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Wyatt's
Story
by
Barbara E.
Anderson
Excerpted from the Bouvier Mail list
with the author's permission
Jan 2000
We had a major emergency with our 10 month old male this week with glaucoma.
Luckily, we caught it in time to save the eye and most of his vision but I wanted to send along some big lessons we learned.
A half brother of our Wyatt went blind from glaucoma about 6 months ago so our
breeder had us check our pup's angles (gonioscopy).
They turned out to be "moderate to severe" which meant he may be susceptible to glaucoma.
We've also had the pressure in his eyes checked 3 times since August. (You have to see a specialist to get angles checked -- pressure can be
checked by many regular vets).
Wednesday night we got the first sign of trouble. It first appeared to be another case of conjunctivitis (he'd had it twice before in the same
eye). Thursday morning his cornea was gray/cloudy and our vet started him on eye drops to help bring his pressure down. THANK GOD! the eye
specialist was in town this weekend. By Friday, his pressure was 40. He had emergency laser eye surgery on Saturday.
We knew glaucoma could progress steadily, but it was scary to see just
how fast it could go. We were within a few days (at most) of losing the eye. Luckily, the doc thinks the surgery went well and he'll only lose
10-15% of the vision in that eye. The doc also did some surgery on the "good" eye to lessen the chance glaucoma will develop there. We won't
be out of the woods for a few weeks, but the prognosis looks good.
THE
LESSONS
1. Even though glaucoma is a fairly new condition for the bouvier, get
your dog's drainage angles tested! The angles can't 100% predict risk, but bad angles can be a warning sign.
2. If any of your dog's litter mates or close relatives has had glaucoma, YOUR DOG IS AT RISK!
3. If your dog has poor angles, get their eye pressure tested regularly (once every 1-6 months, depending on how high the pressure is). If the
pressure steadily increases over time (even if it is still in the normal range), see an eye specialist.
4. If your dog has chronic conjunctivitis in ONLY ONE eye (it normally affects both eyes), this may be a sign of pressure spikes.
5. If your dog has an eye that is frequently bloodshot, this also may be a sign of pressure spikes.
6. If your dog's cornea (the colored part) gets suddenly gray/cloudy, your dog is having a major pressure spike! The dog must be seen by an
eye specialist immediately!
* * * * *
Glaucoma can make a dog blind in a matter of hours or days. I hope our
experience will help other Bouv owners know what to look for. The signs are very subtle. We had ALL of the above signs, but only got really
worried when #6 happened.
We feel very fortunate that we knew there was some risk, so we were very vigilant about checking his eyes.
Most owners don't notice something is wrong until the eye is irreversibly
blind. If you think your dog is at risk, it doesn't take much time or money to keep tabs on the eyes.
And vigilance can definitely save your dog's sight.
Feb 2000
Wyatt's left eye is still cloudy, and they don't know yet whether it is
permanently bruised from the pressure spikes. We are hopeful, but also going about things as if he's lost sight forever in that eye. We are
just thankful we saved the eye itself. He's still on 3 different eye drops, and we have to check his pressure a couple times a week for
awhile yet.
The good news is, the pressure seems to be fairly stable. And, the better news
is he's adjusting well to life as a one-eyed dog. He's working on compensating for his loss of depth
perception but is back to leaping for sticks, herding other dogs, swimming and playing!
I still recommend angle testing (gonioscopy) to know if your dog is at
risk. And I recommend vigilance if your dog has frequent infections in only one
eye or frequent bloodshot eyes. Both are signs of pressure changes. Most important, if your dog's eye suddenly becomes cloudy,
that is a pressure EMERGENCY, and you must get your dog to a vet
(preferably an eye specialist) IMMEDIATELY. Even though we may not have
been in time to save his sight, we did save the eye. Unfortunately, many owners have to have the eye removed, a prosthesis inserted, and the
eyelid sewn shut. I guess now Wyatt just looks more like a border collie, with one beautiful
Bouvier brown and one gray eye!
Also, our vet did proactive laser surgery on his "good" eye (note that not all vets will do this), so we hope he's spared glaucoma in that eye.
The whole thing has been a trauma, but I hope people will learn from our story to be vigilant about your dog's eyes and if the worst does happen,
know that the dog will learn to compensate. As far as we can see, Wyatt's back to pretty much his normal life.
Apr 2000
Wyatt's doing extremely well. His last pressures were 13R and 9L, so we are down to
Trusopt in both eyes once a day. We are also using an eyewash at night because with things beginning to bloom, he started getting a bit goopy. It works great!
Wyatt never recovered sight in his left eye (the one that turned gray). All he has now, though, is a jaggedy line of gray in that eye (looks like an aggie marble).
He has compensated beautifully with having sight in just one eye. He runs, herds dogs, wrestles, etc. as much or more than he used to. He's now a happy healthy boy and (knock wood) will continue to be.
August 2000
When Wyatt's half-brother developed glaucoma, we got a gonioscopy on Wy, which showed he had severe drainage angles in his eyes. We
watched his eyes very closely. He got conjunctivitis several times in his left eye
only and that eye was frequently bloodshot. Our eye vet says these are signs of
increased pressure.
At 10 months of age, Wyatt suddenly became very restless one day, crying, pawing at his eye and vomiting (probably due to the stress of
the pain). The emergency vet thought it was conjunctivitis again, but the next morning, Wyatt's
left eye was completely clouded (looked like a full cataract) with quite a bit of
mucousy discharge. Luckily, the traveling eye vet was in town, so we put him on
medication that day and had laser surgery the following day. Although only his
left eye was in full glaucoma, the vet did laser surgery on both eyes. Wyatt never
recovered the sight in the left eye, but has learned to compensate well.
