[Dailydrool] Glaucoma and pressure spikes

[Menzie Campbell]

Hi, Linda.  I read your post about pressure spikes, and just thought I
would throw in my two cents on the subject.

Our Pw. Annabelle (now ATB) went through all of this with glaucoma
years ago, back before she was even two years old.  She kept having
the same sort of pressure spikes, and our veterinary ohthalmologist
told us that each pressure spike was very painful for her- each one is
like having a migraine headache.  And, of course, each one kills a
little more vision.  Her advice to us, was that onnce there was no
more vision in the affected eye, was to go ahead and have it removed
as soon as possible.  Removing the eye is the only SURE way to remove
and end her pain, the vet told me.

And boy, was she right.  A couple of weeks later, after the surgery
had time to heal, we suddenly got back the Annabelle we hadn't seen
since her first attack of glaucoma.  All the intervening months, and
she had lost vision first in one eye, then the other, and while we
were doing pressure drains, tons of meds, IOC injections, and finally
removal of each eye, she had been grumpy, withdrawn, lethargic... not
at all the exuberant and gleefully-mischiveious puppy we loved.  But
once her PAIN was gone, and all those MEDS were gone, she became her
old self again.  She very quickly learned to navigate the house and
yard.  She began playing with her brothers again, and with us, and
barked for joy at suppertime.. and all those things we'd been missing
about her.

All that time, we thought it was the loss of her sight that was making
her depressed and lethargic.  But no.  IT was the pain (and maybe the
meds as well).

So please keep that in mind as you go through this process.  Bassets
adjust very well to being blind.  It might be a better solution, for
HIM (If not for the humans, who will mourn the loss of his sight), to
remove the eyes sooner, than later.  :)  Best wishes to all of you.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Linda Dianis <ldianis at comcast.net>
To: dailydrool at dailydrool.org
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:56:34 -0400
Subject: [Dailydrool] this and that
I loved the informative post about holistic vet/new surgical
procedures. This is one reason the DD is such a great source of info.
Our Otis is not doing great. His glaucoma is evil and harrassing him
-- he is fine one evening and wakes up at 630 am with an evil-looking
eye (do not know how to describe it exactly), indicating pain and a
pressure spike -- thousands of little houndy rods and cones vaporizing
at the back of his eye. His right eye -- already blind-- has begun to
have pressure again too since the intravitreal injection didn't
totally work. The other eye is beginning to have some pressure ups and
downs, and we are now on the 2x/day drops regimens.

-- 
Menzie Campbell
Save a Life - Don't Shop, ADOPT!
www.ombr.org
Owned by Pw. Annabelle, Hector TVL, Barney TPP, and Bozlee TOS