Copper's Eyes and Update- 5/13/09

Copper's Eyes and Nose
I think Penny's eye problem is contagious. Yesterday I noticed that Copper had some discharge in his eyes similar to what Penny gets in her eyes. This is the first time that I have ever noticed Copper to get this. It was not as bad as Penny's, by far, and today I do not notice any in his eyes, but that is also the way Penny started out. I also noticed that today his nose is also dry, which it usually is not. So I am wondering if the two are connected.


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Update (Penny)

Penny's Eyes
I do not think there has been much of a change in Penny's eyes. Still pretty much the same.

Allergies
Penny's Face
Penny's face has gotten much redder and there are now two or three spots that are open cuts.



Feet
Her feet still look the same, little red, but not bad at all, and they seem to be staying about the same, which is good.

Belly
Penny's belly looks really good now, all the redness as pretty much gone away and looks mostly normal.



Dry Nose
Still very dry.

Ears
I think that the stuff that I put in her ears did help a lot. The areas that were open soars have been slowly going away. I think on Sunday I will put it in her ears again, that will have been a week since I last put it in her ears.

Update- May 9, 2009

I am beginning to get worried that Penny's allergies may be returning.

Allergies
I believe that it was around April 25th that I decided that I would try taking Penny outside without her boots on. At first there seemed to be no difference in her paws and the amount that she was chewing on her paws, and it is hard to tell for sure but I do not believe that there is really a difference as of today.

Red Skin on Face
What does seem to have gotten worse is the areas on her face where you can see her skin, they pretty red, which they have not been for a while. On one of her ears is a large spot, then a little by her nose and somewhat around her eyes. I have noticed her a couple of times rub her face on the ground, but I am not sure if it is because of her eyes, ears or allergies.

Paws
Her paws are slightly red on the bottom, but in between her paws, the skin on the top is not really red at all.

Belly
For a while her belly was very red and dry, but it has now mostly cleared up, and is looking pretty close to normal.



Eyes
Penny's eyes have pretty much stayed the same.
I am now using:
Optimmune: 3 times a day
Neo-Poly-Bac: (Triple Antibiotic Ointment) (Instead of Artificial Tears) 2 times a day
I believe that it has been about 2 weeks since I switched from the Artificial Tears to Neo-Poly-Bac.


Ears
I am beginning to think that Penny's ears may be infected again.
Left ear- Does not look real bad inside. There is a little build up, but not as much as there has been in the past. This is the ear that is red on the outside of the ear and she is missing quite a bit of fur, so it seems like she must be scratching it.
Right ear- This is the one that I am starting to get very concerned about. There is not a ton of build up in this ear but there is a lot of spots where she must have been scratching because it is all scabby. I would like to put some stuff in her ears but I am hesitant to do so because of the scabby areas. I have not seen her ear bleeding at all, but it seems like every time I look inside her ear there are more and more scabs.



Unusual Eating
Her eating is sill the same as the last time I posted, and I have been putting some water in her food, which seems to help her have less difficulty when eating.


Dry Nose
Her nose is usually still very dry, and now her lips are very dry, and scabby is some spots. I am not sure if the dry lips are related to her allergy problem or her dry nose problem.


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I plan to give Penny a bath, and to start putting her boots back on her when she goes outside, to see if there are any changes, and see if it makes a difference.

I was wondering if she could possibly be allergic to pine. It would make sense why she was sill having such bad allergy problems during the winter, because of our christmas tree, maybe? Plus we have a lot of pine trees everywhere, and they are still around even during the winter. I would make sense why she improved so much as soon as I started putting her boots on her.

Update- April 22, 2009

I just wanted to post a quick update since I have not posted in awhile. There haven't really been any significant changes in any of Penny's problems since I last posted.

Eyes
Penny's eyes get better for a few days and then get worse again. Eyes seem to change from day to day. One good thing is that she does not seem to squint like she did previously, so that leads me to believe that they do not bother her as much as they did before.

Unusual Eating
She is still having some trouble eating, but not as much as she first did. I think that the apple cider vinegar seems to help. For awhile she started to eat better, but now it almost seems like she has taken a step backward. When she started to get better it took her longer to eat because it was as if she had to chew every piece. Now she has been laying down and eating again. Once again it is not as bad as before though. I am going to try and get a video of Penny's eating so maybe I will have that to post within the next couple of days.

Burping up of clear liquid
She has only done this one time since I last posted and I believe it was only two days after my last post. Of coarse she has not been extremely active since I last posted.

Dry Nose
Here nose is still just as dry as last time. No changes here.

Update: April 12th 2009

To start off, yesterday Penny seemed to have a very good day. Her eyes were not as bad, and they did not have as much mucus in them throughout the day. Today on the other had was a bad day for Penny. Today was Easter, and the family came over so Penny was very active. I think it was too much for her. Plus everyone was dropping food, which of course she had to pick up. Table scraps probably are not the best thing for a dog with allergies.

Eyes
Believe it or not her eyes did not get really really bad. I thought that they probably would since her eyes are usually the worst after she has had them open for a long period of time(when she is very active). They were only slightly worse than usual. Which is good.



Unusual eating
I do think that her eating is getting better. She now seems to be chewing the food where as she would normally just swallow it (or inhale it, which ever you prefer). I think that what ever was bothering her may be improving. Which is also good.



Burping up of clear liquid
This was Penny's main problem today. She must have burped up a mouth full of clear liquid at least 10 times through out the morning. I definitely does seem like she does this when she is up and about. It does not have to be when she has been extremely active, all she has to do is run around just a little bit in the house, in order for this to happen.



Dry nose
Today even though Penny was very active her nose still remained very dry throughout the day. Usually it seems like her nose may be dry but when she is more active it will become wet, not today though. She did drink some water too, how much I am not exactly sure.


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Overall Penny was very tired after all the excitement today, which is very understandable, although I wish she wasn't. One good thing is that she has not had any seizures, which was something that I was worried about, since today was she was more active than she has been in a long time. Also in the past when she had seizures was when she was very active. Luckily so far not seizures:)