Gwydion’s Eyes

Gwydion’s right eye seems to be completely blind already. If I hold his head still, I can only move my finger to within a couple of inches of his left eye before he blinks and moves his head. If I try it with the right eye, he doesn’t move until my finger touches his lashes. He bumps into door frames every once in a while, but otherwise you wouldn’t suspect anything was wrong.

I’ve been making him wear his Doggles outside, and he’s doing OK with them now. His new ones just came today (we got the metallic blue, with a spare set of clear lenses), and they seem to fit better (guess they’ve improved them since we bought the first pair so very long ago). Yes, yes, I promise to get a picture soon!

Some “Gallows Humor”

Mark keeps saying that we ought to get him a glass eye, maybe with a skull and crossbones instead of a pupil. I think he would be better with an eye like that of Mad-Eye Moody (couldn’t decide which link I liked better, so there are two there).

I’ve noticed that Gwydion’s BG levels have been screwy (very high) right after a visit to the eye vet. I’ve been puzzling over it, because normally a vet visit (or anything else out of the ordinary) only messes up his numbers for that day. I think I figured it out (I guess I’m kinda slow at times). On our last visit, when we went to do the ultrasound, I walked Gwydion back to the exam room. He went with me, but was very reluctant (pausing in doorways, and just obviously wanting to leave). I’ve been thinking about it, and I think the problem is that he really doesn’t like there. Even though everyone there has been nice, and I’m sure they care, “bad stuff” has happened to him more often than not. Stress can have a big effect on BG levels, and I suspect it’s the stress hormones that are messing up his BG levels for the next day or so. We don’t have another appointment till early March, so we’ll see if I can get his levels back to “normal” before we go back again. And I’ll just expect his numbers to be off for a day or two right after the visit.

Gwydion has scratched the lenses on his Doggles :-( I think once he’s gotten used to wearing them (and isn’t pawing at them, or rubbing his face on things any more), I’ll order him a new pair (ours are a very early model anyway). I’ve been looking at the SitStay website (prices seem to be better than ordering directly from the Doggles website – go figure), and I think I’ll get him the kind with changeable lenses. That way, I can make sure he has the clear lens for wearing at night, and if he does manage to scratch them again, it will be easier to “fix” them. I can’t decide what color to get though :-) The ones he has now are black (yes, I need to take a picture yet), and I could just get black again, but the blue or metallic blue (or maybe the chrome) might be nice too. Decisions, decisions … :-)

A Random Funny – I was browsing a book on “Senior Dogs” and it said that “most” dogs are considered seniors by 7 years old. I laughed as soon as I read it, and everyone I’ve mentioned it to has also, because Gwen, my energizer bunny girl, just turned 7. She’s about as far from being a senior as a dog can get!

Well, I’m depressed today, and I may as well just get the bad news out of the way first so we can go on to better stuff.

The retina is detaching in Gwydion’s right eye, which means he will go completely blind in that eye.

The visit started out looking hopeful. The atropine was doing whatever it was supposed to, and the right pupil was looking better. His left eye is “beautiful.” When the eye pressures were checked, the left is still low, but the right is even lower. So the vet decided to do an ultrasound, and you could see the detachment starting in the eye.

There is a place in Chicago that might be able to stop it, but it would be very expensive (about twice what the cataract surgery cost), and we’d have to do it “soon.” I just can’t justify trying it. If there was a guarantee, maybe. But without, it’s a lot more stress on both of us, he’d have to be under anesthesia again <shudder>, it’s a long drive, and heck, it’s an awful lot of money. If it was both eyes I might be tempted, but since his other eye is fine, we’re going to have to pass, sadly.

So, my immediate reaction to all this was “too much medical detail.” I’m very bad with that, and while I haven’t ever actually fainted, I’ve been told I look like I’m about to. I ended up sitting on the floor against the wall with my head back for several minutes, and then I was able to get his next appointment made (1 month) and go out to the car. I lay down in the back seat for quite a while, till I was sure I was feeling well enough to drive home.

Now that I’m “recovered,” I’m trying to figure out the best way to cope. I think he’ll be fine in the house, we’ll just have to be careful of things “sticking out” at doggy level. Outside will probably be a different story, since there are lots of potential dangers out there that I really can’t get rid of. I have a couple pairs of Doggles, and I think he’s just going to have to start wearing them any time he is off-lead. He doesn’t like them much (he keeps trying to rub them off), but I’m going to see if I can adjust them to fit better so he will accept them. He’s just going to have to learn to deal with them I guess. I don’t know if his eye will look obviously “blind” or not (I hope not). Once he gets used to the Doggles, I’ll have to get a picture (he looks like a bike rider wearing them, they’re pretty cute!)

