Pippin's Foster Buddies:

Dear Pugalug Rescuers and Readers:

We are the proud adopters of Pippin, a soon to be 1 year old fawn pug. We became his parents on August 27th 2010, but he already feels like one of our own.

In just a short week and a half he has adjusted tremendously well to his new family. He now has a 3 year old pug sister, Roxy, and 2 kitty companions. He is doing very well adjusting to the rules of our house; he sits very patiently for his meal times, and sleeps in the bedroom in his own dog bed. Pippin has exceeded our expectations during leash walks and always wants to please us. As Blanche said previously, he has the most annoying bark, almost ear piecing at times. But, he is doing very well with controlling it already since he is easily distracted with a toy or a treat.

Our first visit with our veterinarian was very pleasant. She said his eyes were clear of any Disticia signs for the time being, and his tear production appeared to be good (without doing a test). We will be booking an appointment with the neurologist in October to see if we can be advised to wean his off of the seizure meds, but for the time being his has been doing well since his last Phenobarbital drop. Our vet was also surprised with how well his coat was, it is super soft and she was very impressed.

Becoming parents to a one year old pug has been amazing. He is already house trained, and is very well behaved. It was nice to be able to skip the puppy destruction phase too! If we were ever to adopt again, it would be to a young adult or mature pug just for these reasons.

Adopting Pippin has been a wonderful and rewarding experience. Knowing what he has gone through in his short little life and being able to provide him a loving home is such a great feeling. We want to thank Pugalug and the team for all of their help through the process, in addition to the guidance in regards to all of my questions. I will continue to advocate for the rescue and let everyone know the benefits of adopting a pug through Pugalug.

Pug Hugs and Kisses.

Krysta & Dan

Pippin is an utterly delightful 10 month old pug puppy. He had three seizures when he was 4 months old and was put onto anti-seizure meds. He has not had a seizure since. He may or may not have seizures for his life. Adopter must be willing to work with a vet to monitor Pippin?s meds and possible seizures. Given that he has not had any seizures since being on meds, it would be worthwhile to wean him off of the seizure meds and see if he does seizure.

Pippin is very well socialized and loves all dogs. He generally picks females as his playmates, but isn?t snarky with males. He does tend to yodel and bark when playing. He can be a barker when excited or when he wants something. He loves my cats, but tends to play with them as if they are dogs so he would be too rough for most cats.

Because of Pippin being on seizure meds, he is fed in his crate to keep the resident dogs from eating his food. He is not a fan of crating, but does fine for his meals. He is happily gated into the kitchen with my dogs when I am out and has not been destructive. He does, however, love to rip up cardboard, eat Kleenex and toilet paper if it is available. If he is left free in the house unsupervised, he will chew up inappropriate objects. He will yodel and yell when first left alone, but settles quickly.

Pippin is still a puppy, with all that entails. He needs rules, structure and routine. He is not a bad boy in any way, but will push the limits if allowed to. He will need a home that has the capacity to have him go out at mid-day or have a dog walker come in as he?s never had to hold his bladder all day while in foster care.

Pippin had demodectic mange when he came in so an adopter must be willing to feed a high quality food and keep his skin in good condition. He had some eye issues that required some corrective surgery, and will need eye lube and possibly drops for his life. His ocular health will have to be watched closely, especially for any disticia (extra eye lashes that grow toward the eye).

Pippin has completely healed from his pug face lift, although the dissolvable stitches never did dissolve so my vet removed them for me. He is now down to 1/2 tab of Phenobarbital a day from his starting dose of a whole tablet twice a day. He'll stay on this till the second week in August and then we'll probably stop the phenobarbital altogether. He is still on the Keppra, but if he doesn't seizure without the phenobarbital, then the Keppra will be the next to go.

He turned 10 months old on the 18th of July and continues to be a source of great joy and laughter in our house. He has lots of play in him, but enjoys a good snuggle as much as any pug does. He's weighing in at 9.5 kgs and is beginning to fill out and look more like a pug, although he still is long and leggy. We are still seeing the Ophthalmologist every two weeks, but I'm hoping that we are nearing the end of that routine. I'm hoping to have him posted as ready for adoption by the end of August. It's been a long haul for the little man, but he has been a complete trooper throughout it all.

