Otis and Allie, a Pugs life

Gross eye

2009-01-10T23:17:00.000-08:00

My poor dogs cannot seem to catch a break! Usually it's Allie that's messed up with some sort of allergy or injury but this time it was our rock- Otis. He woke up Friday morning with his lower eyelid sagging out away from his face and his eye was red. It looked like he had some swelling too. He acted normal though and not like he was in pain which was good. He didn't seem to mess with his eye either. His eye looked totally gross though!

Usually I jump the gun a bit and run to the vet, or even the emergency vet if it's evening. This time though I thought back to my own swollen eye that I mysteriously woke up with one day a few months ago. I treated my own eye by rinsing it out and putting a hot compress on it. I decided to do the same for Otis and resolved that if his eye was not significatly better by morning we'd be off to the vet!

Saturday morning I awoke to the usual, Otis standing over me staring down at me thinking WAKE UP ALREADY AND FEEEEED ME! Low and behold his eye was totally better, not a sign of redness or weird sagging lids.

Now as I sit here typing this he's plotting to figure out a way to crawl under my laptop and onto my lap... I'm so blessed.

Pug Christmas 2009

2009-01-02T16:05:00.001-08:00

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Otis looking over at the snow and the tree that fell down because of said snow

Allie with some of the wrapping paper carnage

Otis and Jamie after too much celebrating!

Santa Claus is coming to town

2008-12-05T15:27:00.001-08:00

"Did you hear that? Is Santa here already?"

"Hold on, I'll check!"

"No, no no! I thought I had a few more weeks to make up for all the naughty stuff I did this year"

Haha...Awesome

2008-09-06T09:59:00.001-07:00

My thoughts exactly.

Kool Collars

2008-09-05T17:33:00.000-07:00

Last April I had a booth at this thing called "the Spring Shopping Affair" where I was selling shirts. None of the vendors there seemed to be having any luck except for this guy selling "Kool Collars" for dogs. The idea is you can fill the collar with ice when they're outside or re-freezable, non-leaking ice packs when they're inside. The goal is to keep your dog cool during hot days and avoid heat stroke. Any of you that own pugs know how they can literally wilt in the heat, so these things have been a lifesaver this summer especially riding in the car.

Otis who is very dignified is horrified that I'm posting pics of him wearing the collar upside down.

Puggy Bank

2008-07-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

First off Allie is all better. We have no idea what was wrong in the first place but he's fine now.

So... I've officially been lost to the dark side. I've never been one of those people who bought pug stuff before. Yes, it's true that I have things like a pug callender, magnets, stationary etc. but, I didn't buy that stuff. Every holiday/ birthday people always get me pug-ish stuff to satisfy their own secret pug person cravings. I'm not saying I don't enjoy those things, heck pugs are cute so of course I enjoy pug accessories, I just swore to myself I wouldn't be one of the people who went over board. Anyway... that all changed yesterday when my friend pointed out a "puggy bank" in a little store we went to. OMG too cute! I totally lost control of my senses (and wallet apparently) and got him. My excuse is that Jamie and I are going to start trying to get pregnant soon so we could put this in a baby's roon. HAHA I even needed an excuse, maybe I'm not totally lost to the dark side after all!?

Allie's trip to the hospital

2008-07-13T19:01:00.000-07:00

I'm so sick of allergies! We spend over 3 1/2 hours at the emergency vet on Thursday night after I noticed the right side of Allie's face was swelling up like crazy. He didn't even look like himself he had lost his wrinkles in his forehead and under his right eye and they had turned into huge puffy masses. When we tried to touch his face to see if there was a bee stinger in it he cried out in pain. Wegot scared, called Dove Lewis and they told us to bring him right in. They ended up giving him a Benydryl shot which didn't seem to work on it's own so then the gave him a steroid shot. After waiting with him for what seemed like forever we noticed it going down slightly and decided to bring him home.

They couldn't tell us what caused it, only that they have dogs come in with the same problem on a nightly basis.

