March 22, 2012

Little Dog, Big Worries....


While I admit to being overly attached to Alfredo the adorable furball, for any pet parent these would have been worrying times.

Last fall Alfred had eye surgery; I wrote about it here bit.ly/FUEUoM and here bit.ly/zfZBnX. It was scary and stressful. I was very brave... uh, Alfred was very brave. The little charmer came through it like a trooper.

Then last Thursday evening we saw something wrong with his eye, the same eye in the same place, and yes I freaked out. I calmly (sort of) called the vet Friday and booked the first available appointment for Saturday.

By Friday night I was staring at the red growth coming out of his eye (a popped-out "third eyelid"), willing it away. By Saturday morning the eye was red and inflamed but the growth seemed to have retreated. Less scary, but still worrisome.


Saturday morning we were there early for our appointment. If you believe in visual omens, the dinosaur-sized poop outside the front door might be a bad one.

Inside we waited near a puking bird named Pearl and a kingpin snake with a mysterious drying-out disease. This did not help my peace of mind at all.

Alfie was calm and clingy in my arms, as we waited in a little white room for the vet who was a half hour late (I choose to believe she was saving someone's pet rather than eating a baloney sandwich). Then the vet who came in wasn't our vet, it was some other doggie doctor. The change was unexpected and unsettling.

The vet reviewed Alfred's eye history, checked out the red, and looked for scratches or scars. She looked to pop the eyelid fully in or out and did some work on it, then decided not to go further without anaesthesia. So no go for now. We went to another room and while I held squirming Alfie wrapped in a green towel she did a lengthy saline eye wash to rinse out any debris. It was painful but went ok. I'm so brave... uh, Alfie is so brave.

Alfie is now on an antibiotic eye cream for seven days, and putting it on him is getting easier as I lift him to the kitchen counter, hold his eyelid open with one hand and massage on the cream onto his eyeball with the other. He does not enjoy this process. Treats are required. Lots of treats!!!

This will probably recur, and surgery may be needed again. For now we now medicate and monitor. It seems that the shape of Alfie's eye or eyelid is somehow imperfect. I know, I know, I thought he was totally absolutely blissfully perfect too. Hey, maybe that's why this all happened... to make the other dogs of the world a little bit less intimidated by Alfred's cuteness!