Hi, friends! I just wanted to share a quick update with you guys about Murphy. As you saw in this morning’s BarkBox post, he’s doing quite a bit better. Physically, he still has a way to go, but, personality-wise, he’s back to his old pug self (i.e. acting like we never feed him, obsessively sitting on our laps, barking at the mailman), and we are especially happy about it!
So, last Thursday, we visited the vet. We take Muprhy to the VCA now, so he can see various specialists for his health issues. First, we saw his ear doctor, who removed his stitches and “cone of shame.” Because of the surgery, Murphy permanently lost the hearing in his right ear, which we knew going into it, but it’s still pretty sad. He is also dealing with balance issues and a head tilt, which may or may not get better with time. Everything else looked great and the biopsy on his ear tumor was benign. Yay! (We’re still waiting to hear back about the one done on his jaw.)
We also saw his ophthalmologist. Shortly after his ear surgery, Murphy developed some pretty bad eye ulcers. We’ve dealt with ulcers in the past, but nothing like this before. His right eye (the same side as the surgery) was especially irritated, so the vet thought maybe it was related to his ear inflammation and/or infection. She’s not exactly sure, so, last week, we aggressively treated his eyes with hourly (yes, hourly) drops. Basically, any hour that we were awake, we put drops into Murphy’s eyes, in addition to a 4-times-a-day regimen with two other kinds of eye drops. All of our hard work paid off because the ophthalmologist was really happy with the improvement she saw. Now we’re down to giving Murphy two kinds of eye drops 3 times a day, which is a lot more manageable and enjoyable for all parties involved. Both doctors want to see Murphy again in about a month for a check-up.
So, that’s it for now– all good news for the “Million Dollar Dog.” We hope he just continues to improve!