Like Mother, Like Dog

Spackle has been suffering from Basset Hound disease for a little over a week. That's what I'll call it, because that's what it looks like: Not the ear part of the Basset Hound (that would be weird), but the eye part. His lower lids have been puffy and droopy, showing off the whites of his eyes, which have been rather red and sad-looking. I know that I am totally anthropomorphizing to say that Spackle is sad, because the truth is, he really doesn't seem to notice that anything is amiss. I have seen him paw at his eyes a total of two times in the last 9 days. He is maybe slightly squinty in the sun, but he is still eating his 1 ¾ cups of dog food, morning and night, in 30 seconds flat; he's still jumping into the back of the car whenever we invite him to join us on a trip; and he's still obsessed with racing after his tennis ball, as long as he can get someone to throw it for him. Still, dogs probably more than any other animal outside primates can stand up to being anthropomorphized—after all, haven't we humans spent thousands of years trying to get them to live with us?

Anyway, what I'm probably really doing is projecting, and I'm projecting sadness most likely because I'm a little depressed that my own eye is still acting up. I have wondered if Spackle's eye issue is not so much his, but just an energy he picked up in the house and is manifesting. Dr Mortimer, our vet, didn't say much about that theory, but I did get a reaction when I told him about the needle in the eyeball that I myself got to experience just a few months ago. That made him shudder. Anyway, he diagnosed an inflammation of the tissue between the cornea and the iris, which has a specific medical name which I can't remember, which could indicate something more serious going on systemically, but doesn't really seem to in Spackle's case. And so, we're treating the symptoms: redness and puffiness. And one of the drops we're using is the EXACT same as one of mine. Ian already carefully wrote "Spackle's Drops" on the first bottle we brought home, to add to the dozen I have; we were careful to label this one, too, even though the prednisolone has been discontinued for me for the time being.

I thought about saving the $15 for the prescription by just giving him mine, but what stopped me was not whether or not I should use the drops after they've been used in a dog's eye, but rather whether or not I may have contaminated the drops by touching the bottle to my eye accidently, and therefore might cause more injury to my dog. So now there are three entries for our family at the pharmacy up the street: for Calin, Ian, and Spackle Taylor.