My little Papillon, Bunny, has been having episodes where she can’t open her right eye, and then sqints for about a day afterwards, so I took her to the vet today. He tested her for GLAUCOMA! I was gob-smacked… I had no idea dogs could get glaucoma!
Thankfully, Bunny doesn’t have it- he thinks she has a scratch on her eye, probably from wrestling with the cat. She is on antibiotic eye drops now.
So… anything else you found out dogs (or other pet) can get that you thought was people-only?
I thought dogs could get everything. Mine just had cataract surgery and the issue of glaucoma in the future came up. Now it appears he has cushings desease.
My first horse had glaucoma. She lost the sight in her right eye, but was still a great riding horse. I had to put two different drops in her eyes every night.
We first discovered it when we noticed that Shadow’s right eye was reflecting light differently than the left. We took her to the vet, and she determined that Shad was already blind in the right eye. Due to the high pressure (and discomfort) already in that eye, we had it removed, and a prosthetic eye put in. She was only about 5 or 6 years old when that occurred.
At that point, she could still see out of her left eye, though the pressure was already elevated. We went through several years of giving her (human) glaucoma meds (both pills and eyedrops) to preserve her vision in that eye…not a cheap thing. It worked for a while, but it was, ultimately, a losing battle, and she went blind in the left eye, as well.
So, by the time she was about 9 or 10, she was blind. It slowed her down, but she still got around pretty well, even easily navigating stairs, though we had to essentially child-proof a couple of hazards in the house, and we didn’t rearrange any furniture in the house. She lived another 6 years or so after losing her sight, and was still a happy, healthy dog until the last few months.
Ferrets can catch human colds. They get the same symptoms, too.
Also, they can get enlarged prostates as a side effect of adrenal cancer. I heard the “ow ow ow”-type sounds from one of our ferrets while he was urinating and recognized them as what I figured must be a UTI (from my own painful experience), kidney stone, or prostate problem.
I know cats can get asthma, because one of mine has it. I also know they can be trained as kittens to use an inhaler (the same one people use.)
But because I was a new cat owner and thought it was hairballs or something, I didn’t get her diagnosed until she was over a year old, and she won’t put up with Ventolin, so she gets half a prednisone and half an brochodialtor and she’s the size of a house.
OTOH, she’s otherwise healthy and happy and the vet told me not to expect her to make it past 7 or 8 and she’s just turned 10 and still seems kittenish.
Yes, I know dogs can get glaucoma. A couple friends of mine had dogs who got it. It sucks and can move quickly, just as it does in people. Medical complications suck regardless if they are in people or pets.
She is on antibiotic eye drops now.