So much for scheduling posts and writing while we were tripping through the Midwest while visiting family. Oops. In my defense, we were pretty busy. Not much of a defense, but I’m back, nevertheless.
Anyway, when we went to pick up the dogs from the Best Friends kennel yesterday, I checked Wrigley’s eyes because he has always had very goopy eyes and I requested that the kennel check them and clean them when they needed to be cleaned. I specifically told the front desk THREE times to check his eyes regularly before I released the dogs to them to keep.
Well, Wrigley’s left eye looked AWFUL.
Some of the hair is missing, it’s a bit swollen, his skin is purple, and his eyes were extremely goopy.
I was NOT happy. I asked why this issue hadn’t concerned the people there at the kennel, and they said that because he already had eye issues, they thought it was normal. In the nearly three years that Wrigley has been alive, I’ve NEVER seen his eyes look like that, so I knew that it was abnormal. He’s also been a regular dog at this kennel…once every few months at least, and the kennel knows us and our dogs. I was extremely upset that this issue hadn’t given them the least bit of concern, but again, they repeated that since he already had eye issues, they didn’t think anything of it. Pardon me, but if a person specifically asks you to check their dog’s eyes, and then something WEIRD happens to the dog’s eye, it doesn’t give you a free pass–it probably means you weren’t cleaning the dog’s eyes enough.
Personally, I think that if a dog’s eye changes DRASTICALLY in the 6 days that you have him, a red flag or two should be raised. Maybe just a yellow flag. A flag of some color, right? I took him to the vet immediately, and it seems as if 1) they didn’t clear out his eyes often enough and 2) he has a dry eye issue, which is causing an overproduction of mucus. We had previously been told by the vet that since his eyes were just set back far in his head, THAT was the only issue and if we just cleaned out his eyes regularly, he’d be fine.
Now, it looks like it was something a bit bigger.
Wrigley has had medical issues since we brought him home from his rescuer (they were puppy mill dogs)–he has a pretty severe overbite, which caused his lower canines to puncture his upper soft pallet. He had to have both baby and both adult teeth removed.
Wrigley’s overbite (left) is pretty obvious in this photo of him as a 5 month old puppy
He’s had these eye issues as well, and the vet seems to think that his head just might not have developed quite right, and his tear ducts could be deformed, or just too small. It could mean a lot of eye drops in his lifetime. A lot. We have to wait 30 days to see how he responds to the eyedrops the vet gave us before we know how to proceed throughout his life.
And so I feel like I’ve been hit with a double-whammy here: my dog isn’t at top health, and the people who watch them while we’re out of town just aren’t giving him the attention and care that he needs.
It brings up a lot of fears about his future–will he be as healthy as Zoe? Will he live as long? Will we discover more issues later in his life? More presently, we are travelers. Will kenneling him be worse for his health? How can we find a kennel who will love him like we do without spending a fortune? Should we just spend a fortune because he’s our dog and we love him, and isn’t that better than the alternative of him getting sick?
They aren’t fun questions, and I’m primarily just concerned with how deep this issue is and how it will effect his future, as well as who to trust the dogs with while we’re traveling. In the meantime, he’s an extremely happy-go-lucky dog and doesn’t seem to be bothered by his issues, which makes me feel better. I think he’s still recovering though, because he’s definitely not as chipper as his usual self.
He’s a very special boy–he gets TWO pillows on the couch.
Hopefully once he sleeps off his excessive drowsiness (he’s always tired after a stay at the kennel) and his eye turns back to a better color, he’ll be back to normal. Poor guy.
For those of you with pets-do you leave them at a kennel while traveling? How did you choose your kennel & how happy are you with your experiences? I’ll be looking for another kennel to see if there are any better ones in this area. Leaving them with family/traveling with them isn’t a possibility and I’m afraid hiring someone to come and stay with them in our home would be too expensive. Any tips/advice/well wishes for poor little Wriggles?
