A Nip Here, a Tuck There
It has been an "interesting" summer for the Bully Baby. Our dear Megara, she of very mild seasonal allergies and generally excellent health, has spent the summer pretending to be a volcano of goop and a black hole of misery. Her eyes have been all sorts of gross, her fur has been falling out in spots, and in general it seemed that four years with hardly any allergy problems was a fluke. She has been a Hot Mess.
When it became obvious that a few doses of Benadryl wasn't going to cut it, it was off to the vet where we were scolded for not keeping her allergies treated well enough. (To that I reply with a reminder that she has never needed more than ten allergy pills per year, but whatever.) Doses were upped, frequency was maintained, and . . . nothing.
It didn't help at all.
So, another trip to the vet. This time it decided that it was a case of allergies gone wild. The vet figured her allergies had gotten out of control resulting in infections. Eye drops were added to the already insane Benadryl regime.
And nothing. Still with the goopy, disgusting, make-me-vomit eyes.
So this morning Mr. Husband took Meg to the vet again. For the record, our beloved English Bulldog at the vet is a lot like a baby whale out of water. Or a 50-pound bowling ball with spastic legs. Or a toddler after eating thirty pounds of candy. SHE'S FREAKING INSANE. You can't make her stand on the table, which is sort of necessary considering she only stands about 20 inches off the ground. It usually takes half the vet clinic's staff just to pin her down to give her a shot. Trying to check out her eyes? HAHAHAHAHA! That ain't happening.
Today the vet attempted to look at her eyes, gave up, suggested more eye drops, and set a deadline. If the goop doesn't stop in the next couple of weeks? He's going to have to sedate her and figure out what about her eyelid is causing her eye to be all pissed off.
His hunch? She needs plastic surgery.
Sorry, but with a face like this? Where exactly do you start with the plastic surgery?
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In case you hadn't heard, we're donating all September ad revenue to the Flight 93 Memorial Fund. Your clicks mean more money, so perhaps you would like to know how the howdy Mr. Husband ever managed to convince me to get an English Bulldog in the first place?
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Reader Comments (34)
Your life is never boring, is it?
LOL! I love my dog and all but there must be a place to draw the line! Poor Meg...hope all the drops and doses work!
Awwww, poor pooch.
Hope she does well with the eye drops.
We have a cat that had to have a bladder stone removed ($1000 later. ugh.) I told her she better not get one ever again b/c we just can not afford it. It's not like we have kitty insurance!! LOL!
ha ha ha ha! Your dog can't get plastic surgery before I do!
Will the little pooch also require a personal trainer?
Seriously. I have heard about the need for eyelid surgery for bulldogs, I think.
And while I am sorry your dog is suffering, dang you are a good and funny storyteller. But you know this, I hope.
If you went through with it, you might make the Yahoo Odd News section along with the lady who got a prosthetic leg for her cat.
Haha! Wow, who knew? Take that for scolding you for not 'taking care of her' psssh whatever!
Wow! Who knew there was plastic surgery for a dog? Poor thing. I hope she gets better.
That is a face you just gotta love ;)
Our English Bully had nasty eyes. Green, crusty. Required drops multiple times a day. Ugh. Gross.
Seeing Meg always reminds me of Doc. He went back to live with Jimmy's Mom a year ago and while he was a huge pain in arse, I do miss him so much. He as my 65lb speed bump :)
You know, my parents basset hound has these same problems - nasty eyes, irritated, scaly skin, losing fur, etc. The vet's suggestion has been an allergy test, but at $400+ they've not really been able to keep it under control. The vet just prescribes steriods for his worst outbreaks, which only solves the problem for a while, and does not help with the already overweight basset. I'm terribly interested in hearing what they find out about Meg, as maybe it would direct us in the right direction with the basset.
I also share your husbands passion for bulldogs, but as a person who lives paycheck to paycheck, I doubt I'll ever have one. My husband hopes we never have the money for one. But I can dream!
Don't get too much work done, I think she's gorgeous just the way she is. ;o)
I had a cocker spaniel with gross eyes.
The surgery would have been about $5K to resolve it.
The issue was that his eyelashes grew toward the inside of his eye and not out which caused them to be dry and irritated all the time.... Apparently it is a common trait for the spaniels.
We didn't do the surgery and just dealt with the redness and grossness.
