I took Billy, the blind Beagle who arrived last week, and little Wilbur to see our veterinary ophthalmologist, Dr. Sarah Hoy, in Burlington, Vermont yesterday. Billy was clearly in a lot of pain from his eyes — we started him on pain medication that day he came — and we needed to get a definitive diagnosis to figure out what was going on. In a word: glaucoma. His left eye, the most painful one, had a sky-high intraocular pressure reading of 67. Ouch. That's enough to make your head feel like it's going to split open. Interestingly, it didn't have that classic glaucoma look to it — solid gray and bulging — but glaucoma it was.
His right eye had a normal pressure, which most likely meant that eye had already gone through a complete glaucoma cycle and finally "burned out," which lowers the IOP back to normal. But the current pain in that eye was from a luxated, or dislodged, lens, which had come to rest against the cornea.
In the photo above, Dr. Hoy is using a slit-lamp to examine Billy's right eye while her vet tech Patty holds him still. Here's another view:
At this point, with two very painful blind eyes, the only thing to do was enucleation, i.e., remove them. So Dr. Hoy took Billy into surgery first thing this morning. She called mid-morning to say he had come through the operation in great shape. We will pick him up tomorrow.
Everyone there fell in love with both Billy and Wilbur, though Billy in particular was a cuddlebug.
I'll post photos and an update on Wilbur's eye exam for Monday. In the meantime, Billy will be pain-free for the first time in perhaps years. And that will make for a very happy boy.
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The new Shelter Challenge started Monday, January 9 and ends at midnight on March 18. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
*** We are now LISTED UNDER OUR NEW NAME, ROLLING DOG FARM. State is still NH for New Hampshire. ***
Please remember, you can vote every day … consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.
We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner for Week 4 in this current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!
You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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