Yesterday I had to take several animals in to our vet clinic in Helena, and it was a full truck. Blind Lady needed a repeat of her Cushing’s test to see if her new medication is working; blind Carmel was in for a follow-up eye exam; and blind Evelyn needed a skin biopsy for a recurring skin condition. Also along for the trip was blind Shep, our new arrival from Afghanistan.
In the photo at the top our vet Dr. Brenda Culver is listening to Shep’s heart after doing his eye exam. You can see in the photo how his eyes have that green glow. Brenda found that he has only the faintest of blood vessels in his retina — when they’re like this she said they’re called ‘ghost vessels’. It’s not from progressive retinal atrophy, but more likely from a birth defect that caused the vessels to be deformed. And his optic nerve is barely present. So with his pupils wide open, the light bounces right back off the retina.
Brenda showed me that when you look close-up with her slit-lamp, you can see what appear to be hundreds of tiny bright speckles reflecting in the fluid in his eye. It was, oddly, incredibly beautiful to see these little green stars shimmering in the light — if you stop thinking that this is an eye that can’t see.
Here’s another view of Shep during the eye exam:
There isn’t anything we can do to restore Shep’s vision, but his eyes are comfortable and don’t cause him any problems. Shep stayed at the clinic for neutering and for a neurological/orthopedic evaluation — I’ve watched him walk and it just seems to me that something is not quite right about his gait with his rear legs. It’s so subtle I can’t put my finger on it, but I wanted Brenda and her husband Britt, a board-certified internal medicine specialist, to examine him and see what they think. It could be simply a conformation issue because of chronic malnutrition as a puppy before he was brought to the shelter in Kabul.
We don’t have any results on Lady or Evelyn yet, but on Carmel, we are probably going to be taking her to see a veterinary ophthalmologist to determine our next steps for her. Brenda is working out those arrangements today.
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