Terrier going blind :(

belongtojazz

Just wondered if anyone has any experience with a dog with a loose lens in their eye?

Am having a tough time recently with my dogs health, one girl has hip dysplacia (sp) the baby in the house spent the night in the vet recently as she was vomiting a bit and pooing blood a lot, and our old lady had very high pressure readings and swelling in one of here eyes.
It is the old lady I am enquiring about tonight.
We have been back and forth to the vet with her over the past 2 weeks for her eye and tonight they told us that the swelling and cloudyness is being caused by a detached lens in her eye.
The drops she has have reduced the pressure reading but the eye is still swollen and has turned completely white. She doesn't seem to be in any pain thankfully but it looks very uncomfortable

I just wondered if anyone else has been through this and what the outcome was? We are in the monitoring stage but have been told if the pressure goes up the eye may need to be removed. The vet has said that it is likely the other eye may also eventually be affected.

I feel so sorry for her, she's about 12ish and is an ex puppy farm breeding dog and is still very nervous, jumps at noises etc even after 7 years with my dad.
She doesn't go out, so I don't think the loss of sight will restrict her too much so long as we don't leave stuff lying around.

Apologies for the long post but needed to vent a bit as well as see if anyone has experienced this.

Millem

That sounds awful for your dog. Is there nothing more that the vet can do for you? Although I don't have any experience with your dogs specific condition one of my dogs goes to an eye vet in Dun Laoghaire who I can honestly say is amazing although I know he has had bad reviews on here before!

belongtojazz

Our Vet did mention that vet in dun laoighaire if things deteriorate and did say if we wanted to investigate reattaching the lens that could be done. My main aim though is to ensure her comfort. I don't want to put her through any procedures that " might " work but wil almost certainly traumatise her.
Thank you very very much for the recommendation but I am really just looking for information on how to manage the condition and keep her happy.

She is a typical terrier who spends most of her life giving out to my springer who weighs more than 20kg more than her and he lets her I think I'm looking for people to say it'll be no bother to her and she'll happily live for another x amount of years giving him a tough time

Blueprint

I knew a little JRT who lost an eye due to a similar condition, she passed away at nearly 18, was pretty much blind in the other eye, pretty much deaf, but went for walks quite happily and seemed to enjoy life pretty much until the end.

Zapperzy

Not able to contribute much except I'v also heard good reports about the vet in Dun Laoghaire. I also know a very old terrier girl (~20) with cataracts in both eyes, (and also every condition under the sun), who still plods about the place and goes for short walks off lead. Loss of sight doesn't seem to be as big a deal in dogs as in humans, they seem to cope much better.

offline

So sorry to hear your girl is having a hard time , hope she and you will cope ok .

All I can contribute is I got a dog that has a a dislocated lens , for about 7 /8 years now , she is now 12 years of age .
It was caused by her playing with our large dog ( she is a toy breed herself ) . They were cashing each other and a branch snapped right into her eye causing a very bad black eye , so bad so that we where afraid to loose the eye .
After all had settled down it emerged she had the dislocated lens . She has not been on any medication as such since and is in no discomfort as far as I can tell , and she is a spoiled little madam that would let you know if so .
At this stage the eye has started to shrink slightly , which has been pointed out might eventually happen , but was assured that she is in no discomfort .

The eye can appear very red , depending where the lens is at the time , like an albino eye not like an infected looking eye . She does not have much if any sight left in the eye , but got used to that quickly , just don't move any furniture or leave things lying around until she adjusts .

Hope this might put your mind a bit at ease , and wish you both the very best.

TooManyDogs

Ahhh god love her. Dogs do really really well without sight, I know a shih tzu who had to have both eyes removed and she's doing fantastically, you wouldnt know by looking at her that she was blind except for the no eyes bit obviously! A terrier x I knew in the rescue was blind and he was always out with a large group of dogs and did absolutely fine.

