Happy Halloween

We didn't do costumes this year.  Mom has just been all strung out in a gazillion different directions. But we are all eagerly awaiting the arrival of all the little ghosts, goblins, witches, and whatever else appears at our door.  We hope to have a pic of the little bipeds to share with you later too.  We will all have to stay behind the gate because Mom doesn't want to risk any Great Escapes.  We hope you all have a great day of tricks and treats.

Many thanks to Mollie, Alfie, and Molly the Wally for our Frankenweenie photos.

A brief update on Phantom:  He did go to the vet on Monday.  Lots of issues to deal with, but he is a real trooper.  As Mom suspected, he has a soft tissue injury in the shoulder area from his spurt of youthful energy with Lightning last Thursday.  He is getting a bit better each day.  He also decided that Thunder wasn't to be the only one here who likes to lick his paws. He too has a sore on the same front paw as TD had a few weeks ago.  It isn't infected and he is more or less leaving it alone. So for now, no dreaded cone.  THAT would really freak him out.

The bigger issues are his weight and his eyes.  He has dropped about five pounds since June.  He does not have any extra weight to be losing.  He is a challenge when it comes to food.  We all know Mom has tried everything to get him to eat.  Then there are his eyes, those gorgeous blue eyes.  Mom has noticed he has been having lots of goobers lately and once in a while the yuckies have a bit of yellow color to them.  The nice vet did a Schirmer test using litmus paper in each eye to measure his tear production.  He told Mom that the number should be at least 20 and anything 10 and below is bad. Phantom's registered as an 11 in each eye.  Diagnosis: dry eye or Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca.  We may never know for sure the cause, but the vet suspects that Phantom's facial nerve that controls the tear gland may have been damaged when he had surgery a couple of years ago to remove a malignant tumor on the side of his face.  Years ago dogs had to suffer with dry eye and keratitis of the cornea and eventually go blind.  But today there is a new medication that has been very useful in controlling dry eye in dogs that still have some function in the tear gland.  The ointment stimulates the tear gland to produce more tears, but it will only work if the gland still has some decent function.  The vet says Phantom is very borderline because of his low number but is hopeful that this medication will help him.  He will have to have the ointment inserted in his eye twice a day for the rest of his life.  So far he has been very good about letting Mom put in the ointment.  Mom is a pro at taking care of eye meds because every day she puts a total of 9-15 drops in Dad's eyes.  We are all crossing our paws that Phantom's eyes will be OK.

Sorry for the downer of a report, but we know Phantom is a fighter.

We may not be in costume, but we each have our buckets ready to be filled with lots of good treats -now where are they, Mom?

 Happy Halloween.

BOOS and Woos - Phantom, Thunder, Ciara, and Lightning