Cooper likes his present from Grandma and Grandad very much.
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Buddy has had some watery discharge from his left eye the last couple of days and hasnāt been fully retracting his inner eyelid.
As it wasnāt getting better I took advantage of the free video consultation with a vet under my Petwise plan. The video vet didnāt like the look of it and said I had to get him to a vet today so I booked him in with the emergency vet.
I just found out that he has a corneal ulcer and I have to give him antibiotic eye drops twice a day and a corneal repair gel twice a day. Thatās going to be a challenge.
My wallet is Ā£200 lighter and Iāve to take him for a check up at his regular vet on Friday to see how he is healing. Ouch.
Iām a nervous wreck about the whole thing as his eyesight in that eye is at risk. Has anyone been through similar and able to offer encouragement or advice?
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I feel for you and so does everyone with a dog who has been there and worried senseless. Stay strong, keep giving him the drops and weāll keep our fingers crossed.
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Wow, Iām in shock 
He was on such good form on Christmas Eve, didnāt notice a thing.
Iāve used salami for antibiotics, tear off a bit and squash it around the pill, gone in less than a second. Good luck with the eyedrops, not easy but a good deal easier than trying to administer to a cat!!
Get well soon Buddy!
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Daughter (apprentice vet nurse, 2 years in) reckons they are pretty common and usually clear up OK with treatment, though some dogs seem to get them regularly.
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Thanks. Iāll keep the thread updated.
Yes he was. Oddly enough it doesnāt seem to be bothering him too much. Apparently some dogs find the condition excruciatingly painful and canāt open their eye.
Thatās very reassuring. Thank you.
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A wee update on Buddyās eye. I took him to the vet today for a check on progress. The vet was lovely and very reassuring. His eye is healing nicely and thereās no reason to think he wonāt make a full recovery.
Iāve been given a different antibiotic eyedrop and more of the repair gel so the eyedrop regime continues for another week. Heās to go back next Friday by which time the hope is that the ulcer ought to be gone. So good news all round.
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I forgot to say - the vet relaxed and befriended Buddy by giving him some of this liver paste as a treat prior to giving him the flourescent eyedrops so she could see the ulcer.
He absolutely loved it so I bought a couple of tubes. I thought it might be of interest to some of you. I had no idea it existed.
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Itās good for training, so long as you only use a smear for just a taste. Itās the smell that will get your dog to do stuff which you can then label.
not sure what you mean?
As in give the action your dog has done a word to label it (consistently)
So for example if you use a small smear on your hand to guide Buddy to lie down, the moment he is lying down you let him lick the paste and say ālieā (you can say lie down but that is two words which is harder for a dog, and down is commonly a different command). Try this 4 or 5 times before you then try to use the label as a command (ie donāt use the treat to lead him, just issue the command and see if he now knows that this means āif I lay down he will give me a treatā.
If Buddy doesnāt do it then it means more practice as above, and then try again with just the command.
Does that example make sense of the difference between label and command?
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Thanks for that. Good to know. I might start using treats to train Buddy. Heās a good boy. Deserves a treat.
Itās also quite useful to double up a command with a visual cue. Dogs watch us very very carefully to read what might happen so they are much more adept at picking up movements that have meaning. For example a lot of people use a closed fist to their chest to mean āsitā etc. I know a lot of dogs where you can do a routine, a sequence of 10 commands without saying a word.
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Third (and last) walk of the day at sunset. Itās been a lovely crisp start to the year.
Sun setting
Maddie
Hildur
Moon rising
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We had Basil to the vets today. Over the past few months heās collapsed 3 times while on a walk, each time heās back up and running within 15 minutes and this week I took a video of the episode to show the vet.
First pass diagnosis is an episodic nervous system disorder. Full blood test as a fishing expedition, just to rule out a number of other options.
Heās absolutely fine either side of event but lots of worries for us.
Here he is in his natural environment.
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