The email subject line was "Very sweet Cocker in need!," and it came from Patty R. at the SPCA serving Erie County in western New York. The Cocker's name was Snuggles, and she had a terrible case of glaucoma, bad dental disease, and nasty "Cocker ears." She was 10 years old, and had been surrendered by her owner.
That was a good thing, because the intraocular pressure (IOP) in Snuggles' right eye was a whopping 51 mmHg (milimeters of mercury, which is how the pressure is measured) — and she needed medical care right away to remove that blind and painful eye. With all the bad glaucoma cases we have seen over the years, I can recall only one (blind Briggs the wobbly Beagle) with an IOP higher than that. Humans with glaucoma report that it is like living with a permanent migraine headache, but dogs can have IOPs much higher than humans, which is why veterinary ophthalmologists believe that "For this reason, glaucoma in pets is usually much more painful than glaucoma in humans." (See this for excellent info on glaucoma in pets.) Snuggles' head must have throbbed so much it felt like it was coming apart.
So last Monday, the SPCA's vet removed Snuggles' eye and did a thorough dental and ear cleaning. (The shaved leg in the photo above is from the catheter for surgery.) Meanwhile, Patty had arranged for volunteer pilots with Pilots 'n Paws to fly Snuggles out to us at the Mount Washington Regional Airport in Whitefield. This is the kind of short haul that Pilots 'n Paws is designed for — generally, 400-mile trips or under. On Tuesday night, I drove out to the airfield (um, when it is unstaffed and unlit at night and you can drive right up to the runway, it's more like an airfield than airport!) and waited for pilots Paul and Luke to arrive.
I sat in the truck facing the runway, with only red lights at either end of the airstrip telling me I was in the right place. No one else was around, and the entire place was pitch black except for those two red lights. Suddenly, there was an eruption of blue and yellow lights along both sides of the runway — pilots can turn them on remotely from the aircraft on approach — and off to the west I saw the lights of a small plane descending.
When Paul and Luke pulled up to the truck, I could hear a small dog barking from inside the plane even before they had shut off the engine. Paul let Snuggles out of the crate and I took her for a brief walk before putting her in the truck. Then I drove the truck around to light up the fuel shed so Paul and Luke could find the hoses to refuel the plane — yes, it was that dark! This is what that scene looked like:
Though Snuggles has elevated pressure in her remaining eye, she can still see with it — but the risk is very high that she will go blind from glaucoma in that eye in due course, too. I will be taking her to see an ophthalmologist shortly for an eye exam and treatment plan.
On Wednesday morning, Snuggles was a different dog than the one the SPCA had seen. I emailed Patty that day to say, "I wanted to let you know that Snuggles is a complete character and one very happy girl … she’s running around the house, jumping up and down, barking, throwing herself on her back on a dog bed and rolling and rolling around and then barking as she rolls. She follows us everywhere. You can just tell she feels so much better now that the pain is gone. Taking an eye out after runaway glaucoma is such an enormous relief for them. It’s almost like she can’t believe the pain is gone."
Here are more photos that Alayne took this morning of her:
And:
Thanks to the compassionate people at the SPCA, and to the two wonderful pilots, Paul and Luke, Miss Snuggles has got a great new start in life!
Alayne says that between Fuzzy and Snuggles, we have "a serious case of cutesville going on!"
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Still 2nd place as of Sunday — but just barely!
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It was thanks to all of your amazing votes that we won the $20,000 Grand Prize in the final Shelter Challenge of 2009, and we came in fourth nationwide in the first Shelter Challenge earlier this year, winning $3,000. So this is serious money and can really make a difference for our disabled animals! Please help us win this round of the contest by voting every day, and by encouraging your family, friends and colleagues to vote every day, too. Thank you!
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