Update quickie! January 31, 2013

OUr sleep schedules are all out of whack as they will be for a while it seems.  But, Spike actually wanted to go outside today and bask in the sun for just a short while, and I was in heaven while he did! I love it when he gets the fresh air and takes in the sun, it's so much healthier than being cooped up inside in pain.

Yay!!

Also, while I was awake during the normal you should be sleeping hours, I stumbled upon a website that had me wiping my eyes.  Now mind you, I don't believe in miracle cures for anything but after reading through all of the information on the website, I have to admit, that poor nutrition can lead or aggravate many existing conditions and illnesses. So..I ordered it!! I dont intend to try to be an endorser for any product, and once we get it I will def keep you all up to date, but I'm desperate to make him feel a little better and these eye drops are just so expensive with so many side effects.  It's called NuVet and its def not new.  Here's the link in case anyone is interested. http://www.fixmypetshealth.com/cataracts2/index.html Once we get it, I'll keep you all updated.  With a money back guarantee who can complain..

Spike's Wednesday January 30, 2013 update

My heart keeps finding new ways to break.  Today is the worst day spike has had since this whole thing began.  He actually let me see his "bad" eye (which is his glaucoma eye" and it reminds me of the grayish blue marble I used to have that had.  It was the first time my son had actually sat in front of him and got to see the eye.  I don't know what killed me more the look on my poor puppy's face, or the tears and sadness my son was overcome with.  In any case please continue to send in donations, and share our story and pages.  Now more than ever we need your help, as the tiny bit of hope I held to try and save his bad eye is all but gone.  The surgeries are expensive on their, never mind the after care that follows.  We can't help him without your help.

Here's today's update for Spike!!

Hello!!

Every day has it's ups and downs, but that's how this battle is going to go.  Thanks to the ongoing generous donations from our pawpals and K9 Angel's, we have so far been able to take him to each vet appointment and pay for his expensive eye prescriptions.  It's not a joke when we say every single dollar counts.  I can't wait until we get this horrible nightmare over with, so I can begin working on raising money to help others who one day, sooner or later, will face the same battle.  We are a one income military family, and with my ongoing severe health problems, it's difficult enough to get by from paycheck to paycheck.  Throw at us an critical care situation like this, especially after having just finished paying off a 3k vet bill in San Diego from Spike battling a horrible kidney infection, and you can see why this has been so difficult for us.  

No pet should ever have to wait to receive emergency or urgent care, just because his/her loving and amazing human is having trouble with money.  By helping us to raise money, your helping to make sure that never has to happen again.  I can hardly wait to get approved for non profit status, so I can paste that official  bit of information on every sing website and page we have.  Become an K9 Angel today and make an enormous difference in Spike's life, and in the lives of other dogs across the United States!

THANK YOU!!!

This weeks K9 Angel's Fundraiser Goal!

HAVE YOU DONATED YET??

THIS WEEK'S GOAL IS $300

We have just $100.00 more to go!!

If you haven't already taken a stroll over to the K9 Angels for Spike page and donated $1 yet, please do so.    Each and every dollar makes such a difference in helping us to pay for Spike's ongoing medical care as he battles primary glaucoma.  With your help, we can continue giving him the medications, special diet, and vet care he has to have as we head down this long and difficult road.  

THANK YOU!!

Moody Monday for both Spike and I

This morning I went to bed at around 6:30 am or so, about the time my husband was getting ready to head off to work. Spike had finally just fallen asleep. He looked so peaceful and for the first time, not in pain. I have noticed in the last few days that he is becoming more and more clingy, and his the time during the day and night that he keeps his eyes open are less and less. I should be reading for my upcoming courses at Kaplan, but I sit here reading about primary glaucoma, and the people who have already struggled through it. You can tell a parent to a glaucoma pet, that they'll do fine without their eyesight...but that doesn't make it any easier. It doesn't make anything feel any better. I write in this blog every day, I post updates on his page on on his Facebook page, and it just doesn't feel like enough. I'm looking for answers I just can't find. My teenage son Nathan, who is 14 and a half, and wants those same answers. In between his studies and video games I watch him googling everything he can. My family has been through hell and back, just as so many others in this country. Spike's been such a soldier, he showed no pain and no sadness the entire time he was sleeping. But it's nighttime now, and he's hurting, sad, scared, and miserable. The whining and teary eyes are heartbreaking and I feel so helpless. We are so far from where we need to be with the fundraiser. The week after next we return to the eye specialist where we will receive a written estimate. A number I'm sure will be rather large. Thanks to the previous donations, we were able to nearly pay in full for his last visit, having to add the difference of about 70.00 to our already negative bank account. I'm too tired to be creative and think, but we'll figure it out someway somehow if you the supporters we have stay with us and help us push through. Thank you! This is the face that drives me forward. Those are the eyes worth saving..And if after I have tried everything and done everything i humanly can, he still loses this battle.... at least I can say i fought hard and tried. And that my friends is something my family and I can live with.

My question to you..please let me know what you think!

