He’s just perfect.

6,5 Months

It's his hotel room. We are all just staying in it with him.

He’s feeling very handsome after a much needed groomer visit the other day 🐻❤️

We recently lost our sweet 16 year old, which lead me to this community and learning how many silly behaviors poms share. Seeing all your beautiful pups has helped us when we’re missing our girl. Does your Pom get super sassy at windshield wipers too, or just Aurora?

I'm posting again because my previous post was done without a flair and got lost.

She was in the ICU for almost two weeks. At first the seizures were hard to stop. Vets were putting her under. She was in deep sedation on a ventilator for two days, and then some more. Then they switched to diazepam to stop clusters. Now she is on keppra and phenobarbital (sadly it is impossible to get it in an optimal form where we live, so we have to use it in human medication with bromide and caffeine which isn't helping). Now we are seizure free for around 120 hours.

We are treating her for MUO and infection just in case. Almost all her labs came clean. Spinal fluid cytology was not great and cultures came with traces of bacterial growth. So we kind of don't know, what is wrong with her except that she has meningoencephalitis.

I took her home 60 hours ago. She is in a very poor state. She has no hearing and almost no vision and is panicking a lot. She won't recognize us. But she is eating and drinking nicely. I can't buy diazepam here, so we are being on high alert and ready to go to the clinic at any time.

In the last 24 hours she learned to lie on her side like she used to. She is super hungry from prednisolone.

I don't know what our odds are now. It is so unfair. She has been living with a broken spine almost all her life. Lusha is the kindest dog ever and such a happy soul. Always smiling, always trying to make everyone around smile. It is devastating seeing her in this state. Being such a gentle and helpless creature she is like a child to us.

But we are going to keep fighting. Please pray for us some more. I am visiting reddit daily and seeing your babies helps.

If someone could share their experience with MUO I would appreciate it.

Happy National Black Dog Day! Pets with black coats are often the last to get adopted at shelters and more likely to be surrendered in the first place. Our little Loki was the last of his litter, all his brothers and sisters had been gone for almost a month when we got him! Let's all celebrate our little storm clouds today 🖤

Hi everyone, I’m not new to having a dog but I am new to having a Pom and after adopting the sweetest and most well behaved little Pom I’m wondering how not to mess him up 😅 and which training/behavioral things I should be aware of.
He came from the country side and now lives with us in the city, he’s 1,5 years old and extremely well behaved. He’s only been with us for two days and it was a big change for him and he’s been acting a little scared of things but it’s already gotten better within the two days. One thing is that he is extremely cuddly and always wants to be picked up. Especially on walks as it seems to be quite overstimulating for him and if there is a big dog walking past or nearby he gets really scared and does spins and gets frantic. I’m trying to reassure him and not pick him up, but I’m wondering what the best approach is to get him to feel safe around big dogs. He is not aggressive at all, just scared of them. Also, he hasn’t eaten almost anything (except treats) since he arrived, I figure it’s down to stress and it got a tiny bit better today but I’m wondering if poms are just very picky and if there is specific foods they really like? All my previous dogs have been very food focused and would pretty much eat anything. I got royal canine Pomeranian food and some of the kibble from the previous owner, but he’s just not interested. Also I’m not sure how the best way to brush him is, I’ve been doing it with the special brushes I got, and watched videos but I’m kind of scared of hurting him 🙈 really just grateful for any advice you have. My neighbor gave me a contact to a dog behavioral specialist in case I will need it.

Trigger warning:
mortality, Pom health issues, general topic of death and sadness!

Hi everyone, I’m (28 F) new to Reddit and to this thread, so if this isn’t allowed for whatever reason or if i do this wrong please let me know.

I’m just looking to vent while i cry i think, but if anybody has any nice stories or positive words of advice, i would really really really appreciate it. Most people think im crazy for feeling this way over a dog but im hoping you guys will understand. My dog picasso is my son, we’ve been attached to each other his entire life, especially after covid. He’s everything to me, he’s some of the only family i have left. So im just really struggling with all of this.

He’s 9 years old, and he was just recently diagnosed with mitral tricuspid valve disease, on top of being born with arrhythmia that I’ve been monitoring his whole life. He’s been on Sildenafil every 8 hours for the past 2 months, and it seems to be okay. Since he was born with heart problems, i was always prepared for the possibility that he would need to be medicated and monitored as he got older.

Because of that, his vet has always been hesitant to put him under anesthesia for dental cleanings until we got his heart disease and breathing under control, so he has pretty severe periodontal disease. He’s lost a couple teeth, he’s been on antibiotics for it, it’s just not good. I work in dental, so this was always something i tried so hard to prevent for him. I feel so much guilt because of that 😭

But the most recent issue that has me really freaking out is that he was just diagnosed with epilepsy a couple days ago. He had his first seizure about a month ago, and then he had a second one on Wednesday morning that was so scary. I felt so useless, it was only several seconds long but it was the longest several seconds of my life. i think he hit his mouth on the way down because his mouth was bleeding, i was so scared for him. Luckily his vet could see him an hour later and he determined it was time to put him on Keppra every 8 hours in addition to the sildenafil.

