Charlie's eye surgery -- he's home (Callie)

 Glad he saw the vet again, and things are ok (borderline, but ok).  Good boy Charlie, rest and heal, lots of folks praying for you dear pupper!

Just checking on Charlie today, I hope the news is good. 

When I went home after noon to give him his drops -- I noticed the left eye was looking VERY cloudy.  Almost like he had another cataract except this was over the entire iris.

Finally got them and they wanted to see him right away because we were going into the weekend, and the vet was about to leave.

 *huge sigh* -- I'm sure these vets are technically VERY good and very good surgeons, but dang they DO NOT TALK to you.  She examined him and literally went out of the room without telling me a darned thing.  The tech comes back in with an eye "ointment" that is supposed to take moisture out of that eye (it's only to go in the one eye).

 The kicker is that thiso ne has to be separated from the others  by aT LEAST half an hour to an hour.  So now that's SIX things separated by 10 minutes (to an hour *rooling my eyes*) that have to be done up to FOUR times a day.

 It gets danged confusing trying to keep up with which are 3 times a day and then which are four. 

 That all took 3 hours, so I went back to work at 4:30 and stayed til 8. 

Poor Charlie -- I know those eyes are SO painful -- but he is SOOOOO GOOD.  He doesn't try to rub them or resist.  But I'm concerned he's pretty shut down.  This has to begin to turn around and SHOW HEALING.

Prayers and good thots greatly appreciated

 Poor baby; I hope he doesn't have any more setbacks. Sending tons of prayers and healing thoughts.

jessies_mom

Poor baby; I hope he doesn't have any more setbacks.

Yeah -- we are being SO diligent about these drops.  Hopefully he just needs time to heal. 

They are REALLY giving me a hard time about the fact that I home cook.  I told them I use ground beef and they're POSITIVE I'm using the fattiest hamburger I can find (no -- like the $5 ound ground lean sirloin or better with the lowest fat content).  One tech in particular is convinced I'm poisoning him by feeding him "people food".  No -- this is a balanced diet worked out with my vet and probably lower fat than 99% of the kibble out there.  *sigh*

So today I bought beef HEART  .... gotta be the lowest in fat out there.

Sorry - I'm venting. 

But I also got him "funky monkey" banana chips (his potassium IS low, I saw) and he's liking those.  Bought him baby treats (as in human) that are totally fat free.

Apparently there is a connection with fat and eye surgery -- when they remove that membrane that holds the lens, it diminishes the barrier between the blood and the eye and too much fat can slow healing.  But dang it -- I keep everything low fat. 

ok - vent REALLY over LOL

Hugs for you, Callie. Charlie, you're doing great--keep healing little guy!

calliecritturs

They are REALLY giving me a hard time about the fact that I home cook.  I told them I use ground beef and they're POSITIVE I'm using the fattiest hamburger I can find (no -- like the $5 ound ground lean sirloin or better with the lowest fat content).  One tech in particular is convinced I'm poisoning him by feeding him "people food".  No -- this is a balanced diet worked out with my vet and probably lower fat than 99% of the kibble out there.  *sigh*

   When Jessie was at Purdue for her pancreatitis attack in February, I brought a copy of the cooked diet recipe that Monica had formulated. They said it wasn't the fat in the diet but a dietary intolerance to one of the ingredients that caused the attack, and that she should go back to the commercial diet I was feeding her. Monica agreed. I used canned i/d as a mixer in her kibble, but did not feed her more than a few tablespoons a day. The internist (who was not a nutritionist) wanted me to feed her mostly i/d, saying it had less fat than her dry food, which was 10% fat.  I disagreed, stating that according to HIll's website, canned i/d is 14% fat on a dry matter basis. She still insisted I feed mainly i/d for awhile, so I did what she wanted. The day after Jessie came home, she had gas bad enough to clear the house.   DH and I decided to feed her kibble with only a small amount of i/d added the next day, and she was fine. Don't let them get to you; you know what works for your dog better than they do. Continued good vibes for Charlie.

jennie_c_d

It's a good thing Prissy didn't think your homecooking was too high fat. Didn't you START cooking because of her pancreatitis?

