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 |