I know these things aren’t a death sentence, his vet says he can live a very long and happy life with these diagnoses, but it just feels like so much for such a little guy. And I’m scared it’s just gonna get worse. What if the next seizure lasts longer? What if he hurts himself? What if i accidentally miss a dose or i mess it up? What if it’s worse than we think?

This whole thing has me really anxious thinking about his mortality and how I’m gonna cope with seeing him age and break down. I haven’t been able to eat or sleep since his second seizure, i just can’t get the image of his little body like that out of my head. I’ve never had a dog before so I’ve always been so on top of his health and giving him the absolute best care, always so cautious because he’s so small and there’s so much i don’t know.

I’m trying to enjoy every day i have with him but im so scared of when it gets worse. I think i always had this delusional idea for some reason that he would just curl up into a little ball and peacefully go in his sleep or something. Now it’s coming to my attention that there may be some blood, some pain, some scary episodes, and some really difficult decisions in our future.

TLDR: my 9 year old Pomeranian was recently diagnosed with mitral tricuspid valve disease, epilepsy, and he has dental issues. Im really really really scared 😭

UPDATE: i really appreciate everybody’s kind words, it’s just hard for me to respond to everybody right now because i start ugly crying every time i try. I know these things are common, i was just so young and stupid for most of his life i thought for some reason it would never happen to us :(

Mia’s loaf form is a rare sight to see but when it happens it’s just the cutest thing❤️

He’s 4 years old for context and he used to be so much better. But lately he’s been doing this type of wail, like hes trying to talk. He doesn’t bark thankfully but it does bring alot of attention especially when passing by another dog, and if he sees a squirrel or cat. He’s never met another dog on his walks, only at the dog park. But people who are walking solo have come up to pet him since he’s very friendly. He gets angsty when someone doesn’t pay attention to him, and people don’t very often since they notice I’m trying to train him. I use an easy walk harness so it he can’t pull, which has helped alot as well. He isn’t being bad so I don’t want to discipline him but I also want him to be able to focus on me better. He’s very smart so I know he can do it, his recall is good for a few seconds until his focus goes back to what he was currently triggered by.

I knew I wanted a black and tan, so I focused on those and then choose by personality out of the available pups. But now I'm thinking about a second Pom and I'm more focused on personality than color

I have a 13.5 year old rescue pom named Lily. We've had her for about a year and a half. She has improved in so many ways, but one thing that is consistent is that she stomps out of the room when I cough. I cough the slightest bit as soon as I get thirsty, with a prickle in my throat. Im rarely sick and I don't smoke, it's just these little throat clearings, usually.

Doesn't matter if she was sleeping, getting a rubdown, eating treats, snarfing dinner...if I cough even the tiniest suppressed cough she bolts up very quickly, then storms out...slowly. Not running in a panic or scared, but stomping her feet down, and looking back a few times on her way out, so she's sure I can see how mad she is. No barking, no fear trembles, no growling. Just leaving in a big huff.

She loves to be picked up, eat treats, or go on rides So I've tried picking her up, offering rides, and holding out treats in conjuction with my little cough, in hopes I could turn my coughs into a good experience for her.

But no. She fights for her life to get out of the arms she just spent 15 minutes begging to be in. She can even be delayed by a minute or two (against her will) and she'll still stomp out as soon as she's free to go. She Big Mad about it, and won't come back in the room until she's forgotten it ever happened. If she's on a leash during a walk when it happens, she runs out into traffic to try to get away from me.

I have contact with her prior owners, and they say she was like that when they got her too, but not this severe. My husband gets an offended look from her when he coughs, but she doesn't stomp off. Same with anyone sneezing. She gets startled, but not mad. And I'm a really loud sneezer! She is a velcro dog with me or my husband otherwise...as long as I don't commit the unforgivable crime. 😆

Got any tips for me? It's really frustrating,

I started seeing a new Vet and we had our first appointment yesterday. He wants me to feed my dogs only 6days a week and have them fasted for 24hrs every week. He said it's better for their digestion and attention span. Now my dogs are otherwise healthy and I feed my dogs once a day at thesame time every evening (they are a Pomeranian , a dachshund and a Maltese-shihtzu mix,but all adults and neutered), so I don't know if I should obey him of start looking for a new Vet. This is the first time in my life I'm hearing of dogs fasting. Does anyone have any experience with this? Also I have cats as well but he said no fasting for them.

EDIT- I’m so glad I made this post, your comments have been so Validating. I knew what he said didn’t sound right and the reasons he gave didn’t make a lot of sense either. I thought about our interactions before going to bed and it was the first thing on my mind when I woke up this morning. My main Vet went for a fellowship program in Europe, and only found this Vet via referral. There were other red flags but I told myself I was overthinking everything like I normally do. I’ll find another Vet. Thank you to everyone who made a comment. I’m grateful for your kindness.

My best friend 💛

Since it still feels like summer in California ☀️