His pressures held for 6 months, with only a daily dose of Trusopt drops in each
eye. Then, a couple of weeks ago he spiked again (cloudiness, discharge, pain,
etc.). We immediately started on Trusopt 3x/day, Xalatan 1x/day and Daranide
pills 2x/day. Six days later he spiked AGAIN (on a Sunday) and then again on
Monday. As he was on the max dose of the meds he was on, the eye vet added
Alphagan drops 2x/day.
Spiking three times inside a week caused bleeding in the eye and severe bruising. The eye vet did not think additional laser surgery would
help, because of the damage that had been done to the eye. [...]
Luckily, the right eye has remained stable. The pressure in that eye never spiked and hopefully the combination of proactive laser surgery
and daily medication will keep that eye healthy (knock wood!). Still, the future for that eye is uncertain, because once one eye develops
glaucoma, the other eye usually does as well.
Wyatt's bad eye spiked again. The eye vet wasn't due in town for 3 weeks, so we
tried to keep the glaucoma relapse under control through medication. Three
different eye drops (a total of 6 times a day) plus pills twice a day kept him relatively comfortable, but did not
control the pressure. We finally made the heart-wrenching decision to have the eye removed. He
never recovered sight in that eye after his laser surgery, but we still agonized over what to do.
Our eye vet finally made our decision clear when he said, "all he'll miss is the pain." We opted for
enucleation rather than a prosthetic eye, because even though the risk for side effects from a
prosthetic eye are small, Wyatt is young and active and we didn't want to take a chance. The vet
removed Wyatt's eye, implanted a silicone ball (to keep the shape of the "eye") and
sewed the eye permanently shut.
Though I prepared myself as much as possible, the first week after surgery was extremely difficult
on us. Wyatt's "eye" was horribly swollen. The outer stitching made him look like
Franken-dog, and they had shaved around his eye. I wondered what I had done to my
precious boy. But, after two weeks, the swelling was gone, the outer stitches came out and his hair started to
grow back. And the best news: Wyatt was a NEW dog. He had a confidence, calm and energy that we hadn't
seen in months. We knew that he was finally free of the terrible pain, and for that, we were (and are) grateful.
Sep 2000
Just wanted to let you all know that nearly 4 weeks after having his
left eye removed due to glaucoma, Wyatt is doing great!
That eye was blind for 6 months prior to having the eye removed, so he'd already adjusted to being a one eyed dog.
He's now got a spring in his step he hasn't had in MONTHS! I'm sure now he'd been in some kind of pain for quite some time, even before we
noticed the left eye pressure had spiked again.
The hair is growing back, and thanks to the bouv fuzzy face, you hardly notice he only has one eye. Also, to see him run and jump and herd
other dogs, you'd not be able to tell he can only see out of one eye.
Dealing with glaucoma has been quite traumatic for us, but I'm so glad he's finally feeling better.
We NEED to take glaucoma in Bouviers very seriously, and we NEED to
start talking about this disease. From the research I've done, glaucoma is not "rare" in this breed, as people like to believe. If we don't
start taking steps to prevent it, this devastating condition will continue to spread in our breed.
Since Wyatt and his half-brother developed glaucoma, I have learned of two more half-siblings who have developed the disease. ALL of these
dogs developed glaucoma before the age of two!!! This is especially disturbing, as glaucoma does not usually develop in dogs until 5 or 6
years of age.
All four of these dogs have different dams, but the SAME sire. His owners have been
notified about the glaucoma puppies, but I don't know if they are still breeding him. I plan to contact them and encourage them to stop
breeding him. Even though he is a conformation and herding champion, and throws beautiful puppies, the risk of passing on glaucoma is just
too great.
Wyatt is a beautiful, strong, active and loving dog. He's the love of our lives and we wouldn't trade him for anything, but we don't want
anyone else to have to go through the trauma of glaucoma that we have.
It is painful for the dog, devastating for the owners, and very expensive (including the eye removal, we will have spent about $3,000 on
glaucoma alone and are facing about $600 a year to try and keep the right eye healthy).
As lovers of this breed, we need to do all we can to get the word out about
glaucoma and try to stop its spread in the Bouvier.
April 2001 Wyatt still gets Trusopt once a day in his
"good" eye, and it remains blessedly healthy and sighted. Knock wood! He has adapted beautifully to having only
one eye, and people rarely notice it. He has a scar where the eyelid was sewn shut, but unless you really
look at it, it just looks like his eye is closed. Last month, he put his head into a small, narrow space to
retrieve a toy, and I realized he'd either gotten used to where that side of his face was, or had stopped being
worried about protecting it. What a milestone!
At the dog park, Wyatt almost always paces other dogs on his eyeless side, and just cocks his head
slightly to check on them every so often. He almost never runs into anything, unless he's really
into playing and something comes up on his blind side. (I swear the sighted dogs
run into each other more often!)
I'm so proud of my boy. He just turned two years old on St. Patrick's Day 2001 and even though
he's been through a lot, he is an inspiration every day.
Addendum:
Glaucoma & Anesthesia
In my continuing quest to pass along info, I remembered a caution my eye
vet gave me.
If your dog has glaucoma and has to undergo anesthesia for any reason, tell your vet NOT to use Atropine. My eye vet said it can raise eye
pressure, which is obviously a bad thing if your dog has glaucoma.
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