Howllo Fellow Hound and Welcome Home from the eye doctor lovers: (Whew)

Well, we are home and Lordie Mercy the saga continues!

Dr. Ketring took one look at her eye from across the room and took a deep sigh. I knew that was not good. He put a drop in her eye and then turned off the lights. He got out his eye light thing and looked for a nano second. I guess he already saw the problem from across the room.

My Mom and I were sitting like 2 birds on a wire. Emma was looking straight at him like she could see everything and she was waiting for the verdict!

Dr. Ketring turned his back and began writing in, “The Chart”. My Mom and I looked at each other with dread. Emma kept looking at his back.

Dr. Ketring whipped around in the wheeled chair and said,

“I have been doing prosthetic eyes since 1962 and I have only had one failure.”

Me……… “Gulp” while thinking to myself, typical of my luck.

Dr. Ketring,

“This might be number 2.” As he drummed his fingers on the desk he said,

“I want to try one more 2 week treatment, since she is not in pain. I tested her with the examination and she is not in pain due to the dulled sensation of her cornea and the meds she is on.”

Me……… “OK, lay it on me.”

Dr. Ketring went on to say that Emma’s eye was really no worse than it was about 2 weeks ago. It just was not healing. If we could just get the blood vessels to make their way over the abrasion on the cornea it should heal. She could keep her prosthetic for a while longer and not have to endure the prosthetic removal.

“OK”, I said how do we try this?

He looked at his tech and said, “pull some blood from Trowler and get me some serum”!

Trowler is Dr. Ketring’s Chesapeake Bay curly coated retriever.

Dr. Ketring then went on to try and tell us about this method. He said that Emma’s corneal abrasion was not healing and this therapy may help. The serum consists of platelets spun out of his dog’s blood. This could help to form an adhesion blanket to the abrasion and allow the blood vessels to connect and heal Emma’s abrasion. This treatment is given every 6 hours for 2 weeks.

Wow, I think I got that right?!? I am pretty jazzed about it since she is not in pain. We are going to try this for 2 weeks and then see. If I notice any signs of pain we are going to abort this therapy and get her prosthetic removed ASAP.

Regardless, Emma is going to have a bit of curly coated retriever in her!

She might enjoy swimming now and her coat might get a bit curly! I told her doctor that we are family now and we need to exchange holiday cards.

LOL – All kidding aside, I really hope this works. Her doctor really just wants Emma to get better. She is kind of one of his favorites.

Right now she is playing with Chaps and having a great time.

Now, time for bed!

Stay tuned.

Her regular vet has already been called and is ready to remove the prosthetic at a moments notice. Currently, Emma seems great. Remember, I went through glaucoma with her and I know her signs of pain.

Remember, dogs can mask pain very well, so keep a close eye for pawing, rubbing, laying on the painful eye side kind of funny, like twisting the head so it is pressing down on the painful eye. A huge sign is the third eye lid coming up and covering the eye or total shut down of the eye with the lids closed. Really, anything abnormal in the eye area.

OK, I have to go give Emma her drops.

More Later….Cat, Chaps and Emma

P.S. Just in case you are curious? I have spent 300.00 in 2 weeks on Emma’s fake eye. I have also been giving her 3 different drops every 4 to 6 hours in varying formulations for 2 weeks.

This is just information for those of you that are reading my blog and might want to consider a prosthetic. They are a huge amount of money and work.

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Her Doctor wants to see her at 3:45 –

She woke up wagging her tail, so I do not think she is in pain.

Howllo Fellow Hound and Emma’s fake eye lovers! (That sounded wierd!) Anyway, Emma’s fake eye got worse over the weekend. Thank goodness I could get her in today for an urgent appointment. Please send her some drool. The poor girl needs a break.

More news later…….Cat, Chaps and Emma

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Howllo Fellow Hound and Google lovers!

OMG! I am thrilled beyond belief! If you google basset hounds, the results bring up 3,630,000 results in 0.13 seconds!

Bassethoundtown.com in on page 2!

Can someone say, Hell to the Yes!

We work hard for our Google listing!

Thanks for your support! Keep googling! Slurp!

More Google love later…….Cat, Chaps and Emma

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Howllo Fellow Hound and Emma lovers: I just wanted to update her followers on her prosthetic eye. It does not look good. Remember how I reported that she had a deep corneal abrasion? Well, it has been almost a week and it does not look any better, possibly a bit worse. We have an appointment on Thursday, but I am going to call on Monday to see if we can get in earlier.

