[PyrNet-L] Glaucome

["Hadigian, Elizabeth L." <HADIGEL1@central.SSD.JHUAPL.edu>]

> This happened about a month ago but I am just getting around to posting
> this now because my only computer is at work which has been very busy
> since I missed about a week of work going to the vet and taking care of my
> 'little girl'.  As you probably already guessed from the title, my 4 year
> old pyr, Mattie, has glaucoma.  I never realized that glaucoma came on so
> quickly, although I have never known anyone (human or canine) that had
> glaucoma.  One morning I got up, let the dogs out, gave them their
> breakfast, and crawled back in bed for a few minutes more.  After Mattie
> had finished, she came into the bedroom and layed down.  So far everything
> was perfectly normal.  About 5 minutes later she started whining which is
> definitely not normal for her.  When I called her over to me, she jumped
> on the bed and sat there instead of laying down.  When I looked at her,
> she had one eye closed and the other eye half closed and looked like she
> was in pain.  We were at the vet's office 20 minutes later and the
> opthamologist's office 4 hours later (the soonest that they could take
> us).  He determined that it was definitely glaucoma in her left eye.  He
> used a prism to check the drainage angle in the right eye and said that
> there were good areas and some bad areas in that eye.  He could not say
> either way whether the right eye will eventually develop glaucoma as well.
> He then asked if she was otherwise healthy and I said 'sure, except for
> her Addison's disease'.  He ended up referring us to another opthamologist
> that was close by that works in an office with all kinds of specialists
> including Dr.'s that could handle an Addison's crisis.  She had laser
> surgery that day.  The opthamologist had said there was a chance that they
> could save the vision because it was within the first 24 hours of the
> onset, and that if it had gone more than 48 hours there was really no
> chance of any vision.  She just had a check up 2 days ago, and they think
> that she has some 'light and shadows' for vision in the bad eye and the
> good eye is still fine.  Her depth perception is off right now as she
> adjusts to her new eyesight.  It's really hard for me to watch her stumble
> and fall occasionally, but I can't think of any way that I can help her
> adjust.  She is starting to get better with moving around (I have not seen
> her stumble in about a week), but she does not want to play yet.  Does
> anyone else have any experience with dogs that have lost some or all of
> their eyesight?  How long did it take them to fully adjust and did they
> ever run around and play?  Is there anything that I can do to help her
> adjust?  Does anyone else have any experience with a dog with glaucoma - I
> would be interested to hear what treatment was used and how well the
> treatment worked.  I also found an interesting veterinary opthamology site
> if anyone is interested in more information on glaucoma and other eye
> diseases:
> 
> http://www.interlog.com/~eyevet/info.html
> 
> Betsy and Mattie
> Maryland
>