ABSOLUTELY GUTTED

[Papillon Kisses]

Malcolm and I really liked Dr Kelly Caruso at Eye Clinic for Animals.
 

I think like rotten teeth the pain of diseased eyes can be well hidden by dogs, but they feel so much brighter after and sometimes you only realise it in hindsight.

 

I imagine the ophthalmologist walked you through all the pros and cons of prosthetists?

 

I would definitively proceed with a veterinary ophthalmologist and anaesthetist, vs regular vet and no specialist anaesthetist.

[Loving my Oldies]

@Papillon Kisses, Kelly Caruso is married to the specialist I am seeing with Bunches and Beatrice  .  I used to see her with Danny many years ago.  
 

[_PL_]

I've done 4 enucleation over time. All seniors. No prostheses.

With fluffies the hair grows in and you just see a winky dog.  With short hair dogs you do see a sunken socket. 

None needed a special anaesthetist so I can't help you there but if the specialist recommends it, it must be very important because of their squishy faces. 

The difference it made for each dog was amazing! (Having had a tiny scratch on my cornea I can't believe how stoic dogs are with much worse).   

 

[Loving my Oldies]

On 13/03/2023 at 9:29 AM, Powerlegs said:

None needed a special anaesthetist so I can't help you there but if the specialist recommends it, it must be very important because of their squishy faces.

 

Yes, that's the reason.   

[Loving my Oldies]

I have been so sad this week since being given the news about Bunches and Beatrice, but a further shock has been added and I simply don’t know how to process this one.  I told a friend (not very close, mostly email correspondence) about their diagnoses and how much it was going to cost.  This person sent me a reply suggesting that I put them to sleep and go out and get another dog.  I could hardly believe what I was reading and have been feeling sick ever since that someone would actually put this in writing.  
 

I know I just have to shrug it off and forget it, but it still shocks me to the core.  

[_PL_]

 Seriously! 

 

I'm so sorry LMO, sometimes people just don't think. 

[Kazm]

I’m really sorry to hear of this persons response. That is so upsetting for you. How can they say this to you. I think you do need to just forget this comment. Put it right out of your head. (Easier said than done I know).

 Concentrate on your little girls and do what needs to be done. 

[Loving my Oldies]

48 minutes ago, Kazm said:

I’m really sorry to hear of this persons response. That is so upsetting for you. How can they say this to you. I think you do need to just forget this comment. Put it right out of your head. (Easier said than done I know).

 Concentrate on your little girls and do what needs to be done. 

Yes, I need to just put it aside and, as you say, concentrate on my girls. 

 

Bunches is getting more cuddles than ever because she is on eyes drops several times a day and she tends to hide under the couch or the cabinet.  In the morning she gets four different sorts a few minutes apart, two more at different times through the day and the same four in the evening as in the morning.  Beatrice is on half that number and she just sits there waiting for the onslaught.  

 

Shala is on one in the evening, so she is the easy one. 

 

Strawby (foster dog) is on meds that go in her food.  

 

I love them all more than words can say.  

 

Needless to say, I have a typed out program that gets checked off through the day.  

 

Busy, huh !!!

[Rebanne]

some people just don't get it, in fact many people don't get it. And where are their manners? Even if you think it there is no need to say it.

[Loving my Oldies]

21 minutes ago, Rebanne said:

some people just don't get it, in fact many people don't get it. And where are their manners? Even if you think it there is no need to say it.

I know.  Absolutely incomprehensible to me.  

[tdierikx]

Obviously that person doesn't know you very well, so their opinion really doesn't count anyways...

 

Massive hugs to you LMO... hang in there, OK?

 

T.

[Loving my Oldies]

4 hours ago, tdierikx said:

Obviously that person doesn't know you very well, so their opinion really doesn't count anyways...

 

Massive hugs to you LMO... hang in there, OK?

 

Yes, that is for sure.

 

I just have a background of sorrow all the time, which I know is bad for the dogs, but I am trying to keep overcome it.  
 

In some respects, though, I am very lucky.  Last year I received a refund from my super account following the financial royal commission, of fees paid.  It wasn’t much but huge for me because my house needs some urgent repairs.  Despite numerous visits from tradespeople, I haven’t managed to get them done except for new fences.  
 

So, I will have another talk with the specialist this week and get things underway.  

[Tassie]

Coming in late, but just a reassurance as others have given.  A friend had to remove an eye from her 15 year old Brittany Spaniel.  Medical treatment for glaucoma was not working.  The surgery went very well, and the next day the lad was happy as a clam, and hasn't looked back.  The fur grew over the scar quite quickly, and your wouldn't really know that he'd had surgery,  

 

And the ;friend; may need to be reclassified.   I dont know that I could do what you do, but I absolutely admire you for doing it.