Yep, Jennie -- that's exaclty why and gee, that was only 38 years ago??  *sigh* 

It's this one particular tech who seems to jump on this all the time -- she seems to assume I'm just feeding him Quarter Pounders with Cheese??  (with maybe a milkshake on the side?)

jessies_mom

used canned i/d as a mixer in her kibble, but did not feed her more than a few tablespoons a day. The internist (who was not a nutritionist) wanted me to feed her mostly i/d, saying it had less fat than her dry food, which was 10% fat.  I disagreed, stating that according to HIll's website, canned i/d is 14% fat on a dry matter basis. She still insisted I feed mainly i/d for awhile, so I did what she wanted. The day after Jessie came home, she had gas bad enough to clear the house.   DH and I decided to feed her kibble with only a small amount of i/d added the next day, and she was fine. Don't let them get to you; you know what works for your dog better than they do. Continued good vibes for Charlie.

The eyes are still not good and now the left eye is showing cloudy.  I made his food with beef heart this week and I trimmed off nearly all the pericadrium from the outside that had ANY fat at all, so it is as close to zero fat as I can get.  I backed off the leafy greens as well because the heart will have so much iron in it -- I actually put more grain in this week than usual hoping it would be more neutral.  They're really making me work to keep this balanced.  I'm glad I'm not a newbie at this.

A good time was had by all while Mom was cooking -- they got beef heart bits.  Yum. 

*smile* last week the low fat ground meat was $4.89 a pound   This week the heart was $1.56 a pound  We won't count my time  tho (I was 2 1/2 hours cutting up beef heart into tiny bits and getting every molecule of fat off it of before I cut it up!! LOL

calliecritturs

I made his food with beef heart this week and I trimmed off nearly all the pericadrium from the outside that had ANY fat at all, so it is as close to zero fat as I can get. 

   Don't overdo it Callie; dogs need some fat in their diet, and even prescription diets for pancreatitis are 10% fat. The diet I feed Jessie is 10% fat and has 2.9 grams of fat per 100 calories. The 95% lean beef you were using is about 4 grams of fat per 100 calories, baked. Cooked beef heart has 2 grams per 100 calories. I don't want to throw a lot of figures at you, but I don't think you need to go as low fat as beef heart unless you're adding other fat to his diet. There must be another reason for the eyes being cloudy ((( hugs ))); I'm so sorry he's not getting better and hope by tomorrow there's some improvement.

jessies_mom

I don't want to throw a lot of figures at you, but I don't think you need to go as low fat as beef heart unless you're adding other fat to his diet. There must be another reason for the eyes being cloudy ((( hugs ))); I'm so sorry he's not getting better and hope by tomorrow there's some improvement.

Janice -- that's EXACTLY what I told them last week and because this eye turned cloudy on Friday they rounded on me and INSISTED it ***HAD*** to be his food.  I know itw asn't.

I'm literally just bending to pressure here.  I know danged well last weeks food was NOT too fat, but at least this way I'm "making every effort".

And I have actually given Luna and Tink some digestible fat deliberately (and I will do so all week) because they **DO** need some fat in their diet.  And no, I don't add other fat at this point (I didn't even put sardines in this week to avoid any appearance of fat).

I know when that bloodwork comes back Monday it's *not* going to show an overabundance of fat in his diet.

Unfortunately it's this one tech who is over-reacting and every single time a vet comes into the room I hear "SO I hear you give this dog HAMBUGER -- you **MUST** keep him on a low fat diet".

Then I explain and they seem pacified until the next time this same danged tech comes in.

THANK YOU for re-affirming what I already knew -- I shall likely read this to David.  You and I *both* have been well-trained by Monica Segal and everything else we've both read on the subject.  Such is our lot when we have loved pancreatitis dogs as we have.  You start counting fat grams in your sleep and you know exactly what's going in their mouths that way.