Sorry for the lack of updates — last week stunk!
- Jake’s eye is not healing as fast as they’d like. At the appointment on Thursday they said it might always stay like this — like raw hamburger meat slapped across his eyeball.
- His eye drops were supposed to get cut back but they did not, so I’m still relying on a spreadsheet. Ironically, Jake’s eyes do not produce tears but mine produce plenty!
- He is still in the cone. We are going on week four. To help protect his neck I cut up a pair of yoga pants and made liners for under his neck. It works great although I should not have used black pants — it makes him look like he is in ISIS.
- Then Jake had a bad reaction to his pain meds but we got that switched up
- AND his ear infection refuses to heal so we are trying a new set of drops for that.
He’s definitely my dog.
My mom had (planned) surgery, she’s doing good. Then I got a two-day migraine. That gets your caught up!
On a completely unrelated note to any of the above. I have a really big SUV. I actually ordered it for Melvin (because my last SUV was too small for him, it was too tight for him to jump into and he didn’t fit in any of the seats (with Jake) or in the back with the seats folded down -he had to hunch over). Melvin died one week before it came in. The universe writes strange poetry. Anyway, there is a big SUV parked in the driveway so I like to be a bit balanced on the green front. I’m constantly looking for ways to tip that balance. Last week I realized that our biggest crime against the environment might not even be the gas guzzler (especially since I work from home), it is likely Jake’s maxi-pad addiction count for his diapers. I mean between the giant SUV and my male dogs maxi-pads, well if fire winds start blowing, you can blame us.
So we are TRYING cloth diaper pads. I don’t have kids so I had no idea what options were out there but Amazon knows everything and they served up some charcoal, anti-bacterial pads that claim they can handle a lot of liquid and keep skin dry so we shall see. They are like a giant pad, there is no adhesive so I just place one inside our awesome belly bands and velcro tight. I wash so many loads of laundry for Jake every day (bedding, diapers, blankets) that I cannot imagine these will make a difference in that respect. We shall see.
So you are all caught up! My new full time job is eye drops, Jake dresses like a terrorist, cloth diapers make their debut. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday so far! We’ll be picking our August Melvin’s Project Joy winner this week – yay!!!!
Cloth diaper liner. 
A drawing of Jake from the talented Carly! He even has his diaper on! It’s like his body is trying to distance itself from the pee and his eyes! 
Off to the vet with hamburger eye, it’s what’s we do! (PS. he is locked into the seatbelt clip — safety always!)
Jake? Are you wearing a black hood? 
You’re the best mom I know!!
Sent from my iPhone
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Or the craziest!
I love that through all this you can keep a sense of humor and provide us with a few laughs too! Prayers that Jake’s eye improves!
Laughter keeps the insanity away!
Boca was a slow healer, too – about one week behind the estimates. I hope that Jake’s hamburger eye will continue healing. All told Boca was a cone-head for TEN weeks – boy, were we all glad when it was time to retire that thing.
Stop! NO! Ten weeks???? Deep breathing will now begin. How did you survive!?
The majority of that was figuring out what was wrong and what to do about it (the first treatment failed miserably) so you guys are way ahead of us already!
You’re such an awesome dog mom, I’m sorry Jake’s eye and ears aren’t healing as fast as it should. We’ve got fingers and paws crossed for you that this week will be much better!
Thank you, so much!
I agree, you are the most awesomest of dog moms.
Thank you, but we both know i’m cray!
Poor Jakey! Way to go mom you’re doing awesome for that boy!!
Thank you!!! And thanks for the shout out on the blog!!
You are so awesome. You are such a positive and loving mama to Jake!
I still go with just plain crazy!
In terms of the cone- have you thought about getting an eye shield style instead? Optivisor is the brand I found that basically makes a clear hood that the dog wears- Koira wore it after having a growth removed from her lower eyelid. She was so much more comfortable in it than in a cone, able to walk through doorways without running into things, able to get into and out of her crate without getting hung up, all of that. I think that Jake would really benefit from having something like that instead of the cone, especially since with his legs he already has enough problems getting around.
I don’t have anything invested in Optivisor, no benefit to me if you get one. But I had never heard of it before Koira had her eye surgery, and I wish someone had told me about it sooner. Because it was seriously amazing, way, way better than a cone. This is where we ordered ours: http://horse.bigdweb.com/tack/Optivisor
A lot of the reviews are from people with dogs with chronic eye problems, and most people seem to love this. I certainly did, and am keeping it around just in case we need it in the future.
Shut the front door!!! I just ordered it! That is amazing, especially since they have said his time in the cone is ‘indefinite’. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
You are very welcome. Like I said, I wished someone had told me about it sooner! You might mention it to your vet, especially the eye surgeon, in case they want to start recommending it to patients. Because yeah. Seriously way, way better than a cone.
You might have to pad around the back of the ears if he has sensitive skin and wears it for a long time. Koira got two teeny tiny sores after about a week right there, but she has super sensitive skin and almost no hair. And you have to pad the cone anyway, so it’s not like it makes much difference.
Threw it all the most important thing is you have each other!
Poor Jake and poor mama. Our Jakester had eye problems galore and we can relate to the eye-drop-spreadsheet. That was the only way we could keep up with it. For weeksc my life revolved around those eye drops.
I love the creativity you have with the cloth diaper inserts and ISIS neck wrap. Only your dog would be on a terrorist watch list! 😂😂😂
I’m grabbing for the wine bottle catching up on just reading about all you and Jake have been through the last couple of weeks. You are my hero.