Goodbye Dr. Gift

Today was my 2 week check up since surgery and also the day we said goodbye to Dr. Gift. He is leaving to have his own practice in another State. He said my eye is looking good and in another few weeks will look relatively normal (normal for me anyway). My other eye is having an issue now and has a moderate increase in inflammation so I got a new drop for it and a new antibiotic since I have been feeling a little punky. He said I should be like a new dog by Friday. I am not sure what type of new dog I should be by Friday everyone says my shaved leg looks like a poodle cut so maybe I should be a poodle for awhile. They are supposed to be really smart but I like being a Pyr so I guess I will just stay ME!

Liam Goes Home

Today Little Liam "leapy lee" went to his forever home with some great humans and 5 sisters. AP says we will see them at Pyr fest and we will have to have them visit sometime. His new human mommy sent a picture of him after a big day of playing with his sisters.

I am very happy for my little brother!

Bionic Eye is Open

Hey my new eye is open!

It's Wednesday and my eye is half open and my eyeball kind of goes to one side, but it's open.

I have been asleep for 2 days and I am hungry..

Day after Surgery

So it's Tuesday, the day after surgery and I slept on the hide-a-mat on the floor in the hall between the couch and the wall with Tonka sleeping at my head. I didn't get much sleep since every time he moved I woke up to make sure he was OK. He is still really out of it and I had to feed him by hand and then clean up the mess. I gave him all his meds and then got him up to go potty. Since he is so dopey we have to go out the kitchen door and down the ramp to get to the yard.

Every time he hits that plastic cone on something he sort of snaps awake for a second so I am trying to direct him around by the scruff of the neck. It reminds me of the first few days he was here when he was so little and was just learning the layout of the house and didn't understand steps yet. I put a call into the vet since he is still out of it and isn't opening either eye. Dr. Gift called back and apparently Tonka is sensitive to the anesthesia and is just really drugged right now. We are cutting back on the meds to see if that will help. I literally have to bring him his water bowl to see if he is thirsty – he just will not wake up.

I applied a warm moist compress to the eye being careful not to rub or press hard and he seemed to like that. At around 4:00pm we went out to go potty and he finally opened his eyes - sort of. We will call that progress!

Home from Surgery

AP here:

Well Tonka is home from his bionic eye surgery. It was actually over by 3:00 but he still hadn't come around all the way by 5:00 so I had to go back to the recovery area and get him up. We made it up the ramp and into the truck OK and he went right back to sleep.

Once we got home he did not want to get back up to come down the ramp so I had to slide him forward on his bed and then lift him out.

We got through the gate and into the house OK and he just laid down and went out again. I got everything closed up and came back in and he was standing by the doggie door so we went out and he did go to the bathroom. He wanted to go up the ramp on the side of the house and in through the kitchen to the living room. Once in the living room he went right back to sleep.

Around 6:30 I woke him up with some chicken and rice and he was hungry. I only fed him a little to make sure we werent going to have any stomach problems and he went right back out.

*I am very surprised at how good his eye looks, I was expecting much worse.

Well the evening went on and and at 8:30 I got him up to feed him again and give him his meds. he gets 2 Cephalexin twice a day with food and 2 Tramadol twice a day with food. He also has Rimadyl but we dont start that till tomorrow. He has some drops and some ointment to go in his eye the ointment is 3 times a day and the drops twice. I found it hard to get the drops and the ointment in the eye since it is swollen and I didn't want to hurt him. He promptly went right back to sleep after dinner and at 10:30 I made him get up and go out to go to the bathroom for the night. We went through the kitchen and down the ramp since I figured that would be better than trying to navigate stairs. Halfway down the ramp he sat down and went to sleep.

He did finally go potty and we went back up the ramp and he went back to sleep for the night.

*He is hating the E-Collar and anytime he hits something he just stops so every excursion becomes a 20 minute ordeal.

Surgery Day

AP here:
So here I sit waiting for Tonka to get out of surgery for his Evisceration with Scleral Implant and everyone here at Animal Eye Care in Laurel has been wonderful. They truly care about the animals and I know Tonka Man is in good hands. When the surgery was first presented to me I immediately started to research what was involved and found very little detailed information. Some very kind people (thank you Trish, Pennye and Rick) directed me to other owners who had been through it and both Dr.s were very helpful. I could not find any information about how his eye will look immediately after surgery the only pictures I could find on the web were a month post op. Most of the technical articles I found on this type of surgery were restricted to Vets and Vet Techs. I will try to detail things as they go in case someone else is looking for information.

My Buddy Liam

So my buddy Liam is hanging out with his foster family and they also foster Alaskan Malamutes. Right now they have a little feral puppy named Parker and Parker does not trust people but he loves Liam. Check out little Lee being a good big brother. Way to go Liam!

Big Bad Woof

Tomorrow I am going to the Big Bad Woof in Takoma Park to hang out with my friend Liam and some puppies and a young pyr named Johnny. AP helped rescue Johnny after he was picked up as a stray near where we live. She said he was really sweet and he has been with his foster Dad for a few months and is doing really well. They are all looking for their forever homes and tomorrow might meet a human to adopt. Liam has some humans coming just to see him. AP also has some friends coming by. I was forced to take a bath today and I hate baths. My friend Nala has been staying over for a few days and we were playing today in the backyard- in my digging pit and AP got really mad at us for getting muddy. She had to give both of us a bath and I think she was planning on taking me to the place with the tub where I can get hooked up and that has a really nice dryer. Instead she had to give me one in the walk in shower and I am really good at gettng away from her in there. She says its like wrestling a bear and she has to clean the whole bathroom when we get done. So I am all clean and fluffy and smelling good for tomorrow and for Monday's surgery. I hate baths! If you want to meet some great dogs and get some puppy kisses stop by the Big Bad Woof  http://www.thebigbadwoof.com/ tomorrow between noon and 3:00.

Wash Your Paws

Well thanks to the Blizzard of 2010 there is so much salt and grime on the roads and sidewalks that everytime we come back from a walk I have to get my paws washed. How very annoying. I wish it would rain (and you know how much I hate rain) just to wash it all away. AP has the Paw Plunger and that thing is getting on my nerves. She puts a drop of "Fresh and Clean" shampoo in it and fills it up with warm water and then makes me put my feet in it to scrub them.

It has scrubby bristles in it to get the dirt off. AP loves it - I hate it but it is better than getting my feet washed in the shower.

We can rebuild him

We have the technology

We can make him better, faster, stronger..
We will give him A Bionic Eye!

So everyone is way behind with the blogging but I wanted to get this up for those that have been asking. I had my follow up appointment today with Dr. Gift and my pressure that was already at 25 in my left eye is now at 37. That is definitely the wrong way and so AP has made the decision to have him perform surgery on it. I am going to have an evisceration with implant done. Dr. Gift will remove the contents inside the eye leaving the actual shell and insert prosthesis into the shell - sort of like a superball. My eye will then heal around that and will still blink and move but no more stuff inside to create pressure problems. This webpage has a pretty good explanation http://www.michvet.com/library/ophthalmology_IOP.asp and some pictures. My left eye has always been a problem and gives me really bad headaches so I won’t miss it. It has started to stretch from the pressure so it is best to do it now before it gets out of control. My surgery is on the 15th and I will have to be quiet and heal for a few days which for me will be the hard part. Those of you in the DC area that want to see me before my Bionic Eye can find me at the Big Bad Woof on March 13th. http://www.thebigbadwoof.com/ with my buddy Liam and some other awesome Pyrenees that are looking for a forever home.