LL.B. has had to face lots of changes and loss. L.B. stands for Little Boy but also for many other things…lounge boy, lover boy, little booboo, on and on.
My mother and stepfather as a puppy rescued him; they found him scared and wild behind an abandoned house. We have no idea what mixed breed he is! Part of his charm is that people are always guessing as he has short legs, a long body but a big head and big paws with interesting coloring on his face.
He became very bonded to my mother and stepfather. Quickly he turned out to be a smart guy. Unfortunately, within the next year both my mother and stepfather died of cancer. I took him in at first temporarily while I was managing my mother’s care. He connected to me immediately like we were meant to be.
We both went through the grieving process together. He became my therapy dog in my private practice as a psychotherapist.
He loves to run out in the woods and to go the beach, as he’s quite athletic.
One year ago December 2012 his right eye was bothering him, he was squinting and pawing at it, I took him to his vet several times, they thought perhaps some kind of eye infection, something got in there, here’s antibiotics and lets check in again. The vet I was going to did not have ophthalmologists on staff, so little did they or I know that this was the beginning signs of glaucoma, after when was not getting better for over a week finally eh vet recommended I go to an ophthalmologist, and when we did the tests showed probable genetic glaucoma and his right eye was already completely destroyed he was in so much pain from the high pressure.
The specialist recommended removal of the eye, which we did and a prosthetic was put in. Oh and because it’s genetic glaucoma, he will start to get glaucoma in his left eye so here is prophylactic medication to give him every day and hope for the best.
His left eye held up well for the next year then 3 weeks ago he was squinting rushed him to his regular vet to get the eye pressure checked, it was unclear/borderline normal to high I did not take any changes took him to his ophthalmologist specialist and was not glaucoma spike it was some kind of unspecified eye infection but his pressure and sight were all good so here give him antibiotics and let’s closely monitor him. He was doing we on the antibiotics got several check ups with the ophthalmologist healing well and still no sign of glaucoma spike yeay. He had a check up Friday March 28th all still good.
Then Saturday night March 29th we got up to go to bed he could not see at all! We rushed him to the vet hospital where his ophthalmologist is, but she was not there and no ophthalmologists available. Unfortunately the emergency vet had little training and could not get an accurate eye pressure reading we gave him latanoprost for the eye pressure and we brought him back the next morning.
I begged for them to contact the ophthalmologist as if this was a spike up his eyesight was being destroyed. They relived his eye pressure and it was back down to normal levels, we came back next morning to see the ophthalmologist and she thought he can still see shadows, light and prescribed multiple medications to try to stabilize pressure spikes.
We took him home with many many meds, but by Tuesday we were at the hospital again no improvement in fact pressure spikes keep happening. They did not have the equipment for the laser surgery to try to save whatever eyesight he had in his left eye so we found a hospital an hour away I luckily got an appt right away and he has surgery the next day Wednesday April 2nd.
He just got back home he cannot see anymore. We are going through post surgery healing process he is scared and disoriented and so am I. I know he will adjust even sooner than I will it is just heart wrenching. He is only 5 years old and had a lot of spunk now he’s scared. Any advice appreciated and glad I found this site!
Leave a Reply