My goodness, if it is not one thing it is another.

Poor Emma. For those of you who do not know. A prosthetic eye is placed behind the real cornea of a dog’s eye. The fake eye moves and tracks towards sounds. It is totally for the human. I feel so sorry for Emma. I hate that she might need to have the prosthetic removed.

I am really kicking myself over this one.

When I was looking for a pup, I thought I would try a top notch, reputable AKA – BHCA breeder. I wanted to avoid this type of condition.

I was so anxious to get a healthy hound. I did everything in my power. I had so many expenses with Chloe and Lily. Chloe was from a puppy mill and Lily was a stray.

I found out later that Emma had bilateral, abnormal drainage angles. Not only was she compromised from the beginning, but the breeders knew about it. I achieved the exact opposite of my original goal.

I had no idea what this CERF eye examination meant. This link will take you to the CERF website that is a wealth of knowledge.

If you decide to go to an AKC reputable BHCA breeder for a pup and that breeders does this eye examination, make sure you review it with your breeder. The pup you purchase should have a normal eye examination. The breeder needs to give you a copy of the examination report. If you have any questions, just contact me via my contact page.

I will update everyone on Emma’s condition soon.

Emma is thrilled to have so many folks who care about her. Thank you

More later…Cat, Chaps and Emma

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Howllo Fellow Hound and Emma as a pup lovers:

I took some massive footage four years ago of the kids when we got home from BoBac Bassets in TX. The only problem was, it is all on a VCR tape! OMG – How times change! Emma could see back then and Chaps had no gray hair!

I was finally able to transfer it to a format that I could edit on my Mac. This YouTube video is just a tiny portion of the actual footage. Which means, I have much more to come!

Here is Emma’s debut as a pup!

Here is what I wrote about it on YouTube:

Hey everyone!

I took the video footage of this film when Emma was just a young pup! It was on a VCR tape. I was just able to have it converted so I could edit it on my Mac. I just loved seeing Emma looking at me again. It was so much fun.

Emma is blind now from primary closed angle glaucoma. She went blind around age 2. This is a disease that is inherited.

Emma is not one to sit on her her pretty haunches and hope someone does something. So, she set up her own fund to help the Canine Health Foundation research Basset Hound Glaucoma. Do you want to visit her Firstgiving Page?

If so, here is the link:

http://www.firstgiving.com/emmarudertbassethoundtown

If you give 20.00 or more she will send you a free gift. Go check it out!

Also, come visit us!

Read our blog and discover free stuff all the time!

More Later…Cat, Chaps and Emma – Making friends from around the globe!

Music – Friends by Elton John

Go ahead – Sing along!

I hope the day will be a lighter highway
For friends are found on every road
Can you ever think of any better way
For the lost and weary travellers to go

Making friends for the world to see
Let the people know you got what you need
With a friend at hand you will see the light
If your friends are there then everything’s all right

It seems to me a crime that we should age
These fragile times should never slip us by
A time you never can or shall erase
As friends together watch their childhood fly

More Later…Cat, Chaps and Emma

P.S. there are ads on this page because I am using an Elton John song.

That is how YouTube does it now. I love the fact that they still let us use cool songs.

More Friends later……Cat, Chaps and Emma

OMG – My sisters and I listened to this for hours on end in the early 1970s.

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Howllo Fellow Hound and YouTube lovers: I was catching up on a few new Tubes and saw this. I thought that my viewers would enjoy it. We hope you are also enjoying your Saturday afternoon.

Chaps, Emma and I are……..

More Tubin’ later –

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Howllo Fellow Hound and teacher’s pet lovers! No truer words have ever been spoken. Not only do the children love our Chaps, the teachers are in awe of him. He was such a good boy. He sat and let 60 kids pet him today. They all waited their turn patiently!

First off, I gave a dog safety lecture and then I read the Lily book. Then each kid lined up to pet our boy.

Here we are starting off the petting process! NEXT………

Chaps was sure he smelled lunch on this little pretty girl.

This little boy really followed instructions. Look how he is offering the back of his hand to Chaps for a good smell! Good Boys!

This was so funny, Chaps tried to lift up this little girl’s shirt! She was having none of it!