[Papillon Kisses]

I’m sorry about your friend. I’ve been in a similar position.

 

Just noting that Bunches finds eyecare stressful. If I recall correctly, prosthetic eyes require more aftercare. I personally would give that considerable weight when making a decision.

 

[Loving my Oldies]

5 hours ago, Papillon Kisses said:

I’m sorry about your friend. I’ve been in a similar position.

 

Just noting that Bunches finds eyecare stressful. If I recall correctly, prosthetic eyes require more aftercare. I personally would give that considerable weight when making a decision.

 

I’m sorry you experienced similar, PK.  Sure as hell knocked me for a six  .

 

I have decided against the prosthetic.  Too big a surgery with a long recovery time.  I won’t put Bunches through it.  

[Boronia]

18 hours ago, Loving my Oldies said:

Yes, that is for sure.

 

I just have a background of sorrow all the time, which I know is bad for the dogs, but I am trying to keep overcome it.  
 

In some respects, though, I am very lucky.  Last year I received a refund from my super account following the financial royal commission, of fees paid.  It wasn’t much but huge for me because my house needs some urgent repairs.  Despite numerous visits from tradespeople, I haven’t managed to get them done except for new fences.  
 

So, I will have another talk with the specialist this week and get things underway.  

 This is   LMO but it may be worth tradies contacting you via this page linkie here (I was contacted by a very reasonable and very professional solar inverter guy and was very happy with the job and he really did have to go out of his way to get to our place)

 

[Little Gifts]

Think about it this way - good or bad we all hold beliefs on where our limits lie. I worked with a woman who went on a child free cruise with her husband and lived it up. On a 4 day cruise they racked up a $4,000 alcohol bill. You and I would think that was incredibly wasteful but after her initial shock she said it was worth it. Her first holiday without up to 4 small kids (children from other marriages) and she unwound and lived it up and came back ready to face the onslought again. As Stussy was sick last year my non-animal loving neighbour (from a different culture) asked me why I just didn't get rid of her now she was old and costing me money. I suspect the look on my face surprised her because she came back a few days later and said she'd been thinking about it and realised she was placing her values on mine and genuinly felt bad about offending me. Last year with both dogs sick we lived on food hampers for a number of months because that was literally the only area I could cut back on. I was hemorrhaging money and went from 1 to 3 jobs to keep from going under. But that situation eventually settled and life is much more normal this year, even though as an oldie it has meant going back to full time employment. It will probably take me 2 years though to get back to where I was financially and I still lost one of the dogs but I have zero regrets. I know you wont either. Your friend doesn't really 'see' you very well if she doesn't know that.

[Deeds]

One of my neighbours commented on my very healthy dog limping with "why don't you put him down".  Needless to say I never answered and have never spoken to him again.

 

This person had a small white fluffy that was never on a leash.  Got fed table scraps and was never taken to the Vet for an extremely bad itch.

 

My dog was well cared for and loved.  Some people should just keep their mouths shut.  And I wish they would when they have attitudes like that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Diva]

More on the same vein: Some years ago I made the mistake of sharing with my mother how much boarding my dog while I was overseas was going to cost. The next day she rang to say that she had been ‘chatting with a lady in the supermarket’ and they had got rid of their dog before they went on holiday and got a new one when they got back and why didn’t I do that and save all the money? I told her that would be despicable and morally bankrupt, and what did ‘get rid of’ mean anyway, put to sleep? Well she’s an old dog so why not was the response. 
 

Forward 15 years and my mother was in a nursing home, but I get a text out of the blue from my sister saying ‘what a shame’ it was I had the ‘burden’ of the dogs as this was the time of life I am supposed to be travelling and if I didn’t have them I could do what I was supposed to do as a retired person. I told her I didn’t live my life according to other people’s schedules, I’d travelled so much in my working life it was the last thing I wanted to do, and the dogs were the greatest source of joy in my life.  Turns out she wanted to go cruising and expected me to enable that by going with her but the dogs were a problem and I shouldn’t  have them. I told her I would get rid of her out of my life if needed but the dogs weren’t going anywhere. Not sure how we are even related. 

Edited March 20, 2023 by Diva

[Loving my Oldies]

That is shocking, @Diva.   Unfortunately, your stories have resurrected a conversation from many years ago with my brother-in-law.  I was supposed to have a shoulder operation which would have put me out of action for 3 months.  To my absolute horror, my sister  offered to come down to look after me - I am in Sydney and she is in Brisbane.  Says my BIL:  you’ll have to put the dogs into boarding, of course.  I replied:  I could hire a full time nurse for what that would cost.  He said: How rude.  I said: Dog minding is a business.  Anyway, couldn’t get through to him, so gave up.  I didn’t tell him that possibly the only thing worse than having my sister “look after” me might be @Little Gifts’s Scary Sister.