the ugly , the medicine and the vet

On the moment that i found out that Bram had Glaucoma, well ... pretty much i felt like a failure ... i had fail my dog, I didn't took enough care of him and couldn't prevent the situation.... later when i was investigating about the decease, I learn that Nordics breeds  tend to suffer from this problem, and when it is diagnose because involves visible symptoms (big puffy eyes, with a disfigure iris and pupil) usually it's to late because the sight has been compromised, and the only way of preventing all this from happening it's constantly checking the pressure of the eyes, thing that i didn't knew, and even by being surround by a lot of husky pups and husky owners, i have never heard of the possibility.  

So the first doctor who saw Bram (human oculist) sent me to buy 2 types of eye drops, one of them every 3 hours and the other every 12 hours, luckily the every 3 hours eye drop wasn't that expensive ($7.00) and i had to buy it once a week. The REALLY BIG ISSUE was Bram and his refusal of staying still when he need the medicine, I lost tons of medicine and pounds in the process, chasing Bram around my room result in a really good form of exercise.   

On those day a took a picture of Bram and posted on FB, and one of my friends ask me what was wrong with his eyes, and explain the situation, then she told me that a vet friend of her was finalizing the oculist specialization in the EE.UU and she was coming back to the country and she could help Bram.. and so she did. I got in contact with the specialist as soon as she got to Panama (where we live) and we set an appointment with her.

When The specialist saw Bram, told me that he had suffer really high peeks of pressure in his eyes and confirm that he had lost almost completely his sight. The Vet explain to me that from now on, our mission was keeping the pressure from the eyes low, and proceed in substituting the every 12 hour eye drop to another, a 5 times a day eye drop, that also was reaaally expensive. For a few months the medicines and vet of Bram where costing around $180.00 to $200.00 per month. Thanks god i could cover the expenses, but not without sacrificing the coffee that i use to bought every morning and other stuff, but our work start paying off and Bram eye pressure come down, and with that the medicine was less needed per day, right now he only needs his eye drops 2 times per day, and we visit the specialist every 2 month.

Our goal is reach the point where the eye drops are only needed once every 2 days...with hope and lots of love we are going there...

The Beginning of Bram

On the third day of April 2011, I was playing tabletop rpg with my friends and the beautiful dog of a friend was pregnant ,on that day she gave birth to her puppies. When my friend receive the call from her mom announcing the puppies where coming , my friend, my best friend and I rush to the the event.
As soon as we could we got to my friend's house ,and we couldn't get there in a more perfect moment !
A black little fluffy puppy  was arriving to this world, and we i saw him i thought , there is nothing most perfect than this little creature, and guess what? 2 month later, this black little fluffy puppy got in to my home and I named him Bram. The Arriving of Bram wasn't easy, I had to convince my mom to accept the puppy, and I had to learn how to take care of him, luck me, in those years i had a boyfriend that assume the responsibility of the dog with me. We spend a lot of our free time reading, researching, and watching everything that was related to this subject, and thanks to god, IT WORK!
Obviously in the process Bram destroy half of my living room, and well my mom wasn't happy about it, but we found a way of training him (involving a trainer, lots of lemon, vinager and pepper to keep him away of the furniture).
Since the Beginning Bram was a really healthy dog. I went regularly to the vet to make sure that he was fine, sometimes he just had a bad case of the allergy, but pretty much that was it.... until last year.
I was away visiting My family , and Bram stood at home in the care of my best friend, when she told me that Bram had something in he's eyes. She Skype called me, and show what was going on, Bram had a white layer of i really do not why in he's eyes, as concerned owner (mommy, i prefer) that I am, I did the reasonable, FREAKOUT.
I didn't have a way of sending money to my friend for her to take Bram to the vet, and the one who was my  boyfriend, well he was no longer and pretty much didn't show much interest for Bram. I really didn't know what to do.. but Bram's Vet came to the rescue and treat him, telling me that i could pay her as soon as i came back from my trip. She diagnose him with tick decease, and Bram is one of those dogs that grows the white layer on top of the eyes as one of the symptoms.
When i came back from the trip Bram was better. The only problem was that Bram wasn't seeing as well because of the withe tingy.. my told me it supposed to go away..  but it didn't.
I would never forget the day that I realized that Bram couldn't see. We where about to take a walk when i open the front door of my aparment and Bram came out and botch the stairs, he almost fell and i almost cry. I took him right away to the vet yelling that my dog lost his sight. I left him with the vet and went to work. Later that day my vet call me, and told me that Bram had Glaucoma, and lost for completely the sight in his right eye and partialy from the left one, then she pass the phone to the specialist that she had to call for assessment (a human eye doctor , because in that moment weren't any canine specialist in the area) and he explain the situation, as he could of curse,  (his regular patient aren't that hairy, or own a bunch of pointy teeth) Bram had to receive medicine for the rest of his life, and beg that he didn't loose the rest of sight that he still had.
I was heartbroken, i felt so guilty by the fact that my one and half year old puppy was almost  blind, and he pretty much need it me 24/7 because he had to receive his medicine every 3 hours to control the glaucoma. 

Bram went everywhere with me, to work, to my friends house , shopping, or if I had to left him at home i had to be back on time for his medicine. Going on walks was difficult, he got scare at everything, noises, persons, sometimes other dogs. At times he just stop for completely and didn't want to move forward, or backward. But a his walk everyday with me to work, we create commands for him to know what to do, just basic words, like up , down , be careful , run run run.  And everything became easiest, I found a canine specialist for his eyes, he completely lost his sight, but his nose become keener, also his hearing...
he became a even more beautiful, funny, playful dog... and i will share his adventures with you... in any case that you also have a Mr. Magoo dog.