Thoughts for Theo

[blanche]

Not a pug, but if you could spare a thought or two for my old shih tzu man, I'd appreciate it. He has a couple of warts on his shoulder that he keeps scratching open and irritating, as well as an ongoing ear infection in just one ear. We've tried a bunch of things with the warts--he had them when he came into rescue, but the scratching is really making them nasty.

The ear is making me crazy. Once I got his diet figured out all his other itchy things cleared up, but not this one ear. It's badly scarred inside (due, I think, to life long untreated infections) and no matter what we do, we can never really get that ear to clear up.

So he's as healthy as I can get him--which is pretty healthy for a 13 year old with a heart murmur. He's asymptomatic for the heart murmur to date so I decided to get the warts removed and while he's under, get the infected ear REALLY cleaned out. While he's great with me, he can be a bit snappy with the vet around anything to do with his face so sedation is the way to go for the ear cleaning. And I don't want him hurt and I imagine digging around in that ear would be unpleasant, at best.

My vet is great and knows the flat faced breeds well. But you can't help but worry especially with him being deaf and blind.

I'm sure he'll be fine, but, of course, I'm anxious. I figured better now when he's actually pretty healthy as the older he gets the riskier this all gets.

So some thoughts for my little Theopolis, please.....

[Jug and Pug]

Thoughts and all our wishes for Theopolis.....poor little one. 

Our best hopes that the ear cleaning makes a BIG difference....will he be having the warts removed as well?

When will he be having it done?

[blanche]

Thoughts and all our wishes for Theopolis.....poor little one. 

Our best hopes that the ear cleaning makes a BIG difference....will he be having the warts removed as well?

When will he be having it done?

It's all getting done tomorrow.  I figured since the warts need to come off, we might as well get the ear flushed out as well.  It's becoming a bit of a vicious cycle with his ear.  It gets yeasty and he scratches it with his back foot and then we get yeast under the nail bed, etc.  All his feet had yeasty nail beds, but not now except for that one foot--which is the one used for scratching the icky ear.

I suspect that the ear is so narrow from scarring that none of the meds/cleaners are getting down far enough to kill off the infection.  And I don't want to keep pouring antibiotics, etc down there and risking resistant bugs.

We've done an exam and he is healthy and we'll do pre-anaesthetic bloodwork, IV fluids--all the geezer bells and whistles.  And he won't be under very deep or for very long (we hope). 

I wouldn't even worry about the warts except for the fact that they are right where he can scratch them and keeps opening them up and then they get icky.  So bye bye warts and ear goo.

[Candace]

Lots of good thoughts for Theo. He's a sweet old man and I love to see him wandering about the park, thoroughly enjoying himself.
We'll be thinking of you tomorrow.

[dvm2012]

Lots of good vibes and thoughts for Theo! 

[Anna]

Oh my Theo!  All my hugs and healing thought your way sweet boy.

I know what you mean about his ear Blanche.  Shih Tzu ears are awful!  They are so prone to resistant infections and narrow ear canals.  My old fella Dougal had constant ear troubles.  We fought bounce-back ear infections with him for most of his life until It was eventually his undoing.  You are being proactive and taking things inhand early so I have no doubt Theo's outcome will be great.
hugs!

[serenpugity]

We'll be thinking of Theo here tomorrow and sending good wishes for a healthy ear and warts be gone! What a dear face he has, so photogenic.

[Kathy]

Lots of good, positive thoughts for Theo tomorrow!

[Jane aka 71337]

I'll be thinking of you both tomorrow. Sending you lots of good thoughts.

[clummy]

Poor Theo, I will be thinking of you tomorrow.

[Diane]

Poor Theo.  We will send all of our postivie thoughts his way tomorrow.  He is such a little trooper I hope this helps him feel better.

[blanche]

Oh my Theo!  All my hugs and healing thought your way sweet boy.

I know what you mean about his ear Blanche.  Shih Tzu ears are awful!  They are so prone to resistant infections and narrow ear canals.  My old fella Dougal had constant ear troubles.  We fought bounce-back ear infections with him for most of his life until It was eventually his undoing.  You are being proactive and taking things inhand early so I have no doubt Theo's outcome will be great.
hugs!

Good to know they are prone to this.  And the bloody hair in the ears doesn't help.  He was a wreck when he came to me for fostering--both ears were awful, yeast oozing out from under his nail beds, itchy skin,--yada yada yada.  It's taken alot of time, but everything is cleared up except this one ear and the one foot (which he uses to scratch the icky ear, of course).  So I figured it was time to bite the bullet and see if a good flushing out would help.  He may have narrow canals generally, but I think the scarring in that ear has caused much of the narrowing--and I wouldn't be surprised if this is why he's deaf.  We'll see how it goes.  Better now than later and if it doesn't work, well, I'll be pissed, but we'll just soldier on with the Burow's Solution.

[blanche]

One day, I'll bring him to one of the outdoor Pugalugs so you can meet him, Anna.  He wouldn't do as well in the indoor ones as he is too easy for the youngsters to slam into and he can't see or hear them coming.  but he loves a good teedle in a park.

[Pam]

Sending good thoughts to Theo.  I hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow.  He is such a little doll.  Thinking of you tomorrow waiting for the good results to be posted.

[pugmetender]

Wishing all the very best for you, little Theo.
I'll be thinking about you tomorrow.