The Bug Buzz

I think it's about time I gave an update on Bug. Despite an accident in the house here and there, he's doing pretty good. He's still on all of his meds. That won't change. His vision comes and goes. Some days he gets around just fine. Other days he doesn't have any idea which way to turn. I wonder if he's also going through some sort of senility as well. I find him in a corner sometimes not knowing how to get out. But he keeps on truckin'. We help him up and down the steps. We take him outside for potty breaks more than we used to. He's pretty good about letting us know by standing at the door. He basically rules the roost and the rest of us just follow. But then again, it's pretty much always been that way.

Blind Ambition

Poor Bugton. We noticed the week before our vacation that he was starting to run into things. The diabetes is causing cataracts. Some days are worse than others. We try to guide him as best we can. I'm trying to teach him "up" and "down" so he knows when he's facing steps. Other than that, he's doing well. And we survived boarding him at the vet for almost a week. He survived, too.

Jack Nap

I think you got it backwards, bub.

Lunchtime

Pee Brain

Since Bug was diagnosed with diabetes back in January, he hasn't had an accident in several months. However, when we came home last night from dinner and drinks, I heard Pmo say "uh oh" when he turned down the hallway. And there it was, a big pee spot. We had quarantined the wrong dog.

There was a time when we let the dogs loose in the house all of the time. We started putting Bug up after the series of accidents started several months ago. Then we stopped because he had been accident-free for so long. We just left him on the dog bed in the living room where we figured he would sleep until we arrived home.

Jack is trickier. He has separation anxiety. Oh, the life of dogs with special needs. He doesn't really have to be put up during the week's normal routine of Pmo leaving for work, me coming home, me going to bed and Pmo coming home. He's fairly calm then. But when Pmo and I leave together, the little guy wants to go with us so badly. Therefore, he is prone to acting out and leaving us "presents" if we don't take him with us.

So that's why Jack was caged last night and not Bug. We didn't think we had anything to worry about. We were only gone about 4 1/2 hours. Bug can make it 8 hours overnight no problem. But that's also when he's in his cage and not free to roam about. Did I mention we just had someone clean the carpet a few weeks ago?

The funniest part (besides me running the carpet cleaner at 1 o'clock in the morning) was Jack's reaction. When we let him loose, he had to walk past the pee spot to go outside one last time before bed. And he did so with such trepidation, as if walking past it would somehow lay the blame on him. I wish I would have taped his skulking down the hallway.

I hope this is not a setback for the Bugton and just poor judgment on our part. We'll probably go back to putting him up while we're gone. At least for awhile. He's due next week for his 3 month insulin checkup, where we leave him at the vet all day, so hopefully we'll get some sort of verdict then.

I've always called him "pea brain" because his head is so much smaller than the rest of his body. Now he's earned the title in a different sense.

Unhappy Campers

Checkup

Bug's scratched eye is now healed!
So we get to stop his 4-a-day eye drop.
The insulin, dry eye and anti-inflammatory drops continue as well as the arthritis and ligament pills, though I think we're going to cut back the pills to 1-a-day and see how he does.
I don't want him to relapse, but it's getting expensive.
Anyway, after mild screaming at the vet, he seemed happy on the way home.
Take a look.

Undercover

He blanketed himself.

Bug Face

Can I have my shot so I can go back to bed? (in gruff Bug voice of course)

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Stressed at the Vet

It was just a checkup on his eyes but he was pretty tense. And loud.

Just Jack

Close to Food

Just like me, Bug longs to be, close to food...

Med Sched

Bug took a turn for the worse so off we went to the vet first thing this morning. While I was out of town over the weekend, Pmo said Bug was screaming every time he got up and extremely sluggish. More than usual, anyway. Plus his eyes have been getting worse for a few weeks. We have to clean them constantly. Time to bite the bullet, take some earplugs and shell out some cash.

After Bug threw a fit in the waiting room and screamed while getting his nails trimmed, Dr. Saxon (love her!) told me he has dry eye in the right eye, scratched cornea in the left eye and his back knees are bothering him. So we have 3 new medications to add to the routine. Per Pmo's suggestion, I made a chart to keep up with the neverending madness. We've been writing things down like a diary but I think this will work better.

There's a total of six medications now: five of them are twice a day, one is four times a day. Two of them will end after the cornea heals and his knees feel better, but we added one permanent med today because of the dry eye. That won't go away. So we'll end up with 4 meds twice a day. For now. Until the next ailment.

I love the Bugton, but he's cantankerous! And expensive. Not to mention I had to fill up the SUV today, too. My wallet is aching.

Yoga

I think Bug is attempting corpse pose here. You should have seen Jack's downward facing dog. It was right on. Just couldn't catch him on camera. Also, I'm trying this on my phone so we'll see how well it turns out.

Grillin'

Where else would he be, really?

The Beginning

I'm starting a blog of Bug and Jack pics. I was inspired by a friend. Nothing complicated. Just snapshots of their everyday lives. The things they like. The shenanigans they get into. Maybe video once I figure that out :)