All day friday he was still really puffy. Saturday he looked a ton better. However today he's looking swollen again. I'm going to give it another day and then take hime to his normal vet if it looks bad. I'm starting to wonder if he may have an infection or something and maybe the swelling is fluid build up. If anyone had any idea let me know.

You can really tell from the pic but he's still swollen (not horribly) in this pic. He's also drugged out from all the anti histamines we've been giving him.

Missing Mom and Dad

2008-04-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

Jamie and I just got back from a week long vacation in which we had to leave the dogs at home. Luckily I have a great friend who I trust to stay at the house and watch them. It's funny how it becomes such an ordeal to leave these little guys. I didn't want them to stay somewhere else because Otis can't settle down when he's at a new place with strange things and he won't sleep, and Allie in different environments can have horrible allergic reactions. So it was a huge relief to have my friend stay at the house with them.

The day before we left though Allie's face started breaking out with the allergy sores he gets. It was worse and more at one time than we had seen in six months or so, so we got really worried about leaving him. We've been trying very hard to not use antibiotics in case he one day really needs them we want to make sure they stay effective. So, we went through our routine of popping his sores to drain the infection as much as we can. Doing additional face cleanings (he usually gets one medicated face wipe a day) and upping his anti-histamine pills. We also had our vet give us a antibiotic prescription just in case our friend needed it while we were gone.

Fast forward to a week later, we are home now and his face is healing really nicely. The antibiotics weren't necessary so we now have them on hand just in case. It's so nice to finally get to the point where we have figured out how to control some of the breakouts.

Oh yeah, and we're so glad to be home and missed our babies a ton!

aww

2008-02-05T23:43:00.001-08:00

Otis always acts so tough. Poor Allie is always trying to cuddle up to Otis or kiss his face or just try and be close to his big brother. Usually Otis cannot be bothered with his pest of a little brother, but tonight must have been a full moon or something because it was Otis spooning Allie

Done with the holidays!

2008-01-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

Allie is officially done with the holidays. We went over to my parents house for brunch today and the first thing Allie did was run over and pee on their Christmas tree. I think he's over the whole family togetherness thing for awhile.

Happy New Year!!!

2007-12-31T18:59:00.000-08:00

Otis and Allie say screw the New Years Parties the fun is on the couch!

Goodbye sweet girl

2007-12-29T18:17:00.001-08:00

Today is a very sad day for us as we say goodbye to my parents dog Gelbie. She had been struggling with pancreatitis for a little over a week. She was so sweet and gentle and we are so sad to see her go.

I glad you found peace sweet girl

all grown up

2007-12-29T17:50:00.000-08:00

I came across this picture today and it reminded me of how small Allie was. Now that he's full grown he's still a little smaller than Otis, but you forget how little they were.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-26T20:33:00.000-08:00

Otie says Bah-Hum-Bug!

Poor Otis

2007-12-01T16:47:00.000-08:00

The last week Otis has been getting sick at nights. He acts fine but when I wake up in the morning he has thrown up in the hallway. The only thing we have changed is the dog toothpaste we use. I grabbed a new one from our vets office and the day I tried it he got sick. He throws up every now and then so I didn't think anything of it until it happened the next two days in a row. I didn't use it for the next two days and he was fine but tried it again last night and he threw up again.

It just seems very strange to me. I literally use just the tiniest bit of paste on his brush so I can't believe it would be enough to make him sick. Allie is just fine which make this stranger to me.

Has this happened to anyone else? I'm obviously not going to give it to Otis anymore but I'm wondering should I stop using it on Allie too?

****Update**** Otis seems to be feeling fine now and has been doing well for a couple days now.

Finally!

