Kitsune Visits the Vet

Can we go home now?

Burger’s eye healed so well we decided to take Kitsune for his annual exam with the new vet today.  We were looking for some relief from the arthritis.  He got a Rimadyl injection and we were sent home with Carprofen and Tramadol pills.  I will let you know how it goes.

With a Cherry on Top!

Or rather, make that Cherry Eye.

Cherry eye is when the third eyelid glad prolapses or “pops out”.

Burger would like to demonstrate what cherry eye looks like.

The info sheet from the vet says breeds that are commonly affected include: cocker spaniels, bulldogs, beagles, bloodhounds, lhasa apsos, shih-tzus and other brachycephalic breeds (those are dogs with “squished” faces and short limbs).

It started Thursday night when the white inside his eye seemed to be sticking up a little bit.  We had Meister sleep in the kennel and Burger sleep just outside in the pen.  We thought if we gave Burger’s eye a break from Meister licking it and putting his paws on it that the problem might go away on it’s own.

Friday morning his eye still had the swollen area but it had turned red.  We kept Burger and Meister mostly separated and I planned on taking Burger to the vet.  When my dad and I checked in around 10 am it looked like his eye was getting better and we thought maybe we should wait to call the vet.  Travis came home from work and said his eye was getting worse.  It was time to call the vet.  Luckily I had already called around in the morning and found two close by.  When I called back the first didn’t have any availability.  They recommended the second one.

Our appointment was for 5pm.  I packed our bag (complete with all medical paperwork) and Burger and I set out for the vet’s office.  Meister and Kitsune stayed behind with Travis.

Burger was excited to go for a car ride.  When we arrived he had to check out the plants in the parking lot.  When we got inside he was very curious and sniffed around (finding big bags of dog food).  He also wanted to check out the grooming area while I was filling out paperwork.

He was too excited to sit on the scale but had finally calmed down enough to see that he weighed 23 pounds.  He has either put on a little weight living at our house or his new harness is weighing him down.  Up next, we got to check out Exam Room 2.  There was a black couch with dog hair that needed sitting on, a window to look out to the parking lot and a very clean looking counter top with pull down exam tabletop.

The best part about the vet
is sitting on the sofa!

The vet assistant came in and talked to Burger, took his temperature (he tried to sit on the thermometer), listened to his heart and checked his teeth (very clean!).  Then it was time to wait for the doctor.  The doctor was friendly and listened to my stories about Burger and his brother Meister: their adoption, how they play and paw at each other and lick each other’s faces.  Then he said Burger has cherry eye and explained how the inside eyelid sometimes pops out.  He gave us some ointment (Neomycin and Polymyxin B Sulfates and Dexamethasone Ophthalmic Ointment) to put in the eye three times a day for the weekend.  If it doesn’t go away then he will need to have surgery to put his third eyelid back where it belongs.  The good news is, this sounds like a somewhat common problem that the doctor knows how to handle.  The bad news is, many pets that experience a prolapse in one eye will eventually experience a prolapse in the opposite eye.

Hopefully a calm weekend at home with Meister out of his eye will fix Burger’s problem and we won’t have to go back for surgery.  I will let you know how we are doing on Monday.