Pippin got a second clean skin scrape today so he is off the mange treatment and has been vaccinated for Rabies. His facial incision from his Pug Face Lift is healing nicely. He still has some eye lashes growing into the eye, so for now, we will be making weekly visits to Forest Hill Animal Clinic to see Dr. Goldstein to monitor his ocular health.

Dr. Cochrane, the neurologist at the VEC, has okayed us to begin to wean him off of the Phenobarbital. This will be a slow process and will take 6 to 8 weeks to complete. He will remain on the Levetiracetam (Keppra) for the time being. The long term plan is to wean him off of all his seizure meds since he hasn't had a seizure since coming into rescue 6 months ago. Hopefully, he will remain seizure free.

He continues to be an utterly delightful little man who loves everyone and everything. While he has had more than his fair share of health issues lately, he is slowly getting on top of them and should be ready to go up for adoption sometime in late August.

Pippin continues to do very well. He goes in for a skin scrape June 3rd. If he's clear of mites, then we'll vaccinate for Rabies and begin weaning him off of the Phenobarbital so he'll only be on one anti-seizure med. I expect that he'll be ready to go by the end of June or early July.

He has had some gastric issues with the extreme heat--he tends to want to over do it and then gets diarrhea. But heck, he's a puppy and they do dumb stuff like that!

After several very tense weeks where Pippin's tear production went up and down like a yo-yo and he got a series of serious eye ulcers, his eyes appear to have stabilized. We were quite concerned that he might end up losing both of his eyes--especially when the left eye had zero production at one point. However, he had a vet appointment today and the ulcers have healed and his tear production in the left eye was 17 and the right eye was 21 (Out of 25). So we are going to continue with some drops due to the fact that he does have some dry eye and given the past couple of weeks, we don't want to get over confident. Neither my vet nor I can explain why his eyes decided to rebel for three weeks and then settle down. There doesn't appear to be any reason for it. Our best hypothesis is that this may have been a fluke immune mediated reaction given all that he's had to deal with medically over the last two months. For now, the eyes are in good shape and the tear production is good if not great.

His mange is healing up nicely as is his staph infection. He continues to be seizure free and a delightful little man. Even if he sometimes uses inappropriate places to pee.

Pippin continues to be an utterly delightful puppy. He is coming up on 7 months of age (on the 18th). We have started treating his mange with Ivermectin and weekly baths in a medicated shampoo and hope that it will soon be improving. He continues to be seizure free and we will begin to wean him off of the phenobarbital while maintaining the levetiracetam once his ivermectin treatment is done. Then we can finally vaccinate him for Rabies and he should be ready to go.

He has had a bit of an eye infection issue which we think is related to his mange--making the folds on his face swollen and itchy and possibly resulting in him having scratched his eye while trying to itch his face. He's getting drops for the eye issue and gets a recheck on the 12th. I'm hoping that it will be all cleared up by then.

His house training is coming along nicely, but like most pugs, he needs encouragement and regular "outings". He still has the occasional accident if I haven't been vigilant about making sure he does his business while outside. He has learned the command "Pippin, go pee" while outside and generally gets it done. He is, as most young dogs are, easily distracted by leaves, twigs, birds, etc.

He is bright as a new penny and learns commands very quickly. He continues to have an absolutely rock solid temperament and loves all living things. He walks very nicely on leash and simply loves to be with you.

Pippin has been neutered, microchipped and has his umbilical hernia fixed. Now we can concentrate on his demodex and overall health. He is doing well in the house training department with few to no accidents. He continues to be unbelievably engaging and pretty much feels that all living things are good. He has been to the dog park several times and seems to like all the dogs--big and small. The only dog he didn't like was a big labrador who kept trying to hump him--so Pippin would run under a bench to avoid being humped on.

He has slowly put on some weight, but is still a slim and long pug. He needs to be vaccinated for Rabies, but we won't do that until his demodex is much improved or gone as vaccines suppress the immune system and we need Pippin's immune system to be more fully functioning.

He has done well on his new anti-seizure meds and while they aren't the cheapest drugs around, they don't have the somewhat awful side effects that Pippin experienced on the cheaper meds.

