I have a 10 year old Golden Retriever who has Glaucoma. We did not realize until recently that is what she had. We thought she had cataracts until the eye started to swell. By then she was already blind in that eye.
We love our Abbie but she is 10 and we have only ever had one dog that lived past that age without having to be put down because of cancer. We are being pressured to take her to a specialist eye clinic. I can only imagine how expensive all the tests they run will be, when we have already spent several hundred dollars on vet bills for her.
We are on a fixed income and are struggling to decide what the right thing to do is. She seems lately to have bad days where all of a sudden she will hang her head and swing it from side to side and we can tell she is disoriented and totally blind. She will lay down and not want to move at all.
The vet prescribed Tramadol for pain and that seems to help and usually within a few hours she is acting pretty normal again. I hate to see her scared or in pain and the thought of putting her down breaks my heart but we also cannot go in debt hundreds or thousands of dollars for her.
We have another retriever too who is the same age and with her own medical problems. We are at the point where we don’t feel like we can leave her with anyone if we go away for a few days as we don’t want them to have to deal with her when she has one of these episodes as it is scary enough when we see it happen. I hate the fact that we have to be realistic and take her age and the cost into consideration when making decisions like this.
You do not need a specialist for glaucoma in dogs. Once your dog is diagnosed with glaucoma then the same procedure is going to apply whether you see a specialist or a regular vet. They both should be able to prescribe the same medications and both a specialist or a regular vet should be able operate if needed to remove the eye/s.
Golden retriever,
I totally understand what you’re going through as our 9yr old shitzuh has glaucoma and is blind in both eyes, he also has type 1 diabetes. His vet care has cost me almost $1,000 so far and we too live on a fixed income. We don’t feel we can board him with anyone when we go out of town. So I began boarding him with our vet clinic. Knowing that my baby has severe headaches and the whites of his eyes are blood red, makes me feel so bad for him. We are now at the point of looking at what’s best for him. I don’t have the answer, but feel we will have to make a decision soon. It doesn’t seem fair to make him continue to suffer just because we can’t let go. Life is definitely unfair some times
Our female golden, Dixie, was diagnosed with glaucoma a little over a year ago. She is eight. We were referred to a specialist.
Seems this is not uncommon for Golden retrievers due to inbreeding.
She is on a cocktail of:
Latanoprost – 3 times a day for the glaucoma
Dorzolamide – 4 times a day in the diseased eye and once in the good eye.
This reduces fluid production to reduce eye pressure
Prednisolone or Ketorloc – anti inflammatory
Carprovet tablets – twice a day if necessary for pain and inflammation
Meds are applied spaced about 1 hour apart.
This cocktail has the following results
1. She no longer rubbs the eye as an indication she is not having discomfort.
2. The affected eye ball no longer has extreme bulging.
3. She appears to have some vision in the bad eye.
4. She sleeps comfortably.
There is no indication that the left eye is iimpared. She gets around just fine.
Prognosis:
There is no cure, only management to keep her comfortable.