Rolling Dog Farm Blog

Today was one of those "drop some off and pick some up" trips to the vet clinic.  I took the new arrivals, wobbly sisters Noodle and Wobbles, and blind Joey to our vets in Helena late this morning.  I took the photo of Alayne holding Joey with the two girls in the truck just before I left.  Noodle was talking to us when I got this shot.

The sisters were going in for general medical exams, bloodwork, and a spay for Wobbles (Noodle had already been spayed).  I wanted our vet, Brenda Culver, to look at Joey’s eyes because we’ve been seeing what look like significant changes going on in both of them … and neither one looks good.

We always have to monitor the eyes in our blind animals because blindness doesn’t mean the eye is basically "finished" with a disease process … in fact, blindness is often just a symptom of the underlying problem, and changes can keep occurring within the eye.  That’s why we’ve had to remove eyes in many of our blind animals, because the disease process is ongoing and ultimately results in a painful, chronically infected eye.  One veterinary ophthalmologist we know described the eye as a ‘house of cards,’ saying if you removed one card — i.e., had one problem occur somewhere in the eye — you can often expect a series of other problems to develop subsequently.  We’ve certainly found that to be the case.

Sometimes, if cataracts develop early, they can mask other changes occurring in the eye.  That’s why Brenda had to ultrasound blind Brody’s eyes to find out if there were changes going on behind his cataracts … and there were.  His retinas are detaching.  I suspect Joey’s eyes have been undergoing changes in the past couple of months and we hadn’t noticed because they were hidden by her cataracts.  By the time they became visible — like now — a lot has gone on inside them.

So I dropped Noodle and Wobbles and Joey off at the clinic, and picked up Brody and blind Turtle.  Brody was happy to see me (well, smell/hear me, I guess!) and gave me a big smooch.  Even Turtle, who just came through major intestinal surgery, was purring up a storm.  (In case you’re wondering, the bill came to $1,749.34.)  We are still waiting on the biopsy results on Turtle’s intestines — the tissue samples went to Colorado State University.

Alayne took this photo of me with the two of them when we got back to the ranch about 5 p.m.  Brody was shaking hands because, well, any time is a good time to shake hands as far as he’s concerned!  Turtle was purring in my arms because, well, she thinks any time is a good time to purr!

(Click on photos for larger image.)