Goopy Eye Continued

The first day of Coneheaddome was a hard day, but I tried to take the cone off so Auggie could sleep without it on and he immediately started to paw his eye again, so it unfortunately had to go back on. I took it off at about 4PM the second day and he left his eye alone, so we were able to keep it off after that, much to Auggie's relief. It's hard to be a conehead.
At first his eye seemed to be getting much better right away. The green mucus discharge went away within a couple days and the redness got much much better, but he still kept putting out a lot of clear mucus, far more than usual. We went to Louisville for agility the following week, and his breeder told me she thought it might be a clogged tearduct and I should take him back to the vet. The vet said yup... clogged tearduct. The bad news was, he wanted to put him under to unclog it... and figured while Auggie was under we should do a dental too.

Well, I called around and found a vet that would fix it without putting him under, but it was going to cost over $200. Auggie's teeth really aren't in need of a dental and I don't want to put him under, but I didn't want to pay over $200 either. I decided I would think about it for a while and figure out what I wanted to do. A clogged tearduct isn't harmful and it can't turn into anything worse, and was probably caused by the eye infection, so all it was going to mean was a lot more discharge than normal. Not exactly fun for Auggie or for me, so I DID want to fix it... I just wasn't sure which the best course of action was.

That weekend, I went to the yuppie grocery store in town. I actually went looking for some stuff for my face that I'd read about on the internet, but couldn't find it. However, they have a tiny little pet section, and in that pet section I found Halo Cloud Nine herbal eye wash. I had read about it online while reading about clogged tearducts and was sort of delighted to see it there. It was $20, all natural, and it claimed to open clogged tearducts and was mentioned a few places online. I figured, well, $20 was a lot cheaper than $200, and if it didn't work, at least I'd tried a cheaper, natural solution first, right?
The wash comes with two different solution concentrates that you mix up in an eye dropper. You do three days of drop one, three days of drop two, then repeat drops one and drops two for a full cycle. The notes that came with the drops said "You may notice a swallowing motion right after putting the drops in. This means the tear ducts are clear. This may not happen right away." When I first began putting the eye drops in, I didn't really see him swallowing. The third day of the first round of drop one, I THOUGHT I saw him swallow after I put the drops in the eye with the clogged tear duct. The first morning of the first round of drop two, I definitely saw him swallow after I put the drops in his clogged eye. He also already had a lot less mucus coming from that eye than he had since he first got the eye infection. The second drops are to clear out the bacteria that clogs the tearducts to sort of "finish the job," and I suppose you repeat the round to just make sure you've gotten everything.

Well, I am REALLY thrilled to say that these drops worked for Auggie. I didn't have to fork over tons of money for the vet to put him under and unclog it, nor did I have to fork over tons of money for the specialist to unclog it without putting him under! All I did was pay $20 and it was ALL NATURAL to boot. Whoo-hoo!

Auggie's goopy eye, and first experience as a conehead

When I got home from work Friday, Auggie's left eye had a slightly green, very goopy eye booger in the corner. That's not at all normal for him... his eye was slightly red and he was squinting it just a little bit. Luckily, we were already going to the vet Saturday morning for his annual. All evening long I kept going "Oh my poor puppy! You have a GOOPY!" and he just stared at me and squinted his eye a little...

I left him to go see Daughtry in concert, and when I came back, it was crazy goopy. Wiped it, but it was completely gooped over in the morning and he was starting to paw at it a bit. I wiped it again before we went to the vet but it was already goopy again by the time we got there.
The vet pronounced him "really good" except for his goopy eye, and sent me home with antibiotics to put in his eye three times a day. Then we stopped at PetSmart and got him an e-collar, where he proved his mad cuteness skills by getting a cookie not only from the cashier in our aisle, but the cashier in the OTHER aisle too. *facepalm*

Then I came home and put the e-collar on him. Poor guy looked pathetic. I said to him, "I'm sorry baby. I feel so bad for you. But not so bad I won't take pictures."


Saaaad puppy.


I asked him if he'd smile for me. Oooookay. Here you can see how he's squinting that eye just a little bit.




Auggie wants you all to know exactly what he thinks of having to be a cone-head.



He's done really well with it actually, except when he's walking somewhere and tries to squeeze through near the wall and ends up konking his cone on something... then he just stands there looking terribly confused. He tried to get it off right when I put it on, but he's pretty much left it alone otherwise. Though the first time we went outside he whacked his cone on the door frame and backed up looking startled and wasn't sure if he wanted to go outside after all. Poor baby.