To say it was a stressful day would be like saying ... well, like saying the moon's a little chilly this time of year, might want to take a sweater.
Tyler didn't start the day in too horrible a place, but as the morning wore on he steadily declined. He was in excruciating pain - I mentioned he rarely shows pain, but today it was so bad, he did. At some point he closed his eyes completely and refused to open them again. When I tried to offer him a little breakfast of just some warm rice (I assumed he was too sick to eat a full breakfast), he literally turned his nose up at it, just turned away. And that is very unlike Tyler, who always has a good appetite - and missed dinner the night before due to the emergency trip to the local vet.
Anyway, skipping ahead to seeing the eye vet. The gist of it was this: he said the lesion or ulcer in Tyler's eye had penetrated so deeply that it was within about a millimeter of having gone all the way through the cornea. Basically his eye was hanging together at that point by a thread. He said if that had gone that millimeter further, through the cornea, the fluid inside his eye would have started leaking out through the hole. (and I wondered what could be worse than how it was already - well, now I know).
He also said that it was so incredibly fragile at that point, that if Tyler had merely bumped his head on something, or sneezed, it probably would have ruptured his eye.
Holy cow.
So then, finally, he said what I'd been waiting to hear. Removing the eye was not even remotely necessary, and wasn't being considered as an option. "Relief" doesn't cover that one. (And jeers to that stupid vet who initially told me that was the 'only option.' She only suggested this eye clinic when I literally begged her, "Isn't there anything else we can do?" Even then she was skeptical, saying she didn't think the graft surgery would work on Tyler. I'm not saying all vets should know everything, but they certainly ought to familiarize themselves with the expertise of such local specialty clinics, so they can give people their real options, instead of doomsday predictions that there is no need for!).
Anyway, this doctor said that normally there'd be a couple options, that lesions less deep than his could be healed without surgery. However, since Tyler's was so deep and so dangerous, he recommended emergency surgery, today.
He said he could do a graft, using membrane from the underside of his eye, to basically place a patch over the hole. This would seal it up, and render it instantly less dangerous. Though the hole would still be there, that stabilizes things enough that he's no longer in danger of blowing out his eye with a sneeze. Then over time, the inside will heal, and actually fill back in. It won't always stay a big huge hole in his eye, with a tiny membrane of patch holding it together. It would still be somewhat fragile for a month or so (but far less than it was without the surgery), but eventually it would heal completely.
Of course this was the pivotal "we have but one choice." I didn't even question them too much about the dangers of Tyler being anesthetized, because - it had to be attempted. There was nothing else to do, just leaving it as is was no option. Tyler'd have practically had to have been bound hand and foot (or, I guess, foot and foot) to keep him from doing anything that might jar his head ... and that still couldn't have precluded him ever sneezing. I'd have had to quit my job and carry him around in swaddling 24/7 to let that lesion heal without surgery.
No, leaving it alone was not an option.
Oh, and the two other vets I'd taken him to here totally missed the boat. They said it was 'just' an infection, and kept prescribing antibiotics (which weren't working). Well, while some infection had set in, what it was actually, was 'dry eyes' - a condition where the tear ducts simply quit producing tears. His eyes were literally just drying up. And it was that condition which set the stage for the ulcerative lesion (which is where the bacteria come in; a small ulcer forms from the dryness, then bacteria get in it, and then basically just start eating away at the eye). There was a second lesion beginning in his other eye, but it was still so mild that the vet said it would heal just by use of the medications he prescribed, without getting to the condition the other one did. But they never caught that ... and I could have given him antibiotics till the world ended, and it wouldn't have done any good without treating the underlying problem - the lack of tear production. Worse, had I let the 3rd vet just remove his right eye, in a not too distant time we'd have been facing the same dilemma in his left eye, since it, too, was forming a lesion - that wasn't being treated.
The eye clinic did their own blood work (as his last batch was too old for them to rely on), and fortunately it came back absolutely perfect. They said they'd rarely seen blood work so perfect in a dog his age. Which, the anesthesiologist told me, indicated to her that he would have no problems at all. She said the blood work really told all when it came to how well a dog could handle a surgical procedure.
They had to wait for their appointments for the day to be done, to do the emergency surgery after hours. They started it about 5:30 and it was done by 6:30. They said Tyler did amazingly well, good blood pressure, no problems at all.
And the doctor said it was a complete success, actually a textbook example of both the type of lesion, and the surgery to correct it.
He's got a bit of recovery to go through, of course. He's got a bunch of eye meds he needs. He's got to wear one of those stupid Elizebethan collars, and the style they gave him particularly sucks - a hard plastic that fastens with Velcro. Not impressed. (although the way he's been banging around in his crate since I put him to bed a little bit ago, it's probably a good thing it's such hard plastic - the softer kind like he had with his abdominal surgery a few years ago, he'd have managed to bend in and probably wreck his eye by now).
We were able to bring him home tonight, no overnight stay. He's been doing pretty well (except for this extreme agitation about being crated, but keeping him safe is the utmost priority now, and at night, that is the safest place for him). The coming fully out of the anesthesia is always weird for him, he starts whining incessantly, as if he's trying to talk. He shouldn't really be in any pain as they gave him stuff for that. It's just rough, with good reason. He should be doing much better tomorrow.
And a bonus: the doctor and his anesthesiologist both told me there's no reason he can't go ahead and go to North Carolina this weekend! They said, of course, that I have to be very careful and gentle with him, and make sure he gets all of his meds at the right times, keep the collar on him, and crate him any time I'm not going to be in the house with him. But they said there's really no reason not to take him, it's just as safe as staying home and taking all those same precautions, which have to be done no matter where he is. In fact, to me, it's probably safer - because if I were at home, I'd have to go to work, leaving him alone in the crate quite awhile each day. This way, I will be spending 24/7 with him, able to watch him much more carefully, and give him a lot more love and attention. (and doing it all with an awesome ocean view!)
Normally they'd do a post-surgery check in one week, but they said it's fine to do it at 2 weeks instead (since I won't be back until almost 2 weeks are up). They said the complication rate for this surgery is less than 5%, so if I do everything I'm supposed to do, care and medication-wise, the chances of there being any problems are almost nil.
Wow. So I went from intense fear of both what he might be facing, and concern about not getting to go on vacation - to Tyler's prognosis being very good, and still getting to go to the coast.
I said 'barely' dodged the bullet, because as I said, had this gone on even one more day, it could have been disastrous. And I said 'at a cost' because, first, there's Tyler's suffering of having to go through surgery and then this long recovery period (he has to wear that stupid collar for 2 weeks, and it will be up to a month before his eye's healed enough to really not be at risk for damage from any rubbing or scratching he might do). And second, this surgery cost a small fortune. But, I don't care. That's why I have a savings account - for emergencies. This certainly was one, and he's definitely worth it.
And, I'm beyond exhausted from the last couple days. So I believe I'll toddle off to bed now.
But my previous post stands ... not going to bother worrying about anything anymore, I'll just wait to get blindsided by something else. Will save a lot of trouble. And I'm grateful for this outcome, I really am. (though pretty pissed at the 3 other local vets I saw who (a) misdiagnosed this; (b) mis-treated it; then (c) offered me a horrific 'only' solution that wasn't).
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