Marilyn, thanks for your ideas. She doesn't have a respiratory infection, she has a respiratory disease. Chronic allergic bronchitis. She was diagnosed about three years ago, and at the time our vet told us that most dogs don't live more than a year or so after diagnosis. We went after it pretty aggressively - she is on daily low dose pred and a steroid inhaler - and she stabilized pretty quickly. Her bronchitis hasn't gotten any worse and as long as she takes her meds and uses her inhaler, she is fine. A year after the CAB diagnosis, she was hit with glaucoma in her left eye and had enucleation surgery. She did not do well with the anesthesia, but eventually she did wake up and we decided right then that there wouldn't be any more anesthesia for her. A year after the enucleation, glaucoma hit her right eye. Because she couldn't do anesthesia, when the pressure got too high, she had an ablation with gentamicin while wide awake. Such a brave little girl. So that's the history.
The vet does think the infection probably came from seasonal allergies. Possibly sinus or irritation in the eye. Vet said it could have even come from a bump on the head in the eye area, and that's certainly possible, since she's blind. When the allergies are really bad we do give her an antihistamine but they have a tendency to raise eye pressure so we don't do it often. I've been taking her in every other day for them to irrigate the eye really well, the drain tract has stayed open but nothing is finally coming out now. We're also doing warm compresses four times every day, irrigating the eye at home four times per day, and using an antibiotic cream in her eye, as well as oral antibiotics. Because she can't handle any sedation and the area has been so painful, the eye vet has held off on trying to do an ultrasound or anything like that, but said that once she's pain free we may do that. The thing that concerns me is that our vet said it's very unusual for these things to open up and drain on their own?
She looks really good now. The swelling is down, and all she has is a little bruising, she's eating, active and her personality is back to normal. But I don't want to get a false sense of security either.
Diana and the Scoobster |