Glaucoma

[Leonard224]

Hi! I'm new to Yorkie Talk and this is my first post. I'm just wondering if anyone has any knowledge about glaucoma. My 4 year old, Bella, was just diagnosed. The vet told us she is blind in the one eye and her lens is detached in the other eye. He gave us drops to try to help that and she goes back in 3 weeks. From what I have read, it seems likely that once one eye has glaucoma, the other eye is usually affected. Im so upset just thinking that she may go totally blind. Any advice?
Thanks,
Carol

[Maximo]

Welcome to Yorkie Talk, Carol. I am very sorry to hear that Bella and you are going through this.

I do not have any personal experience or advice, but I want to send good thoughts to Bella and you.

[Leonard224]

Thank you so much.

[Wylie's Mom]

So this is def glaucoma, or is it actually cataracts? If glaucoma, that's worse. If cataracts, then you give the flurbiprofen drops to prevent progression to glaucoma. My Wylie has cataracts in both eyes and is pretty much blind, but you'd never know it. What is the suggestion long term if this is actually already glaucoma? Does she have diabetes as well...is that why she has them at this age, or are they just juvenile cataracts/glaucoma?

[Scoobstersmom]

I'm so sorry. Wish there was a nicer way to say it, but Glaucoma in dogs is terrible! And it takes a pocket full of money or good insurance to manage it.


I had a toy poodle that was diagnosed with it at around 12 years old. Before she was 14 she was completely blind and had one eyeball removed. You are right. If it is primary glaucoma, eventually both eyes are usually affected. My girl had sudden onset glaucoma in the first eye and it appeared literally almost overnight. We went to bed on a Sunday night with no apparent symptoms - at least nothing I noticed - and woke up Monday morning with a bulging eye with a blue cast to it. She was in so much pain that she wouldn't even let me touch her. Off to the vet we went, and they knew right away what it was. The pressure in her eye had already hit 80 and had already lost the vision. Vet got us an emergency appointment an hour later with an eye specialist, and I was shocked that the only treatment available for her (because the pressure was so high) was enucleation. Complete removal of the eye.


She had the surgery within 24 hours of being diagnosed. It was major surgery but the recovery wasn't as bad as I expected. She was on pain meds for about a week, wore a cone for two weeks and was pretty miserable for a few days, but she did perk up after a week or so. Once the hair grew back over the eye socket (couple of months) she looked pretty cute with one eye.


If your dog has secondary glaucoma (usually caused by an injury or other disease of the eye) she may not develop it in the second eye. Mine had primary glaucoma so we immediately started treating her remaining eye with drops even though the pressure was normal. We held off the glaucoma for about a year, but it was a tough year filled with worry, frequent visits to the eye specialist, drops twice daily, and the drops are expensive. Once the pressure started climbing in the second eye, it went pretty fast. Within about four months, we were using four different types of drops, each a few times per day, the timing of the drops had to be separated and all were expensive. It seemed like she was getting drops every couple of hours. The drops worked for a while but eventually we couldn't control the pressure and by the time the pressure was intermittently at around 50, she lost vision in the second eye.


We opted for the gentamycin treatment for the second eye. It was a lot less invasive procedure, done in the office with no anesthesia, and she came home completely blind 20 minutes later. Not a very technical explanation, but they used a needle to remove the contents of the eye, injected gentamycin to kill all the cells in the eye, and then filled it with some kind of gel. No complications, no recovery time. She literally walked out of the doctor's office 20 minutes later.


If your dog has primary glaucoma, she will most likely eventually become blind. I would suggest going onto yahoo and joining the blind dog's list now while she still has vision. They are a very supportive group and will walk you through this and help you teach your dog to be blind before she's blind. Its amazing what they can learn! In the year and a half before my dog lost all her vision, she learned so many vocal cues that you'd never know she was blind. She could walk on a leash with no problem and knew cues for everything. We also did a lot of nose work with her, and she could search out a treat in no time, no matter where I hid it, had no problem finding her food and water bowls and got around like a champ. Let me know if you need help finding the yahoo list. It is a great resource.


