was difficult and took about a month to recover from, but it was worth it. Also I should say that the cataracts were a separate issue than the glaucoma, so it really does need to be checked out.
As for your poignant question of how do you know when it’s time? We have never had to answer that question, but have come close a few times. Mistress says it’s when I tell her, when I am in too much pain and it’s not treatable. The thing with us labs is, as you know, our human companions must be extremely sensitive because we hide such things from you. We don’t want you to worry, and as pack animals it is in our nature not to show weakness or vulnerability to our pack. Sometimes you need to bring in the professionals to help you with that answer, but only vets you trust to give you all the options. I hope that helps and I do hope you’ll come back and keep us posted about your baby. It’s never easy to see them in pain.
-Josie the Dog
We are so sorry to hear of your loss. Josie sounded like such a great girl, i only wish we knew her! What a great 14 years you must have enjoyed…how lucky.
I don’t know if you’ll get this message or not, but i really feel that i have to at least thank you for your support from the first correspondence that we had. I’m sorry that i haven’t written sooner, but honestly, Josie has been on our minds ever since. She gave us some hope.
Thanks to your kind words of encouragement, our family and faithful girl, Abbey, has benefited from Josie’s experiences.
Just today, I was thinking about Josie because Abbey is doing so well now…how sad i was when i returned to your blog tonight to hear she’s gone.
It sounds like Josie was ready…and what a great life she had, my goodness…how lucky to have you.
I really thought it was the end for Abbey when i first posted the first message to you…but just like Josie, Abbey had her eye removed and had a silicon implant. Like Josie, it took a full month to recover. That was in October.
Shortly after the surgery, her other eye basically went blind due to cataracts…thankfully no infection or glaucoma, although we monitor it closely and have to put eye drops in that eye every day now…but none of this slows her down much. She is now her old self…completely blind, …but her old self. She’ll play, she’ll bark at the doorbell, she’ll climb the back hill to lay in her favorite spot…
My daughters have learned how to care for and love an old blind dog who still loves to go wake them up every morning for school…Abbey waits at the door every afternoon for them to get off the bus (well, i think that is because she knows that it’s the girls who give her dinner to her when they get home!)
I thank you for this blog….and i thank you for the hope that you gave us for our Abbey girl. We will be forever grateful to Josie…
Sherrie, thank you for posting your Abbey update! We miss Josie terribly but we know it was time. It is fabulous to hear about Abbey’s successful treatment. Is it not incredible how much they can still do by scent? Thank you as always for reading and stopping by. A big hug to that sweet girl of yours.