STELLE - 11 YEAR OLD FEMALE

FOSTER UPDATE - MAY 18, 2023

Stelle is doing well. Foster mom reports that she is charming everyone who meets her on her walks around the neighbourhood. With her big personality, she wears the pants in the family and gets lots of hugs and kisses. Lately she has had a flareup of her ear infection; a swab cytology revealed yeast and bacteria so she’s on a round of Aurizon to clear it up.  She also had a Schirmer tear test and is continuing with her Tacrolimus to increase tear production.

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FOSTER UPDATE - APRIL 4, 2023

Since moving to her new home, Stella is doing well. She’s getting lots of attention and love. She goes everywhere with foster mom and sleeps in Big Bed with her. She enjoys her walkies and lets her mom know when she’s had a enough strolling and wants to be put in the Puggy Buggy to get the royal push around the rest of the way. She has been checked by the local vet and had her eye drops refilled. Foster mom calls her “the little miracle!"

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FOSTER UPDATE - MARCH 26, 2023

Stelle’s visit to the regular vet went very well. Her fecal, urine and blood test results were all excellent. She will need to stay on Tacrolimus drops for the rest of her life to increase her tear production and is currently on Baytril to clear an ear infection. Unfortunately, Stelle’s unprovoked aggression towards the resident dogs became more frequent and she needed to be moved. Since her aggression, age and medical issues (eyes, ears and vomiting) severely limit her adoptability, we made the decision that she will remain as a Forever Foster in a no-pet home with an extremely caring individual. Pugalug will monitor her medical issues going forward and ensure that she is treated like a queen. A huge thank you to Pugalug donors for providing the means for Stelle to continue to have a good life.

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FOSTER UPDATE - MARCH 9, 2023

Miss Stelle walked into our house and took over as if it were her ancestral home. The Grande Dame, who has been an only dog for most of her life, was a little puzzled by the resident chihuahua’s attempt to play with her and annoyed by the nearly blind resident pug’s habit of inadvertently bumping into her; she let them know she was not amused. Now that she realizes that they know their place, she has settled in and tolerates them. With us humans, she can be very loving or demanding as she deems fit. She’s not a fan of wildlife and gives the crows and squirrels a piece of her mind when she hears or sees them (turn up the volume for the video attached).

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Stelle learned our routine very quickly and manages the doggy steps to Big Bed like a pro now. In fact, last night she put herself to bed. She’s an excellent, if noisy, sleeper day and night. When I say “time to go outside”, she’s the first down the stairs and out the door, and does her business efficiently. With the snow so high, her back legs end up much higher than her head. At least this keeps her girlie bits off the ground and free from infection, which is important because she has had a problem with urinary tract infections/struvite crystals in the past. She stays outside as long as the boys so she can overmark and thatch the grass/mud vigorously afterwards. We’re both getting used to wiping off muddy paws when she comes in.

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Stelle’s “clean in the house” other than having a major problem with vomiting (or acute regurgitation). Every time she drinks, up comes the water, food, bile … whatever, often multiple times. We have to be careful where we walk in case of puddles she missed cleaning up. Her medical records mention this behaviour repeatedly over many years so we are not overly concerned. We are, however, happy to have a steam cleaner! Our dogs drink out of a water fountain and we have raised it so Stelle doesn’t have to bend her head to drink. We hope this helps the water reach her stomach and not stay in her esophagus in case this is aggravating the regurgitation. It also means she can’t drink out of the far side of the fountain and get water all down her chest (and the floor).

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You’ll notice from the pictures of her face that Stelle has a growth on her right inner third eyelid which was first diagnosed in 2019. It seems to bother me more than it does her. She also, like so many pugs, has pigmentary keratitis and insufficient tear production (keratoconjunctivitis sicca aka “dry eye”) in both eyes and requires twice daily drops to flush her eyes of the resulting goop. She’s pretty good at taking eye drops and excellent at having her chronically dirty/yeasty ears cleaned. Moreover, she was fine having her toenails dremelled and, after the initial shock, having her anal glands expressed.

Next week Stelle is booked to visit the local vet for a check-up, blood work, a fecal test and urinalysis and we will provide an update once we get the results.

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PRE-INTRO: FEBRUARY 26, 2023

Meet lovely Stelle who came back into foster care today after five years with her loving adoptive family who are sadly unable to continue to look after her. Stelle will be eleven years old in May. The foster family looks forward to getting to know her better and will provide a longer introduction then. In the meantime, here are a few photos of the sweet and sassy gal.