My pup lost his sight at 4 weeks old

My gorgeous little solider was brought into my life by my mother, who had brought him home from her neighbours house. She had attempted to rescue Pluto from his litter and owners as they were treating all the animals horribly. Unfortunately, my mother’s neighbour could no longer keep up with such a demanding role in my pups life, so my mum took him and brought him home to me. He was tiny, and adorable, and fragile… But also flea and worm infested. He followed me around everywhere and wanted to be in my arms a majority of the time.

One night, a few days after my mum surprised me with him, my cat had decided to come home (He hadn’t come home at all when he saw Pluto). He came into the laundry, which is where Pluto was sleeping, and ran into a corner. Now my beautiful Pluto is a Cattledog cross Staffy so when he was a younger pup he was VERY nippy. I thought nothing of it, and decided to let them sniff around, but after a while my precious Nove was starting to hiss and become nervous. I picked him up and held him against me and sat myself down as a medium for the two. Nove eventually settled down and Pluto took that as a sign to play… And accidentally nipped Nove. And straight after Nove scratched my poor little Pluto in the eye. At that point I thought it had just gotten his nose because I didn’t see any markings on his eyeball, so I left it and put both of them to bed.

The following morning I went to pick up my partner and cousin for my work party, and then got an unfortunate call from my mum. Pluto’s eye had gone blue and it had begun to swell up. She immediately took him to the vet and we were told that he had a very deep laceration on his eye, and that if it had pierced one more layer, his entire eye ball would’ve come apart. After what felt like a million eye drops, vet appointments and hunting down of specialists, we finally ended up at the Brisbane Veterinary Emergency & Critical Care Service (BVECCS). We were lucky enough to have the help of Anne, who is an eye specialist. She told us that there was a very little chance that our precious Pluto would see again, but it was hopeful that he would be able to keep his eye – if the laceration healed well enough.

After weeks and weeks of enduring eye drops, needles, poking and prodding, Pluto was finally given a final diagnosis. The eye wasn’t getting any better, it didn’t heal well enough and the pressure in his eye was just too high. For a pup his size, it should have been between 10-20… It was 44. Fortunately, Pluto was not in any discomfort or pain, and thankfully Anne put our worried minds at ease. It was quite common for her to see blind pups come in due to cats attacking them.

This brings me up to date to today… My precious Pluto is 19 weeks old and I have just brought Pluto home from the vet from having his eye taken out.. The surgery went exceptionally well and the vet was very pleased with how easily the eye came out despite the size of it. Before I saw Pluto, the vet had told me that he was very lazy and was just sleeping and lying down in one spot, however the moment he saw me… He became his usual excited, playful and misbehaving self. He is jumping, running, barking and playing with everything in site as he usually does. This really concerned me, so I called my vet back up and told her, wondering if it was discomfort or nervousness. She told me if he’s feeling playful to just let him play, but not to encourage him. That I should be happy he is happy and feeling so good. And I really am.

For the past 3 months I have felt so much guilt over his eye, despite my partner telling me over and over again that it is not my fault – that it was just an accident and my cat is just a temperamental silly poo. But, seeing his eye the way it was after his surgery really did bring my to tears. I am not ashamed to have a blind pup, or a one eyed pup, I just feel that he should have had more time with two eyes. But, my partner keeps telling me that he is special and that’s why he is in our lives. Because we aren’t the normal stereotypical family, everything about us is odd and strange, and this makes him fit right in. 🙂

I will update more with how his eye heals, hopefully it is a stress-free, painless process. 🙂