2007-11-10T11:54:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to report that after a long battle we finally seem to have Allie's allergies under control (knock on wood). It seems to be a combination of things due to the fact that he's allergic to so much. Here's what we have going on now:

-Plegits face wipes (medicated wipes we clean his wrinkles with to get rid of pollen and dirt)

-Royal Canin Z/D gold label non-allergenic food (we've tried everything short of making his food ourselves and this is the only thing that's worked)

-Allergy shots (once every 2 weeks, builds his immunities to the things he's allergic to)

-washing blankets/ couch covers in hot water often to reduce dust mites.

- no other treats, limited access to plastic (we're not yet sure if he's allergic to it)

He's been happy and allergy free for a couple months now!

New friend!

2007-10-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is Bren's pug Hendrix. What a cutie! He came and played with Otie and Allie the other day and showed them that he's the boss. I love the jealous look on Allie's face.

This is hilarious!

2007-10-02T00:30:00.000-07:00

check it out here

best weekend ever

2007-09-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

Otis and Allie had the best weekend ever last weekend. My friend Bren has a new pug puppy who's 10 weeks old named Hendrix. He is so tiny, I think he's smaller than either of my guys were. Otie and Allie are really careful about little ones but I was worried Hendrix would be freaked out. Boy was I wrong. He's not even as tall as their legs but he was running around jumping up and biting on my two. He was so playful! They all ran around together and had a great time! My guys were so bummed when he left :( Come back soon Bren and Hendrix!

Animal blessings

2007-09-29T10:27:00.001-07:00

I've been meaning to post this one for awhile... My good friend converted to Catholicism this year and told me once a year Catholics have a special mass dedicated to blessing animals in which you can bring any breed of animal and have the priest bless them. It was so sweet, the music and sermon were tailored to animals and peoples relationships with animals. Here are some pictures of me and the pups and my friend and his family with his rat Che and their dog Sophie. We all decided in the end that Allie may benefit more from an exorcism than a blessing.

Rainy days

2007-09-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

Otis and Allie have been bummed out today... It was the first rainy fall day we've had and they hate the rain. You would think they were being punished every time I have them go outside. They flatly refuse to go to the bathroom unless they have raincoats on. When I first explained this to Jamie he thought I was some crazy lady who wanted an excuse to dress up the pups (ok maybe I am a bit :) but then after awhile he realized how serious they were about their anti-rain convictions.

life with pugs

2007-09-22T05:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, it's 5:30 in the morning and I haven't slept since 3:00am. Jamie is gone for the night so I thought I'd let the pugs into bed with me...big mistake. Otis can't decide whether or not sleeping under the covers is more fun than sleeping on top of them. Allie has me pushed all the way over to the edge of the bed for maximum snuggles. And lastly Otis can't stop farting long enough to let me breath! Hope everyone out there is having better luck than me tonight.

funny pic

2007-09-19T23:38:00.000-07:00

I love this picture! It cracks me up!

Allergies Again!!!

2007-09-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

Poor Allie, we tried to switch his food over to the same food Otis is eating since it has more nutritional value and also because the food Allie is eating is so expensive. He was doing fine for a couple weeks but now a couple of the sores have started popping back up on his face. We thought it would be fine since Otie's food is hypoallergenic and has such limited ingredients but I guess not. Hopefully the sores will go away without antibiotics since we caught it early .

Don't worry...

2007-09-06T18:19:00.001-07:00

Otis and Allie are still alive and doing well, I've just been to busy to post lately. Both are enjoying the last few days of warm weather by spending their days peeing on my flower pots and pooping on the patio. I try to give Allie scornful looks while I'm cleaning off that patio and he just looks at me las if to say "what?...it's not like you had anything better to do."

The pups have been a lot happier since I've been home more also we've been letting them sleep in the bed pretty regularly and they love it. They are so easy to please all they want is love and attention, it's a good thing they are so cute!

Reminder...

2007-07-13T01:05:00.001-07:00

Otis, you are not an actual person, you are still a pug, even if you are the smartest one around :)

2007-07-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

On the 4th we went over to my mom's to eat and for the pups to run around their big yard with Otie's best friend Gelbie. Otis gets so excited when he gets to go over there he starts freaking out as soon as we drive into their town.