My poodle lived another three years after losing her vision. She was 17 when we lost her. She was fine, and I don't regret any of it. The bright side to getting it over with and having the eyes removed is no more worry, no more drops, no more pain and no more glaucoma.


I'm sorry you have to deal with this. It is a lot to digest and unfortunately with glaucoma there isn't much time to adjust. I wish there was a way to be more positive about glaucoma but in a word - it sucks! But, you and your dog can do this together! Hope this helped a little.


Diana

[Leonard224]

It is definitely glaucoma in the one eye and a detached retina in the other. So, I'm guessing she can't see much at all right now. She does not have diabetes. She was just diagnosed yesterday, so this is all very new. I'm just trying to research as much as possible. I've had dogs my whole life but never one with eye problems, let alone blindness. And the sad part is she's just 4 years old.

[Leonard224]

Thank you Diana for such good information. That is very helpful to know. I will definitely go online and try to find the blind dog list. Thank you!

[gemy]

Originally Posted by Leonard224

It is definitely glaucoma in the one eye and a detached retina in the other. So, I'm guessing she can't see much at all right now. She does not have diabetes. She was just diagnosed yesterday, so this is all very new. I'm just trying to research as much as possible. I've had dogs my whole life but never one with eye problems, let alone blindness. And the sad part is she's just 4 years old.

First let me say I ache for you. While having no direct experience with glaucoma I do have with cataracts. But cataracts don't usually have the pain that is associated with glaucoma.


First did the eye specialist examine your dogs eyes? with something like this I certainly would be going to a canine opthamologist.


Four years old is way way too young for this disease, and I would definitely let your breeder know. She might step up to the plate with some help for medical bills In any case she should seriously consider never breeding that pair together again - and if she does not do pre breeding eye exams by an opthamologist well......


The yahoo group I have heard is very very informative on this subject of blind dogs.


If you think you wont be able to stretch your budget for the surgery check out in our library Help for Vet Expenses - Also look at GoFundMe options. ANd do it NOW. While you have not so much pressure on the medical side.


Let us know how it goes We are here to support as we can

[Scoobstersmom]

It is a shocking diagnosis, Carol, but if Bella does lose her vision, you will be surprised at how well dogs cope with blindness. My girl coped and adjusted much better and faster than I did. Besides not leaving things out in the middle of the room or moving furniture around, the only change I made in my house was to take my bed off the frame, so that the mattress and box springs sat on the floor. She'd always slept with me and I wasn't about to take that away from her. I was afraid that if the bed was higher and she fell off, she might get hurt. But she used her little stairs to get on the bed, would creep up to the edge and slide off to get down and never fell once. We had a little ball toy for her that ran by batteries and had a beeper in it. She would chase that thing by sound for hours. I never thought of her as handicapped, and most of the time I almost forgot she was blind. A young dog would adjust even better. I've seen videos of blind dogs chasing beeping Frisbees in the park.


Has your vet determined yet whether your dog has primary or secondary glaucoma? There's a test they can do by looking behind the eye with an instrument that will determine that. If it turns out to be secondary glaucoma, you don't have to worry about it affecting the other eye.


Hang in there. It sucks, but there are definitely worse diagnoses!


Diana

[yorkiemom76]

I'm sorry to hear this but I can tell you dogs adapt amazingly well to being blind. I adopted an 11 year old Dachshund that had glaucoma and was already blind when I brought her home. She had never been to my home before but once she learned her way around, she did just fine. She learned to follow the sound of my footsteps and she would follow me all through the house.

[Scoobstersmom]

I haven't been on the list in a while because I lost my blind dog a couple of years ago, but it used to be very active and helpful. Here's the link.


https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/blinddogs/info


Diana

[Leonard224]

Originally Posted by Scoobstersmom

I haven't been on the list in a while because I lost my blind dog a couple of years ago, but it used to be very active and helpful. Here's the link.


https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/blinddogs/info


Diana

Found it. Thank you so much!