[Dailydrool] Eye advice

[dpmcquade at verizon.net]

Since anyone on this list may need this information someday, bassets being prone to glaucoma, I am going to say something I hope I told Jesse when I wrote her privately. If I didn?t specifically tell her this, I?m sure someone did.

IF YOUR DOG HAS AN EYE PROBLEM, GO TO AN EYE SPECIALIST. Regular vets are wonderful for many things, but they usually do not have the experience or equipment to adequately deal with serious eye issues. When do you know it?s a serious eye issue? When the ophthalmologist tells you it is. Your regular vet should usually be sending you to that specialist, not diagnosing such things.

If you can say, ?That isn?t so. My basset has had wonderful help from Dr. Snodpuppy,? you have been extremely blessed, either in your vet or by the fact that your basset didn?t have something too serious. 

I know whereof I speak. I have had two dogs with eye troubles. An ophthalmologist is more expensive, but if you have a dog with serious troubles, you are going to rejoice in the day you met this vet. If you put off such a visit, you may be cursing yourself for not spending some extra bucks to keep your dog in vision.

Happily, bassets do very well in blindness, but it is a terrible thing for the human to go through. I don?t want any of you having to do that, so I will repeat it: IF YOUR DOG HAS AN EYE PROBLEM, GO TO AN EYE SPECIALIST.
 
Love your regular vet. Go as often as your dog needs to. But eye problems need an eye vet.
Pam, food slave to the Dashing Bassets
Holly and C. Dexter Haven (who lost the battle with glaucoma three months ago)