2007-07-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

This poor little girl needs a home!
Does anyone know a good home for her? Her owner died and they were going to euthanize her, but she's really loving and just wants a good forever home with some people to love her!

NEW TOY!

2007-07-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Otis loves to tug on things, ropes, socks, towels. Today he got a new rope and was so excited his eyes almost popped out. Allie wants to play to but can't seem to grasp that you can't chew and play tug at the same time or the rope will fall out of your mouth.

Pug allergies!

2007-06-30T09:35:00.000-07:00

Both Otis and Allie have suffered from allergies to one extent or another. Otis's allergies are more mild, he gets ear infections which I'm told are a secondary infection most likely resulting from a food allergy. Right now I have him eating Natural Balance hypoallergenic duck and potato food. I'm also very careful not to get his head wet when he takes a bath.

Allie is much worse off... A couple months after I got him he started getting little pink bumps on his muzzle and was prone to getting infections in his face wrinkle. I was told by a few people that they were normal "puppy pimples" and not to be too worried about them. But as time went on they didn't seem to get any better. I ended up bringing him to the vet who said it was an allergic reaction and that the bumps were infections in his hair folicals from the allergy and to try switching foods to a hypoallergenic food and told me to take away all treats and all toys :( this was TERRIBLE as he is an avid chewer. They told me it could be anything from a food allergy to plastic to the glaze in his food dish, or just environmental allergies.
So I changed the food dish, food, my detergent, got rid or all household cleaners and started using vinegar and baking soda to clean everything, took away all toys and washed everything in hot water to kill dust mites and gave him benadryl, NOTHING WORKED! The only time his allergies would go away was when he was on antibiotics, but a few weeks after the antibiotics were done he would get his allergies back.
We hated putting him on antibiotics and every time his allergies came back they were worse, we tried treating it more naturally using aloe and echinacea and many other things even switching foods to a non-allergenic diet, but either because the infections in his face were too bad or because we didn't have the right combo of things it never made his face clear up.
Finally we took him to an pet allergy specialist who gave him an allergy test and we found out that his allergies are mostly environmental and that he is allergic to EVERYTHING bugs, trees, weeds, wool, feathers, dust you name it he's allergic to it.
Now we are giving him allergy shots which are low doses of the things he is allergic to plus antihistamines and antibiotics to clear up his infections.
I hope this helps some people out, I know we had a hard time finding info on this type of allergic reaction.
* above is a picture of the worst infection right before we finally went to the allergist.

Allie! (the crazy one!)

2007-06-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

Since I got Otis I'd always known that I wanted to get a 2nd pug. While Otis was naughty on occasion, he had always been pretty relaxed and was easy to train as a puppy. I went to the same breeder last summer and got Allie. He was sooo cute and had the funniest little walk I'd ever seen. I got him home and he was absolute trouble from day one!

He has been incredibly hard to potty train, he wants to eat everything and loves to bug Otis, and is the most jealous little animal you have ever seen! All of that is forgiven though with the million kisses he gives and the look of "I'm sorry" that flashes for 2 seconds between getting into more trouble.

All he wants is attention ALL THE TIME! He's always hungry and always wants to play and be the center of it all. He struggles a lot with allergies (which you will probably hear a lot about) but is so energetic its contagious even when he's not feeling well.

1st posting All about Otis!

2007-06-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

This is my first posting so it's more of a test then anything else.

A little background on my oldest boy. Otis is 4 I got him when he was about 12 weeks old and fell in love with him the second I saw him. He was the only one in the litter who wasn't trying to bite my hand off. He was pudgy and looked like a little round fuzz ball. As soon as I picked him up he fell asleep in my arms. We have a lot of fun together, he's very smart and very persistent and has a stubborn streak as well. His favorite things are food, walks, car rides, cuddling (especially under the covers) and playing tug with a rope or one of his babies.

He understands a ton of words although I must admit I haven't spent much time on training him other then a few basic commands.