Gah...

[Vitani]

Ok, first off...VERY sorry to the people that have been waiting to hear from me....I may not be around very much for the next few weeks still...

I'm on dog duty lmao...Its like having a newborn baby...This is the first couple hours I've had to myself all week and I'm existing on 2-3 hours sleep a day >.<

Just in case anyones curious lol....Brief explaination is that my dog ( through her own doing, naughty puppy! ) got herself into a mess of trouble and had to have surgery on her eye.....Vet initially gave us the wrong eye drops, and no "bucket" to protect her head...Morning after her surgery, woke to find her 'bad' eye completely milky white....And I nearly had hysterics thinking she'd blinded herself during the night................She'd spent the whole night rubbing at it and had severely bruised it...And created an ulcer *sigh*

So two more vet trips later, better drops, a plastic cone on her head which she hates, and a pretty much 24 hour watch service because shes determined to get the darn thing off and start bashing her eye again...Which could continue for anything from a few more days, to a few more weeks....To a few months

Fingers crossed that so far, she's showing great improvement but could easily backslide so she's still getting eye drops every hour, and extra medication ( she's on a daily medication anyway )....Being handwalked every few hours under an umbrella to go to the toilet since she can't be in the sunlight, and hours of scratches since she can't reach herself.....Vet thinks she'll make a full recovery with no outstanding damage...But jeeze, the bills have piled up, my nerves are shot and I can't even remember wether I brushed my hair this morning

She's at the vets right now getting another checkup lol, so I should probably be getting a much needed nap....But I missed SBF too much




Anyone know any good ways to entertain a dog that doesn't involve toys? She can't pick anything up from the ground because of the cone....Have to hand feed and hold water up for her too.....And she's used to being outside playing all day, so she is all grizzly and moany because she's bored....I'm running out of ways to distract her >.<

[RZ]

Does she have to stay quiet or can she move around? If she can play you might try letting her chase a laser spot
One of my dogs likes TV and movies - mostly action stuff *G*

You are very lucky - My Max lost an eye and he was so good about the cleaning and the medicine

[Vitani]

She's allowed to freely wander in her areas of the house ( namely the lounge because she isin't allowed into the bedrooms unless invited lol ) - She is crate trained and thats where she sleeps at night, or during the day for a nap....When she's in there she can't get into as much trouble with knocking her eye, but we've still got to keep an eye on her.....When she's freely wandering, the minute she realizes you aren't paying attention, she starts trying to get the cone off, and shes worked out how to lean against things to rub her eye even through the cone >.<

She doesn't show the slightest interest in a laser pointer...Neither does my cat lol, I bought one about 6 months ago thinking it would be great fun....Doesn't care if the tv or radio is on...Unless she hears someone whistling lol, then she goes into guard dog mode and gets really agitated...Daft thing that she is.....She has a hollow ball she pushes around with her nose, but gets tired of it after about 2 minutes because she can't get it out of corners and things....Ordinarily she'd get a rawhide chew, but since she uses her paws to hold it still, its too hard with the cone....

I feel sorry for her lol, its like having a child on a rainy day constantly crying "Mummy I'm boooooored"....



Poor Max! What happened, if you don't mind me asking?

[RZ]

an "accident" with my stepson under some what suspicious circumstances -he SAID he was throwing sticks and Max lunged for it...the kid went on to a very troubled life

max was a wonderful dog, I miss him every day. We ost him to cancer a couple of years ago

[Bezzella]

Aw! I hope she feels better. I don't own a dog so I wouldn't know about amusing them sadly.

Best wishes and lots of virtual cookies!

[Vitani]

Aww RZ, I'm sorry...Thats rough Poor guy...


Thanks Bezz Visiting the vet tuckered her out, but she'll be awake again soon enough lol..

[A. L. Aljan]

I'm so sorry, Tani... poor puppy, poor puppy's Mommy!

I'll try to brainstorm something for puppy to do. It's so hard when young `uns have "owies" that keep them from doing what they want to do. My Slate (Weimaraner) sprained his ACL as a 7-month-old... uggh. Thank goodness he didn't rupture it, but WOW, was it hard to keep him from re-injuring it. Had to put his show career on hold for nearly 2 months as a result, and it just about killed me, too.

Hang in there!!!


~ Amanda @ Aljan

[Queso]

Aww, poor girl. Do you have her cone attached to her collar? I've found that helps keep them on better. If she can still get it off, maybe try getting a harness or something similar and attaching it to that? Can you take her for walks? When my dog had to have a cone I just took her for long walks several times a day to wear her out. Since your girl's eye is sensitive to light, maybe you could rig up some kind of doggie eye patch so she can be outside for longer periods? Then she could be the pirate pup! lol

[Misty Glen]

When we had our new puppy desexed he had to wear a bucket for a while so he wouldn't lick the stiches. (not literally a bucket, for those of you who are wondering, that's just one of the names for the plastic cone thing Vitani's talking about.) we used an old belt to keep it on. essentially the same as a dog collar, so if you've got one of them that fit I recommend that. Queso had a few good ideas in that regard so they might be worth trying.

with feeding and such, we put the bowls on a raised platform (we used a couple of bricks that were lying around, so depending on the size of the dog that might work). we found that enabled our pup to eat and drink on his own without any significant issues. if the bowl tends to move about a bit and fall off, put a rubber mat or damp cloth underneath it to stop it sliding about. in extreme cases you may have to clamp it down with something, or maybe just hold it.

if you don't have trouble getting the bucket back on I would recommend you actually remove it for meals. chances are your dog will be too busy eating to scratch the eye, so this might be a better option so long as she's supervised.

also, if we knew we'd be able to supervise our dog really closely we'd take the bucket off him and just keep him sufficiently distracted with games and such. that might be worth trying. we'd only resort to the bucket if we knew we couldn't provide such extensive supervision.

[Daisy Rabbit Mae]

my dogs won't play with toys so i have to call their names and then if they don't get up i'll pat my legs or clapp and then i'll run an keep calling them. yes its gay i know but thats wat i do hope it helps. im so weird. lol

[Vitani]

Just wanted to update this, and thank everyone for their ideas....


CONE CAME OFF ON FRIDAY! Whooooooooooooooooooooo!

I don't know who is happier, myself or the bratling lol....Her eye is now 100% better, Vet has said she has no outstanding vision issues, and apart from the slight aesthetic aspect, its a full recovery ( You can notice where the inner membrane was surgically removed, but not too badly )


We drove each other mental for the last week...But the hard yards are over, I can safely leave her unattented for an hour or two at a time ( I check on her pretty regularly anyway ) and I can finally come online with some kind of regularity.....


To a mountain of SBF work...Bwahaha >.<