Steve's eye troubles

I took Steve to the eye specialist today. Its not looking good. Last year Steve started to squint a lot and his eye looked cloudy. I took him to a few Vets in my area. None of the Vets could tell me what was wrong with him and they finally referred me to a hospital about an hour and a half away. Amazing place I must say.

After Steve's first visit with Dr. Ringle he was diagnosed within five minutes. It wasn't good news but at least I knew what the problem was and we could start to treat it. Steve had a degenerative eye disease that causes the lens to detach from the eye and actually float around. It needed to be removed (the lens).

He had the operation and healed great. The Dr. said he would be able to see but not that great. Steve's other eye started doing the same thing ..we were trying to prevent this with meds but it didn't work. This time though we could not take out the lens since it had went to the back of his eye.

This eye now has to be removed and a false eye put in its place, also his operated eye with the removed lens has glaucoma and he has a good chance of going totally blind in that eye.

Steve is a great dog and still loves to play ball even though he can hardly see it. I found this great website called www.blinddogs.net and its so cute..dogs that 'see' with their heart. So many good tips on there and one thing I loved reading is that their sense of smell and hearing are more important than sight.

Most dogs that are blind lead normal happy lives...can navigate the house, learn to use stairs. amazing!

I feel a bit better now knowing that he will adapt if he does become totally blind..in the mean time I will be giving him about 10-12 drops a day of four different meds to treat the glaucoma.

Comments

[patti]

My baby steve I feel so bad he is the best dog ever.

I am crazy about him. Not his ball though.

xoxox

[larissa]

oh bless his little baby heart! porkchop & mr daniels send him all their best. steve is very lucky to have you as a mom!

- larissa

[Sasha]

Poor little guy. Me and my brood are sending lots of well wishes. Saw your note on my blog the other day. . . I check in on you too from time to time. It was so exciting to read that it has been 6 years! Yay. I am so looking forward to getting there too. . . just trying not to jump too far ahead and miss what's happening right now. By the way, are you planning to go to Jacksonville next month for the young survivor's conference? I'll be there. . . not sure why I'm going, but it feels like I need to. We should try and connect if you're going too. Stay well. Big puppy hugs and kisses to Steve!