Should a dog who can still see be forced into a world a blindness by glaucoma, because society has accepted that blind dogs do fine without their sight? Spike isn't a heroes dog, my husband serves our country in the US Navy (but he's done a contract in the Marine Corps, in the infantry division) but no he hasn't saved any lives. Spike isn't a hero dog, he hasn't rushed off to save a a person in need. Spike is simply a dog we rescued as a puppy when he was just a few weeks old, who has given more to us than we have ever given him. He was my teenage son's best friend during he hardest times any child should ever have to go through, and laid by his bed when my son's appendix ruptured making him deathly sick and in need of emergency surgery. He's been the one constant thing in my son's life as the military took us out of the only state he has ever been in and known, to be moved three different times to houses that were never going to be a home. No spike isn't a purebred, in fact he's a black/choc lab with beagle, cocker spaniel, and dalmatian. He isn't the most handsomest dog in the world, and hasn't won any special awards or ribbons. No dear friends, spike is just an average dog who keeps getting handed a bad hand. I grew up believing that one person can in fact make a difference, no matter how many others are against you. I grew up seeing and living with struggles and suffering that could and should have been prevented. I know all too well what it's like to go without, to be hungry, to have no electricity, to not be able to wash your face or hands, to not be able to be one of the "in" crowd because your family cant afford the nice things everyone else seems to have. I didn't like it then, as my son surely doesn't like it now, but you make do with what you have and that has to be enough. But some things should never be accepted as ok or normal. Somethings need to be fought head on, and continued to fight for as long as you are breathing. And if that means being one person standing up for something that he/she believes in, then by god, nobody should be so quick to look down upon, judge, or ignore just because the rest of the world doesn't see or feel the same about it. This is about canine glaucoma. Like it or not, the fact is, that it is as of right now an incurable disease. The daily pain and suffering that a dog goes through with it, I have now seen firsthand and can say is a horrible thing. My family didn't ask to go through this anymore than Spike who not more than a short time ago struggled to recover from a seriously dangerous kidney infection brought on by a large kidney stone that for several years not one but two veterinarians somehow manged to miss. The removal surgery and after care cost us over three thousand dollars, which on a single income military paycheck was beyond difficult to pay for. We found help with our personal bills and used the largest portion of our check each month for several months to make payments to the only vet in San Diego who would do the surgery with payment arrangements. So spike isn't new to pain and suffering, he managed to make it in the car as my mom, son, and I made our way from Norfolk Virginia where my husbands aircraft carrier was stationed, to sunny San Diego California and never complained once. Canine glaucoma is a horrible disease. It robs once happy and playful dogs of their eye sight, and doesn't give them a choice. For some its quick and painful, but in others, it's slow and painful. For Spike, he still has full sight in his right eye, and some in his left. It's his left eye that is being attacked by glaucoma. With my family being so stretched paycheck to paycheck already, the emergency vet care, medications, and eye specialist were just not in our budget. Without a second thought, we put ourselves negative in our bank account just taking him in to be seen and diagnosed with glaucoma. Spike is like our second child. So it shouldn't be a surprise to any pet lover, that i jumped into action and setup an online fundraiser, to help us raise the money to pay for care and the cost to help save whatever sight we can of Spike. I had figured that with so many people being animal lovers, that getting support and donations wouldn't be difficult. After all, when you have the chance to make a difference in a animals life, we do right? Dog's and cats for that matter can live long and happy lives without their sight. Somehow, we have become a society where now that's just what we accept. There is no telethon, marathon, or tv special working to fight canine glaucoma and get people to rally together to try and stop it. We need more funding to go towards the diseases that our beloved pets get stricken with and suffer through. we need people to stop accepting that animals go blind and do fine, and start working to prevent other pets from having to be victims! Or am I completely wrong? Spike has full sight in one eye right now, and partial sight in his other. So you can understand my shock and saddness to see that so many just want me to sit back, let him suffer and struggle and watch as he loses his sight. Am I really one woman against the world?

Today's update

Last night Spike didn't sleep a wink.  I stayed up with him, rubbing his head and telling him over and over i love him so  much.  It's so difficult to tell if he's hurting and where or how much.  All I can do is just give him the pain medicine and hope it helps some.  His good eye looks less inflamed than it did yesterday but his glaucoma infected eye is getting more  and more hard to keep the pressure down which is never good.  We continue the drops and continue to hold him, and for now thats all we can do.  I pray every minute of every day that nothing goes wrong or happens, we just don't have the ability to take him in, and that makes me feel like I'm failing him.  All i want is for him to not be hurting, not be in pain, not feel so horrible.  Comfort should never be a luxury for some, but a right for each and every pet we own and care for.  My heart just keeps breaking.

Awareness, information, support, and financial support are so important for owners of all pets.  With so much being done to combat and eradicate human glaucoma, it makes no sense as to why we aren't more focused on the canine or feline form of glaucoma.  After all, for nearly all pet owners, our four legged friends are just as important to our family as our own children (and in many cases are our own children)  But research for canine glaucoma has so far to go, and that means so many more families face having their worlds turned upside down financially and emotionally.  And worse,  so many more once sweet and smiling faces, will instead be coated in pain and suffering.

My family is struggling on our military pay, to pay for the much needed ongoing care and treatments for our beloved dog Spike.  Like so many other families in the same position, we barely live paycheck to paycheck, and while we take the greatest care in feeding, loving, and taking care of our four-legged babies, emergencies or major problems such as a diagnosis of Glaucoma just isn't in the budget.  It is horrifying to hear a handful of people tell us we need to put him down OR get rid of him! How can any sane person person justify any of those measures.  First, Spike has a handful of years if not more ahead of him and deserves the right to live those years.  Secondly, we don't get rid of our children or spouses when they are sick and yes it is the same.  Why? Because my friends, for most of us our fur babies are just like our children.    When you make the decision to be a responsible pet owner, that has some unwritten rules that come along with it.  Some of those include, loving unconditionally, caring for them in sickness and health, and doing what you have too even in hard times to ensure you keep them fed, safe, and healthy.  We have spent 8 1/2 years after rescuing him from a puppy mill, taken great care of him.  He's been healthy, and happy til now.  So doing what I have too, is what I intend to do and continue doing until this horrible disease is a robber of sight no more.