Anyone who wants to keep thinking of Meiby as a perfect, cute-all-the-time puppy, stop reading here! (or click here)
She'd be mad if she knew I posted about this (hehehe) but it might be helpful to other pup owners out there...
Last Thursday when I got home from work I noticed Meiby scooting her butt across the floor so I checked it out and she had a red swollen bump under her tail. I had heard about some pugs needing to have their anal glands expressed so I figured it was Meiby's turn. I pointed it out to Nick when he got home and we looked up some info and tutorials on how to deal with this. We put her in the tub and attempted to squeeze. We must not have been doing it right because nothing came out except a little red (uh ohh) so we called the vet thinking she might have an infection. In the meantime, I held a warm washcloth on her rear to soothe the swelling. She seemed greatful for this!
Nick took her to the vet the next morning and they "expressed" her properly and showed Nick how to do it (darn, I missed it!) We had been a little worried that we weren't feeding her the right stuff or something. They explained that we weren't doing anything wrong, some dogs just need this done occassionally. She seemed much more comfortable when she came home, though maybe a bit violated. We figured we could just do this at home when needed, and sure we can, but it's only $16 to have it done at the vet and we know they'll do it properly and thoroughly so we'll probably just stick to that unless it's needed very often. Supposedly feeding dogs pumpkin will help them to "express naturally" so I'm going to whip up some of these pumpkin treats for Meiby.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Zombie Meiby
It's so hard to get a good shot of Meiby sometimes. Either she blinks or has "pet eye" (the zombie look)... or if I don't use the flash, it's blurry and poorly white balanced. I tried using the "action" mode on my camera but it just speeds up the shutter speed... so you don't get the blur but you also don't get as much light so it ends up very dark. Here are some of my attempts to capture the cuteness that we see in person:
no flash = blurry, bad color
action shot = too dark (I lightened this photo)
this one's not too blurry, I tried to fix the coloring
We just have terrible lighting the our living room. I think that's the biggest problem. We'll keep working on it :)
Friday, September 26, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
FURmination!
If you have a pug, you know that they shed quite a bit. I heard lots of recommendations for the FURminator to minimize shedding so we picked one up. I try to use it on Meiby at least once a week if not more. You can see the pile of fur that I pulled off of her this weekend. There could have been more too but she'll only sit still for so long. This is also after regular "FURmination"... there's a lot more hair the first time. Anyway, it does help a bit. She still sheds everywhere but as long as I vacuum once a week it's not too bad. I do recommend the FURminator but I haven't really tried anything else so I can't say if there's a better alternative. Either way, regular pug brushing is a good idea to reduce the fur bunnies from collecting around the house!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Crocheted Sweater
I may not have mentioned it here yet but I crochet things from time to time. I thought I'd experiment with making Meiby a sweater with some chunky yarn I had laying around. This pattern that I found on Ravelry (if you're a knitter/crocheter and not a member, you should be) seemed easy enough so I tried it out, testing it out on Meiby as I went along. She was definitely annoyed that I kept disrupting her sleep, putting on and taking off the sweater to make sure it would fit. But it's so cute on her. Now that I know how it works I'm going to get some pretty yarn and make her more sweaters she can wear this winter. Do you think she likes it? ;)
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Licking the Rug
For some reason, the past week or so Meiby has been obsessively licking all the rugs and carpet in the house. She's not distracted from it by anything except food. We've been trying to keep her from licking by pulling on her collar, yelling "no", lifting her head, etc. I have no idea why she does this but she's on a mission and won't be stopped. Any advice?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Pug weight
Last weekend was our city's local Popcorn Festival and I took Meiby for a walk near downtown where lots of people were walking to see the parade. She has many admirers... and I kept hearing things like "look, that's a skinny Pug!" Granted she is only 8 months old and is still a puppy but we are committed to keeping her thin and in shape to hopefully avoid the many pug health issues that are related to obesity. Pugs sleep alot and love to eat and are therefore likely to gain weight if not monitored carefully. When we brought Meiby home we were feeding her 1/2 cup of food twice a day. At her first vet visit, the doctor told us to cut that in half. So Meiby eats 1/4 cup of dry food twice a day and gets at least a 10-15 minute walk every day. If the weather is nasty we try to get her running around in the house for a solid 15 minutes playing fetch or whatever she's into that day. So far she's been maintaining her weight at a healthy (for her size/age) 14 pounds.
Pug Village has some useful info about pug health.
How much does your pug weigh? How old is he/she?
Pug Village has some useful info about pug health.
How much does your pug weigh? How old is he/she?
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Dinner Time!
This is what a typical feeding time is like with Meiby. Sometimes it's even crazier! The floppy-eared ending is the best...
Monday, September 8, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Meiby's new I.D. tag
Before I forget to mention it, Meiby is 8 months old today! We got her a new I.D. tag from BoomerangTags.com as recommended by Shelby pug. It fits flush to the collar so it doesn't hang off and won't get caught on anything. I measured her collar first to determine that we needed this one, size small, and it fits perfectly!
Cooling off
It's so hot this time of year and pugs are high risk for heat stroke, but Meiby still needs exercise. Here's our solution. We take her for short walks (usually only 10 minutes at a time) and we lay down an ice blanket for her when we get back. She'll come in a get a drink of water and then lick and lay on the ice blanket for a while. It cools her off quickly and we can rinse it off and refreeze for next time.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Meiby's a video star...
We bought a new video camera this weekend so you can expect more Meiby videos like this one:
(The last minute is better than the first two. I haven't learned to edit video yet.)
(The last minute is better than the first two. I haven't learned to edit video yet.)
We had been thinking about getting a nice-ish digital video camera for a while and the stars aligned for us this weekend. A Best Buy coupon for 12% off a camera came in the mail this week. Then, Friday we got our security deposit back from our last apartment for about the amount we needed for the camera we wanted. It was fate :) We bought a JVC Everio. We like it a lot so far. The video quality is much better than my Nikon still camera is capable of.
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