Luckily none of my current quad pod family members have issues like this. Whew!
i seriously and completely laughed out loud.
Poor Meg. She can't help her genetics. And, I happen to thinks she's pretty darn cute.
Well, she does have a few wrinkles, maybe a little puppy botox?
Hope she feels better soon...
We had a bulldog years ago and he had eye issues. We had to put drops in them and they were kind of oily. (the drops, not the eyes) I hated when hubby went out of town and I had to do it. The post brings back too many memories! I don't remember what the problem was but it wasn't allergies.
I hope they eye drops work and you don't need to have surgery.
Oh I have a FABULOUS plastic surgeon you can send Meg too. Tell him I referred you.
And I would recommend a face lift. All over.
Actually that is probably the cutest face ever. I love bulldogs.
You know, if you'd take all the excess skin off that cutesy little face of hers you could make yourself a second little bully baby. That might make Mr. H happy.
All that beauty and a pussy eye ... wow, she's a looker.
No jokes aside, she is beautiful!
Just a guess...is it entropion?
Heard it wsa pretty common.
As for allergies...Yeah, the Kerry has the allergies from H-E-double hockey sticks.
Or did rather. Now they still make her eyes a goop factory, but that's nothing comparatively. We've mostly fixed it.
That face is too cute!!
Hope she's OK...
argh! double comments! Stupid work puter...
That face is too cute!!
Hope she's OK...
This is why I told Hubby he can not have one of these dogs no matter how much he whines and moans about it. We have a cat that drools and slobbers. Good enough.
And close enough.
Yuk those are ugly dogs.
Oh my...we have had that kind of summer with our dogs, too! Lily, who gets occasional yeast infections in the folds of her face, has had nasty black goo forming there all summer. It's a constant battle to stay ahead of it all. I now have her on an antifungal med, special pledgets, and Otomax in the folds. She hates it.
Bodhi has had - no kidding - e.Coli in his face this summer. The vet doesn't even know how it happened, because normally e.Coli won't colonize in the facial folds. (So even though Bodhi has to stick his face in ever pile of poop he finds on our walkies, cleaning him up should have been enough). He has extra droopy eyes, too, so though he doesn't have entropion or anything causing them to water excessively, he may have to have an eye lift to keep them from running tears constantly into his facial folds.
Every night it's the same thing. Clean the wrinkles, medicate the wrinkles, clean the butts, try to keep them from rubbing all of the meds off into our carpet or the new bed.
Dog days indeed!
Peace - D
HA! Poor thing...I hope the eyedrops suddenly start to work. Plastic surgery sounds expensive.
HA! Poor thing...I hope the eyedrops suddenly start to work. Plastic surgery sounds expensive.
If you are giving out plastic surgery, can I have some lipo?
If you are giving out plastic surgery, can I have some lipo?
One of my cats has the a herpes virus that manifests itself as goopy eyes when he's stressed or the pollen count is really high. Might be something to check before expensive surgery. You'll know if she responds to an antiviral eye ointment or if giving her Lysine supplements helps clear it up (it inhibits viruses).
OMG, I love that dog so much! Except the gross gookiness of the eyes. That stuff is gross.
It seems a little drastic to start talking plastic surgery... Have you gotten a second opinion? When we moved and started going to this new vet, he realized that our beagles allergies could be controlled by changing her diet. She is now on hypo-allergenic food, which has cleared up most of her problems! I'm so glad we found him and he figured this out! (Our dogs allergies manifested primarily with anal gland issues, which was NOT PLEASANT!)
You should really ask around for other opinions if things are as serious as they sound. Not that you asked my advice, but there it is. hehe.
*oi* poor Meg! She's so cute. Flat faced dogs are the cutest things ever. My Gramma always had Pekingese & we had pugs with the folds but no droopy eyes. They're loaded with personality like your Meg. Now we have a boring Chihuahua with nearly zero personality but she almost never stinks. It's amazing combo. Probably the only reason we'll kept her around for 4 years. Hope Meg's goop clears soon.
Man - my parents had a shih tzu for a long time that had bulging eyes that used to require all kinds of drops. She had major allergy goop eyes and eventually they got them under control - after the dog had to go to some sort of doggie eye doctor. Yes, there apparently are such things.
Anyway - I still want a bulldog. I don't care if they're a 50 lbs. farting smelly wreck with drool and goopy eyes.
Just thought I'd share.