The whole day was packed with fun images like this. Chaps was the perfect gentleman. He marched in, sat my by side, and then slept through the reading. When the kids lined up, he sat up and participated. He truely is an angel and a great ambassetor!

The KIDS loved him.

More good relations later….Cat, Chaps and Emma

P.S. he did sling a drool, but prior to entering the reading area. Whew!

P.P.S. that wierd collar he has on is a special light up collar, but it did not work inside. OH WELL!

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Howllo Fellow Hound and cute pup lovers: I posted a YouTube video a few days ago that showed some cute pups. You have to see these kids in their new video. They are soooooooooooooo cute.

I want to play!

More pup love later…Cat, Chaps and Emma

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Howllo Fellow Hound and cute picture lovers! I just think this is the cutest picture ever of our boy. He was still slightly damp after his bath on Saturday.

I am thrilled he is feeling so much better. Tomorrow he has a howling engagement to read the Lily Book to 60 kids! This little school has had him booked for months, so I was crushed that I might have to cancel. He is like a celebrity. The principle told me that he ranks right up there with the guy from the Cincinnati Zoo! Wow, the mayor has hit the big time!

Prior to reading the Lily Book, I give a dog safety talk for about 3 minutes. This way every kid knows how to approach Chaps after the reading. Everyone gets to pet him on the head and get their picture taken. It is so cute! I will post some pictures of his appearance tomorrow.

Have a nice afternoon, and –

More Later…Cat, Chaps and Emma

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Howllo Fellow Hound and Dog Auction haters: My dear friend, Chris Dowd, was involved in the rescue of 25 bassets from a Missouri dog auction last Saturday.

For those of you who do not know about Dog Auctions it means something like this…

The auctions are for breeders & millers who are getting rid of “stock” for a lot of varied reasons. Now I am told a lot of them are doing it because they can’t pay their feed bills. Other times it might be that a particular animal isn’t producing with their other dogs.

This time of year they are getting ready for the Holiday puppy season. Here is one of the breeding females saved from a life of hell. This is where pet shop puppies come from! Click on the picture to see how these Moms are treated.

Chris, one of the main rescue workers states,

“Last Saturday there was an auction in Missouri. We found out about it the Thursday morning before the auction and decided that we even though we hadn’t a clue about auctions – how they worked etc. – that we were going to get those bassets! The catalogue had 23 listed, but not all of them were there. We ended up with 15 adults and 10 puppies. Sadly, one of the pups (who I named Angel) was too weak to survive. The only consolation is that she died at the vet’s office in the arms of people who loved her. The poor baby was only 3-4 weeks old and had probably never known the love of a human before.”

Here is her picture:

Here are her surviving siblings:

Chris goes on to state,

“By working frantically (there were 3 of us involved by now) we managed to get commitments from rescues and thought we had someone to represent us at the auction. But then that person got sick with the flu. Panic time! Miraculously we were put in touch with the people who ended up doing the bidding for us. Not only did they do the bidding, they transported all the dogs to the vet clinic for us and are coordinating their care. What angels they are.

During the auction – for reasons unknown to us – not all the dogs in the catalogue were there. This is not uncommon. Deals are made on the side, breeders decide to keep someone at the last minute – and I’m sure a lot of other things can happen. So we got everyone we could. They will go to rescues, then foster care and finally furever homes! We’re told that they are very friendly and don’t have the fears that so many mill dogs have.”

Look at these safe souls!

All of these bassets are going to different rescues. There is a PayPal account set up that AZ Basset Hound Rescue will distribute the funds to. Please keep in mind, this is a group effort and these hounds are being accepted by rescues far and wide.

Here is the PayPal account address. If you wish to send money, go to PayPal.com and send money to this address. As you can see it is made out to The Kansas 9. This was another situation of similar circumstances that AZ has in place to funnel money to the correct rescues. I know it sounds complicated, but trust me, the money will get to the MO hounds if you put that in her message box. Here is the address.

TheKansas9@yahoo.com

Chris Dowd is one of the best basset hound friends ever. I love you Chris. You do such great work. Let me know how things are going and I can keep blogging about it. That sweet Mommy hound really touched my soul. Can you imagine keeping a sweet looking hound like her locked up? I wish I knew someone from a real life Soprano family.

Lights out!

More later…Cat, Chaps and Emma

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