Oh Oliver….

There is something seriously wrong with Oliver’s eye. On Thursday night I noticed it looked really red, and when I looked closer I realized the entire iris/pupil area (if you are squeamish about eye things stop reading now) was filled with blood, likely nearly opaque and very, very red.  I am squeamish so it really freaked me out.  I called my vet right away, but they were closing, and the vet on staff couldn’t say for certain whether it was an emergency, but recommended taking caution.  Being the over protective pug-mama I am, I asked Dan to take us to the emergency animal clinic in Barrie…

I’ve never had to use the emergency clinic before.  It is just like going to the ER.  The family ahead of us had a cat that looked pretty severely injured, and was howling and howling.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have a soft spot for animals.  The minute I saw this poor kitty, my eyes welled up with tears… the worst part was there was a little girl there with the cat, probably about 12 years old.  She was trying to stay strong and  comfort the cat, but the situation got the best of her and she let out the saddest sob I have ever heard.  Well, that was the last of me.  The tears were flowing.

Obviously the cat was in a worse situation than Oliver, so we had to wait a bit.  When we finally got in, and the vet took a look at Oliver, he pretty quickly determined that the two worst case situations would be a) glaucoma or b) possible rat poisioning. He took Oliver to the back for tests and quickly found that there was no pressure build up in either eye, and all of Oliver seemed otherwise happy and healthy (though stressed to be at the vet). It was determined that he had hyphema of undetermined cause… So, he decided it would be best to wait until morning, to take Oliver to my vet, where more tests could be done (at half the price, emergency clinics are expensive!).  So, we went on our way with some eye drops to keep the eye dilated, and a couple hundred dollars poorer… The scariest part of that night is that Oliver went completely blind in that eye.  Couldn’t see a thing…

Friday morning the eye looked quite a bit better, and his vision had returned, but I called my vet anyway and got him an appointment that morning.  My vet took his blood pressure, etc., asked me some questions as to whether he had hurt himself… I didn’t think so, but Oliver is kind of… crazy, and runs like a maniac and does run into things like fences, me, etc… so blunt trauma is completely possible.  She couldn’t get a good look into his eye because it still had a lot of blood in it.  As far as she could tell, there was no obvious cause for the hyphema… I did notice that while he was sitting in the waiting room that they eye appeared a little worse again, and that Oliver was very stressed.  She recommended that I keep him calm, and try to get him to rest for the weekend, keep him away from bright lights, and call back Tuesday (it is a long weekend here in Ontario).  At that point, we hope that the blood will dissipate more and she will be able to see if there is any damage inside the eye. After that, I will most likely have to take him to a canine opthamologist, which thankfully, there is one just in Midland, which is only about half an hour away.

The good thing is, he does not appear to be in any pain. He’s acting completely normal, wanting to eat, drink, play, gets super excited when we come home, etc… So I am grateful for that.  The eye still looks weird.  I put in atropine drops yesterday morning to dilate the eye, and it is still very dilated.  I can’t tell if it looks any better… it is pretty cloudy… but I am pretty sure he can see out of it.

I am also very grateful for the emergency clinic and their staff, who are very kind and thorough.  Although it was a very expensive night out, having peace of mind that Oliver would be ok, was worth it.  I am just hoping that it clears up and was a freak occurrence, and everything will be fine.  My dog is my best friend, so I hate to see anything bad happen to him. I really wish he could just talk to me and tell me what’s going on… does it hurt? Did something happen? Can you see?

So… has anyone ever had an animal experience anything like this? I am glad that Oliver seems otherwise healthy, but it is still scary.  I am afraid that I’m going to end up with a one-eyed pup.