Debby Hairy sings "I Feel Good"

Blondie, affectionately known as Miss Piggy (anyone who has ever lived with a bulldog knows why) had her appointment with the "Eye Specialist" yesterday. He was a nice enough man. Properly serious, and dressed in scrubs, with his magnifying glasses perched on his wrinkled forehead. He first looked at both of her eyes and pulled a face. Oh oh.... Then he did a moisture test on her right eye. This eye has a condition called "dry eye". She has had this since we found her. Our old vet prescribed a treatment that didn't do anything more than make her face dirty, so we quit that and opted for saline solution several times a day. That test showed that her eye produced very little moisture naturally. Then he stained her left eye, the one with the massive ulcer, and surveyed the damage under magnification. The whole time he is examining her, he is taking time out to dictate notes to be passed on to our new vet. He has an assistant who has obviously been with him a long time. She is working on a computer. As he is dictating, she is scrolling up and down, marking things on the screen. They work together so well that you can tell they are a solid team, and have obviously done this a time or two.

The doctor comes to the conclusion that she has an ulcer that has gotten way out of hand. He has grimmaced several times during the exam, and occasionally asked us a question, which we answered as best we could. He began rapidly listing off the medications he wanted to put her on. He asked us again about how we were treating her (now) good eye, the dry eye. We told him about the medication the other vet prescribed and why we stopped using it. He said that we could of course do what we wanted to, but that he would treat the eye with different medications. We agreed and he added those to the list.

We were very nervous about this appointment. She is effectively blind in her right eye, and has been one very unhappy dog for the last month, due in great part to the fact that she cannot see much of anything. This is a sad state of affairs for a dog whose whole world revolves around guarding her food. She will stand over a cookie and guard it, daring anyone (dog wise) to attempt to take it - or even get within 5 feet of the prize. If she cannot see, she must be on high alert constantly, making sure that no one can sneak up on her and steal her food. She has been in a state of high anxiety and pain for nearly a month. There was a lot riding on this visit.

When the exam was over, he explained what he had seen, and we asked him if it could be "fixed". Without hesitation, he said yes. When we asked about the loss of sight, he was non committal. We had to be satisfied with that. We were both happy that he didn't feel she needed the surgery. She is not a young dog, and we were afraid for her. She does not do well with the elizabethan collar, panicking when it goes on, and running blindly. If she had the surgery, they would have had to sew her eye shut for the healing process, and she would have to wear the collar constantly until the eye was healed. Not good for little flat faced girls.

We got our instructions from his assistant. She was very positive, reminding us not to miss any applications of the medications, and assuring us that the change would be remarkable. We took our little fat dog picked up the meds and paid the bill, grateful to be taking our girl home with us, considering the alternative.

I am skeptical by nature, so I had my doubts about all of this. After all, we have had no less than 6 vet visits and three different antibiotic medications in the last four weeks. None of them have helped *at all*. In fact, the eye has steadily worsened, so I was not optimistic that this would work either. Well, I was as wrong as I have ever been, and thrilled about it. Her dry eye actually looks pretty damned normal. Of course the iris is dark. It is damaged beyond repair, but they eye itself looks normal. It is usually cruddy and covered with a gunky film. Today, for the first time in almost 5 years, it looks like an eye and not a lint covered marble. Simply remarkable. Her left eye appears to be progressing. She is no longer closing it tightly, but is relaxed and normal for the first time in almost 4 weeks. It is nothing less than amazing to me. I think that the pain medication he gave us has helped her a lot. I had asked the previous vet about something to numb the eye, and they didn't seem to think it was necessary, despite me telling them that she had an extreme reaction to the antibiotics, clawing violently at her eye, causing us to have to restrain her.

For me to say that I am disgusted with the previous vet is a gross understatement. Their negligence nearly cost our dog her eyesight (and may still). If they had never seen this dog before, I might be a little more forgiving. The fact that they are the only vet's to ever treat her, along with a history of this very problem makes their negligence unforgivable. I will return their collar, and if they should care to ask, I will tell them why I am not bringing my dog back to them. Being the cynic that I am, I hardly think it will concern them at all. I can hope that they learned something from this experience, because I damn sure have. I will never again sit silent if I have that gut feeling that something is not right. If I question a vet (or anyone in any profession) and they get snotty, I will leave without looking back.

I am grateful for this. She is much improved in both body and spirit. This adorable little girl who has been scared, depressed, nearly silent and in pain for a month is almost back to her normal curmudgeonly self. She is happily growling over her goodies when people walk by, and merrily joining Monkey barking at at the dogs being delivered to the groomer across the street. She has limited vision, and still bumps into things occasionally, but I believe she is well on her way to healing and retaining her eye along with at least some vision.

She has been celebrating with her favorite snack - vienna sausages. Ain't that great? She sure thinks so!

Blondie AKA Debby Hairy

My little english bulldog Blondie has an issue.

Her issue is an ulcer on her cornea. Ordinarily this is easily healed and everything is back to normal within a few days. She has had several in the past that healed just fine. This time it's different. Blondie was a foundling. She came running up to us in the park, skin and bones, covered in fleas and ticks. We took her home and cleaned her up. We also discovered that she had a dry eye. This is a common problem for these dogs, but it is manageable. The sad thing is that she has very little sight in that eye, but has gotten along just fine...till now.

Now, due to an error on the vet's part, she is not healing, and may lose the sight in this eye as well. She has an appointment with the eye specialist to see if they can fix the problem. If not, she will be blind. She has already lost a lot of the sight in the good eye. I am hoping against hope that she will recover.

I am very angry that she is in pain. It is not fair for her. Of course I know life is not fair, but it is much more difficult to accept when the recipient of the unfairness is such an innocent little thing. Poor girl.