They don't depend on their eyesight like we do, ours is pretty much our primary sight but it's not for dogs so they adjust without sight really really well. xxx

SlimCi

Our dog had a different condition inherent in the breed called Primary Lens Luxation. He was a tibetan terrier bought from a reputabe breeder and IKC registered. He was only 4 though and it was a genetically inherited thing. Anyway one eye went cloudy and was extremely sore. We got tabs and drops from the vet but ended up with the chap in Dun Laoighre, who is very good and really nice and knows his stuff backwards. Unfortunately for our darling dog one eye was completely gone and the other lens was in the process of detaching. It was suggested to us that either an operation costing 3.5 k approx was an option but with no guarantees that it would work or that one eye be removed and he coud see with the other until things disimproved. He was in such terrible pain which the tablets were not controlling so we took the decision to pts. Everyone was very helpful and kind to us in Dun Laoighre and our local vets and I know that your case is different. Dogs can lead very happy lives with one eye, that I do know but I hope they are able to treat it for you. Best of luck and I hope they are able to sort it for you. Keep us posted.

DBB

belongtojazz wrote: »

I think I'm looking for people to say it'll be no bother to her and she'll happily live for another x amount of years giving him a tough time

Hi BTJ,
There are a few things you can do to make life easier for her if her sight is failing... is this what you meant?:)
First of all, put important things close to where she rests most: food, water, favourite toys etc.
Put tactile markers around the place to mark out feeding areas, beds, routes to the garden etc, such as different textured rugs.
Use scent markers in different rooms: oil burners or plug-in scent things so that she knows that x smell means it's the sitting room, y smell is the hall, z is the kitchen etc. A DAP diffuser is a good scent marker to put near her bed.
Have radios playing in different rooms at terrier level. Not only will they help her to orientate herself, but she will be able to detect different sound waves so she can "hear" where furniture or obstacles are.
Don't move furniture about!
Remember that the other dogs may overstep the mark with her if they don't realise her sight isn't great, so you will need to protect her from them crowding her or panicking her, particularly when she's drowsy or sleeping.
Try to do new stuff with her, re-teach her some old skills, and try to bring her out for a few short walks a day rather than one longer one: dogs losing their senses can go in on themselves a bit, much like older people do, and this can bring on dementia. However, if you keep her brain active and get her doing stuff throughout the day, it'll keep mental-ageing at bay, as will an age-appropriate diet with plenty of Omega-3, L-carnitine, and Vitamin E (oily fish is a great source!)
Good luck with her!

belongtojazz

Thought I'd give a quick update on our old lady.
We have been back to the vet every week for check ups and for the past 2 visits the pressure reading has thankfully reduced so the drops are working for that.
She doesn't seem to be in any pain except when she bangs the side of her head with the bad eye, this causes her to lash out at whichever dog is nearest as though they caused the pain :eek:
None of the others react to this and just seem to accept it, I spoke to the vet tonight who says she will learn to compensate some for the blindness which hopefully means a reduction in those instances.

So all in all it's going ok for her. Long term there is no doubt the eye will have to be removed but the longer we can avoid that, while maintaining her quality of life the better. She is an old girl with a bad chest so an anesthetic is not something to be rushed into.

SlimCi

Glad to hear she's managing ok with it and that you are doing ok too! Long may it last...

belongtojazz

Well a few months on and another update. The pressure kept rising in Kerries eye so it was decided that it was time to remove the eye. This was not a decision I took lightly, she is an older dog (around 12ish we think) but a typical lively terrier so weighing up the options we booked the surgery for last weds. Thankfully the operation went well and she came home that evening and seemed fine.

Unfortunately Thursday morning she was very off colour, shivering and not interested in moving or food. My daughter brought her back to the vet and she was admitted and put on IV. They did blood tests and discovered her kidney enzyme count was way off. She stayed in the vets until this morning, she was sent home as the vet felt the stress of being there was not helping her recover although he would have much preferred to keep her on the drip as there is no improvement in her blood tests. So she's home, with her cone on and eye stiched up and we are hoping and praying she can pull through this ok.

Kerrie was my dads dog and unfortunately my dad passed away 2 months ago. 2012 has been a pretty sh1tty year for us so far

carleigh

Fingers crossed for Kerrie.....hope she pulls through.