Rolling Dog Farm Blog

I took our new arrival blind Brody and blind Turtle the cat to our vets in Helena this morning.  This is a photo I took of Brody after I lifted him into the truck before we left.  Brody was going in to the clinic to be neutered, have a heartworm test, a complete blood count and chem panel work-up, a dental, and an eye exam.  Depending on the outcome of the heartworm test, he might have an echocardiogram of his heart as well.

Turtle, shown here in an earlier photo after her eye surgery, has become dehydrated again, has started to vomit occasionally, and was still not gaining weight after losing a lot earlier last month — this despite the fact that she does eat pretty well.  We took her to see our vet back in February because of weight loss and dehydration, and after a week in the clinic and IV therapy, she bounced back.  Our vet, Dr. Brenda Culver, ran a battery of tests then and everything was normal, which really perplexed us.  But clearly something is  wrong, so she went in today for more diagnostics.

The only definitive results we have back this evening are on Brody’s eyes.  We knew he had cataracts … you can certainly tell that from the photo above … but cataracts can be secondary to other eye diseases, so we never assume it’s only cataracts.  And if it IS only cataracts, there may be a chance of doing cataract surgery to restore vision. 

The problem with doing an eye exam on an animal with cataracts is being able to see past the cloudy structures and into the interior of the eye.  So Brenda did an ultrasound of Brody’s eyes this afternoon and found, alas, that his retinas are detaching.  This rules out cataract surgery.  (Our veterinary ophthalmologist in Spokane, Dr. Bill Yakely, says that only about 50% of dogs with cataracts turn out to be candidates for surgery because of other problems in the eye … usually involving the retinas.)

At this point Brody’s eyes do not appear to be causing any discomfort, but detached retinas can become painful, so this is something we will have to keep an eye on (so to speak). 

If you think you see some snow on the truck window behind Brody …
you’re right!  We woke up to a heavy, wet snowfall this morning, coming
down so thick it blocked our satellite signal for about an hour.  As
for the green sheets hanging over the back of the seats … well,
that’s our rather useless attempt to keep dog hair, mud, hay and other
assorted ranch debris off the seats.

(Click on photos for larger image.)