The outward appearance of his eye hasn’t changed much (still rather yellow). He is just getting the pred drops now, but dropped down to 3 times a day instead of 4.

Another positive note is that his tummy seems to be all better. No more toxic gas episodes, and we had a nice normal poop last night (only a dog person would understand how great that is <G>).

I think I’ll go eat some more chocolate and ice-cream.

As I said, Gwydion has seemed “down” or “off” for a few days now. Nothing that I could put my finger on and say “Ah Hah! That’s what’s bothering him!” but just kinda blah and droopy and unhappy.

Well, yesterday (Wednesday) wasn’t a good day at all :-( He woke up around 4am and wanted to be on the bed. OK, I picked him up and he slept on the bed. He got a bit restless toward normal “wake up” time, and when we went outside he had “cow plops.” So I gave him a low dose of insulin and broth for breakfast. When I came home for his eye drops, he looked like he felt really crummy. We went outside, still tummy troubles. I remembered a “recipe” for “Doggy Pedialyte” so I dug it out, mixed it up, and gave him some of it before I went back to work. He looked slightly better when I got home, but his tummy was still not too happy. I gave him another dose, and kept repeating and taking him out every couple of hours (no dinner, low dose of insulin) until bedtime.

I woke up at 4am, and Gwydion was sleeping soundly, but I woke him up, took him outside, and gave him another dose. When we came back, he wanted to sleep on the bed again, so I let him (My dog, spoiled? Why do you ask?)

I decided late Wednesday that he really ought to see the vet, so Thursday morning I caught a urine sample and called our regular vet as soon as they were open. I called work to tell them my dog wasn’t well and that I would be late. Gwydion seemed to be feeling somewhat better, so I gave him a small bit of overcooked rice and off we went.

He had blood drawn, which is always harder than we think it will be, because he will be very still until they’ve got about 3/4 of what they need, and then do something unexpected that messes things up (he once used his rear leg to kick the syringe out of his front leg and sent it flying across the room). While they were doing the lab work, the vet went over him, and didn’t find anything obviously wrong.

We got the test results back, and they were surprisingly good. All his liver values were right where they needed to be (Hooray! With all his anesthesia problems, I was worried about that). His kidney values were mostly good, the only one that was low was OK when compared to the urinalysis (kidney problems are another side effect of diabetes because they work harder when BGs are too high).

The only “problem” number was in the urinalysis. His urine ph was low. I’m not sure why that would be, but I’m researching at the moment. I’m wondering if it is because his potassium supplement is a “no salt” product (potassium chloride), and if I switch him to something else (potassium gluconate maybe), it will solve the problem. I’m going to give him a couple weeks to get over the tummy troubles (and hopefully get his BG more in line), and then have them do a retest. We’ll go from there.

So, after all this, it seems that he is just suffering from high blood sugar and an upset tummy (so we have some tummy meds and he has to eat a bland diet for a couple days before weaning him back to his normal food). But the good news is that he doesn’t have any liver or kidney problems showing at this time, and that really is good news.

P.S. Today is Gwen‘s Birthday! She’s 7 years old (I can’t believe she is that old!), and wants to know why Gwydion is getting all the attention!

Good News, Bad News again.

Good news is that Gwydion’s left eye is doing great. The tech’s exact wording was “perfect.” We are continuing the pred drops, same dosage and timing.

The right eye is still giving us trouble. The pressure is still very low, and even though the blood clot is gone, it’s still not dilating as much as it ought to (it is dilating, just not much). The doctor is still worried that it is going to heal contracted. So we have something new for that eye. Instead of the twice a day drops that he was getting, now we have atropine ointment (which is pretty ooky to put in) once a day.

On the way home, we stopped at our regular vet’s office to weigh Gwydion and visit with Carolyn. She checked his records, and he has lost 2 pounds since November :-( That doesn’t sound like much, but this is a 40 lb. dog we’re talking about! She agreed that he felt thinner, so I suspect he’s lost the weight more recently, rather than gradually over the past 2 months. So, I guess I’ll be feeding him more (not that he will mind!).

She also thought he seemed more subdued than normal (he hardly grinned at her at all). I think I’m going to give him a few more days, and if I don’t see improvement (it might just be his BG levels, and if I can get those down a bit, he ought to feel better) then I’ll bring him in. Probably do a urinalysis and bloodwork, see if anything turns up. But my fingers are crossed that he just perks up on his own (I don’t want this to be anything more serious).