He is a very vocal pug with a wide range of weird and wonderful noises so would need to be in a home where noise won't be an issue. We are working on this a bit as he can be VERY loud especially at meal times. He continues to not be a fan of the crate, but tolerates it. He won't be a dog that can be crated overnight or for long stretches of time without considerable work. He does do fine gated in the kitchen with my dogs when I have to go out. I think his dislike of the crate is loneliness as much as anything.

Well, Mr. Pippin has had some issues with the seizure meds. The phenobarbital and potassium bromide combination gave him a rip roaring case of pica (dog eats everything, literally) and I was worried that he was going to kill himself trying to eat push pins, paper clips, screws, rocks and my carpet. So we're weaning him off of the potassium bromide and replacing it with Levetiracetam. While it's more expensive, it has fewer side effects and ultimately we hope to get him off of the phenobarbital altogether and just have him on the levetiracetam.

Due to his constant eating of non-edibles, we have had some gastric upsets--unfortunately usually late at night on the bed. However, he seems to be somewhat improved today. He has figured out that he can jump out of my 3 ft high X-pen so the X-pen and it's pee pads are gone and he's being crate trained. Pippin thinks this is a rotten idea and is quite vocal about it. I have loaded my freezer with bones and kongs stuffed with good things for crate time. He is fed in his crate so hopefully, he will realize that the crate isn't a dreadful place.

Pippin continues to do very well with us. He's learning not to harass the elderly canines and generally is learning manners at a rapid rate. We are keeping him on both the phenobarbital and the potassium bormide at the current levels for a couple of weeks before making the next adjustment. After consulting with the dermatologist at the VEC, Pippin's neurologist said that we don't need to treat his demodex at this point and that diet, some immune boosting and good care make eliminate the demodex. We might use a follicle cleaning shampoo if necessary, but for now we are just going to let his immune system work at healing itself.

He has gained a small amount of weight, but could still use some extra weight. We will schedule his neuter in a couple of weeks after he's turned 6 months of age. He continues to be seizure free.

He is very bright and has a rock solid temperament. He finds virtually everything and everyone fascinating and plays happily with little dogs, big dogs and cats. He finds airplanes and helicopters particularly interesting and will stop whatever he is doing in the backyard to watch them pass overhead, tilting his head back and forth in wonder. Hands down, this is one of the easiest puppies I've ever fostered.

Pippin has had his MRI, initial bloodwork and fecal. Fortunately, his MRI was normal (well, as normal as any pug puppy!), his bloodwork is pretty good and shows his phenobarbital levels to be in low range of therapeutic and his fecal was negative. At this point, we are assuming "idiopathic epilepsy"--which basically means we don't know why he has seizures, but it isn't anything life threatening. We are slowly transitioning him from Phenobarbital to Potassium Bromide as it is a safer drug for the long term. He hasn't had any seizures at all since being put on medication.

He does have a mild case of generalized demodex and we are still undecided as to how to treat this. The neurologist at the VEC will be talking with the dermatologist there about this. He still needs to be neutered, but since he just turned 5 months old on the 18th, we'll wait until he's 6 months old to do this.It looks like he has a small umbilical hernia that may need to be repaired during his neuter. He isn't currently going to the dog park with everyone as he isn't yet fully vaccinated.

He's a delightful puppy with energy, but not over the top. He thinks all people, dogs and cats are wonderful and seems to have a rock solid temperament. His house training is quite good for a 5 month old with only the occasional accident in the house. He is a bit of a weather weenie, but he's also pretty thin so has no insulation. He walks fairly well on leash and enjoys going out until he gets cold. He can be left in his X-pen, but isn't a big fan of this, but gets better every day. He is currently sleeping in the big bed with the big dogs and does well. I have had to get up to take him out at about 4:30 in the morning, but I think this is partly because I go to bed so early. If he had a later "last potty", this could probably be avoided.

Pippin is an almost 5 month old pug puppy surrendered by his owner when he started to have seizures. He is a bit thin, but not badly so. His muzzle is a bit bare so we may have some allergies or demodectic mange going on . He is very sweet and playful. He is currently on Phenobarbital for his seizures and will be assessed by the neurologist at the VEC on Wednesday of next week.

He has met everyone at my house and other than Hazel and Sonny, the pugcat, he has been deemed "The Worst Disaster since the Last Puppy" by the elderly four leggers.

The further adventures of Pippin await....