[Dailydrool] Some Help on Glaucoma Meds

[Kenneth Miller via Dailydrool]

Hi All:

Mostly lurker here, but I do read all the time. I too am so glad to have the Drool back, and since I am not really a Facebook person, this is where I come for information. I apologize for this being too long.

First, healing drool to all those in need. A few folks might remember me, my Bosley is coming up on age 11, and has had a Pseudomonas infection in his left ear for almost 5 years now. We have tried the BNT therapy, and antibiotics, diet change, etc. etc. to no avail.

However, that is not the bigger current problem. Bosley had also been diagnosed with Horner's syndrome, where his third eyelid would raise up and cover his left eye. Back in the late fall, he had an occasional bout of where the eyelid in the right eye came up at the same time, leaving him blind. Naturally, it only happened on weekends, and after I finally got him to settle down and sleep, it usually cleared up by morning. Naturally, he was restless, worried, and hard to deal with.

I thought he might be developing some glaucoma because of the way his left eye looked in the light. About a month ago, it came to a head. So, off to the vet, his left eye pressure was 84, the right was something like 20, he was blind in the left eye. The vet sent us to Virginia Tech Vet School in the snow. The opthomologist there said he was blind in that eye, and with bassets, the chances of the drug treatment was not very good. The second option was to put him under and inject his eye to slow or stop fluid production. He said this was effective about half the time. Third was removal of the eye and stitch it shut. We opted to try the injection. So they did, sent us home with three sets of drops, 1 drop in each eye, twice a day.

So far, so good, when I had his pressure checked a week later, the blind eye was down to 15, the other about 12. A week later, it was 10 and 8.

Now, I was running out of the one drop, and needed a refill. I was hit by sticker shock at Kroger, at $68.75 for the 2.5mm bottle, enough for almost 2 weeks.

So, he is getting Dorzolamide 2 percent timilolm,  Dexamethasone and Latanaprost. Since the Latanaprost is what I ran out of, I only knew the price on it, the other are still ok for now.

I wondered of the drool family who has had experience with any of the online pharmacies. For example, Allivet has the Latanaprost for $15.99, that is quite a bit of difference from $68.75 locally, and something I will need every two weeks. The Dexamathasone is $23.99, and searching for the Dorzolamide produced no results though them.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

We are not wealthy people, and I need to take care of my boy. We just had a lovely issue with the house last fall, with a blocked sewer, new roof and water line, all told over $25,000, so finances are kind of tight at the present.

Best
Ken and Beth Miller with Bosley and Edsel (ATB)
klmiller at rev dot net