Nessie has Buggered Her Eye......Again.

Nessie the Monster, Duchess of Hagg

will be 10 years old on Friday, December 28

She would love to accept your well wishes for her birthday.

You can do so by making a comment on this blog.

From the Home page, click on the title of this blog to get to the page and scroll to the bottom to find the comments.

The poor old girl has gone

through so much with her eyes.

Thankfully, she is on the mend.

With all the busy hustle and bustle of the Christmas Season, it's hard to find the much needed rest that my ol'fart body really desires.  It seems that the best part of my day is the part where I'm finally crawling up into my really fluffy, comfy, warm and toasty bed.  Don't get me wrong.  Hard work, dog training and lots of friends to attend to keep me happy, healthy and young --(at heart), at least.  But dragging my tired behind up into that bed at night and snuggling down into my blankie is the 'Ahhh' moment of my day.

So, I know I've mentioned to you before that Nessie has had to endure some eye injuries at the paws of her young Chamberlains.  I mean she's old like me and they play so rough......she's had a time of it keeping them in line.

This is a very blurry photo of Nessie trying to control the very young Lady McKenzie.
McKenzie just wasn't listening to anyone that day and was pushing the limits.  Nessie could see that my husband and I were over our heads, so she fixed the problem.
Thankfully, I have become a stronger pack leader since, but this was one of my big lessons on 'how to'.

She has had both corneas scratched by paws.  She's taken it like a trooper but it's been hard on her.  Boxer's eyes don't mend as easily as other breeds.  Most breeds can mend a scratched cornea in no time flat.  With Boxers, it usually takes an eye grid along with a lot of drops, ointments and tender loving care;  not to mention the Vet bill.  For those of you who don't know, an eye grid means, in extremely oversimplified terms, that the Vet uses a scalpel to make a tic-tac-toe grid on the cornea.  You can imagine how that feels.  It seems that Boxers lack a certain gene that helps with the regeneration of the cornea cells.  The grid helps to give a rough edge for the new cells to stick to and begin to heal the eye.  Poor old Nessie has had at least 4 eye grids in the 3 years since she's hired these two worthless Chamberlains.  Chamberlains are supposed to take care of running the Palace household, you know, but the Duchess has been the one doing all the work for the past 3 years.  She's had to train them in everything, from sitting politely to take a 'cup o tea' to politely greeting a guest at the door without KO-ing them to eating from their own plate and not from anyone else's.  There is evidence that Santa Paws has magically delivered their brains without any knowledge on the part of the household servants.  They do seem to be improving leaps and bounds in the manners department and are actually showing signs of listening to those who care for them.  They are improving in many areas, but this story is not about them.......I digress.

So imagine how I felt when on Saturday, only 3 days before Christmas, I was awakened from my much enjoyed slumber with the softest of whimpers........Quietly.  Softly.  Barely heard......whimper.  Wait.  Repeat.  One eye open, searching for the clock.  6:30am.  Crap.  Go back to bed.  Another whimper that I try to ignore.  No, I can't.  Okay.  My eye -- the one that's open -- struggles to focus.  Holy Moley what's wrong with your eye?!?  I see a dog's face just about eye level with my face.  But instead of 2 symmetrical eyes focused on me, I see one eye and one giant, swollen red blotch with the 3rd eyelid so swollen that the eye can't even shut.  I thought for a second that I might be hallucinating, but no such luck.

  

This was taken after we saw the Vet.  He had numbed both eyes and tested for scratches on the cornea and for glaucoma.

A quick call to the Vet who wasn't open yet... I left a frantic message, brushed my teeth and threw some clothes on.  By that time, they were there and called me back.  His biggest fear when we arrived was Glaucoma.  He first put the stain in her eye to check for corneal scratches.  Yay.....the only good news so far, that the stain didn't stick to anything.  So he numbed the eyes and checked the pressure.  Wasn't good.  She was 17 in the good eye but 26 in the swollen eye.  He put her on a steroidal drop, Neo-Poly-Dex, to reduce swelling.  He'd have to recheck on Christmas Eve before he could determine what was going on.  

My heart was filled with hope and I told Nessie that I was going to make her eye feel better.  It wasn't as bad as it looked and I didn't believe that she had glaucoma.  That wasn't going to factor in.  I was 'willing' it to be so.  No scratched cornea.  I was leaning on the good news and I diligently gave her the drops 4x's a day for the next 48 hours.  By the time we went to bed on Sunday night, I was loosing my hopeful attitude.  The eye had not changed at all.

We had an appointment for recheck @ 9:30am the morning of Christmas Eve.  I opened my own eyes with fear and trepidation on that Monday morning.  And what to my wondering eyes did appear?  But a wee Nessie Monster with her eyes all so clear!  Happiness!  Wiggly dogs and happiness!  No worries according to the Vet about the Glaucoma.  Not that.  Must have been some kind of trauma.  What?  Who knows?  But she's suddenly better.  She will stay on drops til the 4th when she will be checked again, but happiness abounds because we are all in good health.

Next;  Nessie gets a blood work up ahead of a dental exam......that will happen on the 4th also.

Taken the day after Christmas, just 4 short days later...