[aliciad2]

Hey everyone - I'm new here to this community. I recently took in my basset from a family friend. Droopy grew up at my parent's house until the family split ways and he had to be taken in by someone in the area. The family friend recently passed away and someone had to take care of Droopy. Finally on my own, and with some room to spare, I volunteered.

Anyway - just out of curiosity - Droopy is about 10 or 11 years old now, and his face is so, well... DROOPY, that you can hardly even see his eyes anymore! Is this normal with bassets, or is there something else to blame, perhaps an eye problem in general? Any thoughts?

He will be visiting the vet soon - next week - to have his ears examined - they are not looking so good. He's a very stinky dog at the moment... whoo! So I will definately ask about the eyes while we're there.

 

[Betsy Iole]

Welcome, and thanks for taking in the old guy. It's not uncommon for some bassets to have such droopy eyes that it's sometimes hard to see them for all the skin. Does he seem to be able to see and get around all right? If so, and his eyes don't look irritated, he's probably okay.

Ears need to be cleaned at least once a week, or the dog can develop problems. Ears are a common source of unpleasant odor in Bassets. Hopefully, the odor will diminish once his ear problems are cleared up.

 

[Guest]

You will not regret this. We took in a 12 1/2 yr. old Golden Retriever last August. She was only with us for 7 months, but she was the sweetest, best behaved dog we have ever had.

In fact, it's because of our tremendous experience with her, that we rescued our Basset, Hub.

I saw on a TV show that Ozzy Osborne had his bulldog have a facelift

 

[aliciad2]

Yeah, he seems to be getting around just fine - his eyes get a little goobery now and then, but I just take a little damp cloth to them and they're fine.

As far as the ears go - yeah, they've definately developed into a serious problem. I've managed to get him to calm down enough and let me clean them up the best I can for about 15 minutes a day... But they're red and swollen - something that the vet needs to look at. We'll have to keep them as clean as possible until then.

I'm trying to keep a level head and remember the old boy's not going to be around for very long. He is a very good boy, and adjusting pretty well. Having a little separation anxiety, but nothing a belly scratch and some kind words can't help.
Thanks for the comments!

[ July 14, 2004, 02:48 AM: Message edited by: aliciad2 ]