A month ago we noticed my dog squinting. The next day he woke up with swollen eyes and we took him to the emergency vet and after following up with our regular vet he was on antibiotics and steroids and was doing well. The vet suspected a spider bite. He’s a Pointer mix, but there’s some Pug in him also and he has forward facing eyes like a pug, which exacerbates elevated IOP. He responded pretty well to the meds, but after the course of medication was done, he relapsed so we took him to an animal ophthalmologist who diagnosed anterior uveitis in both eyes. He increased the steroids and eye drops, but a few days later he was having trouble seeing, so we went back and upped the medications again. He’s now on steroids, immunosuppressants and 4 different eye drops. A week later and he’s no worse, but not really showing signs of improvement. It seems to get better or worse on an hour to hour basis. We’re going back to the eye doctor this afternoon, and I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m preparing myself for learning to care for a blind dog.
Compounding the current situation, our new foster puppy arrived about a week after the onset. Caring for the illness while training a puppy is exhausting, stressful and scary. I see there is a 20 year old thread on a dog with glaucoma, but decided to start a new thread. I’ve been looking into Halo harnesses to help him navigate and was thinking of putting a bell on the puppy’s collar. I’m also going to need an upgrade to the gate for the stairs. I’d love to hear from folks that have dealt with similar situations and any advice and experiences with blind dogs. A little encouragement wouldn’t hurt either because we have basically been in panic mode for a month straight.
We adopted a dog with juvenile cataracts. When we first got him, he could maybe tell a door from a wall, but as he got older, he became totally blind. It turns out, that it didn’t really affect him much. He learned the stairs very quickly, and would run up and down them. As long as we didn’t rearrange the furniture (cue Helen Keller jokes), he could negotiate the house just fine. He required some guidance when we went on walks, but learned to be “neck reigned.” With a bit of patience, your dog will do fine.
One of our dogs came from a puppy mill situation and somehow we’ve managed to keep tabs on one of her pups who went to a different home. The beastie had both eyes removed due to pressure. He gets around better than I do and I’m not blind; he has a sibling who guides him on walks and like beowulff says, he has his environment mapped out through memory and smell. When there’s a new pic, he seems happy as a clam. You should get around in your house as well as puppa dog will — even without peepers.
Thank you both for the words of encouragement. Intellectually I know that blind dogs get around just fine. Watching the process as it happens is a bit of a different thing though.
Our dog lost one eye due to primary glaucoma earlier this year, after a yearlong battle to try to save the eye. The other eye, which suffered a less-extreme case, is still in its socket, but barely functional, and she has progressive retinal atrophy that makes heroic measures to try and save it pretty futile.
As long as she stays in our house, she does all right getting around. She doesn’t run around any more like she used to, for good reason, but after some months she knows enough to keep head-banging incidents to a minimum. It helps that we have some rooms & halls carpeted and some tiled; it helps her to get her bearings from the tactile feel of her feet. We are going to lay down a different texture of covering on our patio to help her find the way back to the house after being the backyard for a while.
She turns 12 later this month, which is getting on up there for a wheaten terrier, but she’s been managing well and while she needs leading while out on walks, we’ve developed a pattern that gives her enough confidence in my guiding her that she’ll often pace us. We bought her a couple toys that make noise when you roll them; she hasn’t really taken to them but we get them out from time to time so that she can stimulate her own sense of hearing when she needs it.
It’s tough emotionally to watch an animal go through the process of learning how to manage without sight, but from my experience and what I’ve learned on the interwebz, your dog is likely to adapt well and have a full life.
That is very helpful and sounds similar to what we are experiencing. I think the most crushing part is that we started out believing that this was going to be under control with a few weeks of meds. The realization that it is going to be an extended and life changing process is a bit overwhelming. I’m pretty confident Bertie will be ok. I’m less confident about myself and my wife.
I’ve dogs who’ve gone blind, and both of them adjusted very well. The process was gradual, though, and I think that helped. Our one dog adjusted so well, I’d forget. Once I took him on a walk and let him follow his nose. Well, he led me on a slightly different route than normal because he was following the scent of someone frying chicken. !!! Walking away from that building, he had to walk down about three steps that he’d never taken before, and he stumbled. Did a bit of a face plant with little harm done (he was a dachshund so close to the ground already). But that made me more vigilant than before when he was in a new-ish area.
The point of that long boring story? They adjust so well you’ll forget they’re blind.
Being one eyed should be any kind of problem for a dog, at least if he’s not hunting prey. I’ve been blind in one eye since birth and get around fine, including driving a car which I’d not suggest for the dog.
We also had a dog go blind, pretty much. She seemed to do fine as their nose is their primary information organ.
Our last dog, a small Corgi/Schipperke mix, went gradually blind due to glaucoma: first in one eye, then the other. She knew the layout of the house, and the yard (our back yard was/is fenced in), very well, but she would occasionally stumble into things. If you redecorate or rearrange furniture in your house (which we generally did not do), prepare for your dog to bump into things until he/she adapts.
The biggest challenge for her was stairs: she was generally good at them, but she sometimes turned left or right too early, and stumbled down the stairs. @Thumper668 , if you have stairs in your house (or leading from the house outside), I’d suggest taking a close look at how you might, in essence, “baby proof” them, if needed, to prevent falls.
I also had a dog that went gradually blind in her old age. She adapted quite well and could easily navigate around the house. Leaving anything like a backpack on the floor was a trip hazard unless she happened to smell it or brush up against it first.
There were a few steps to get down to the backyard and then back up. Going down never seemed to present a problem as I think the doorway acted as a frame of reference. She did struggle going back up the stairs a bit as she couldn’t quite orient herself as easily because the stairs were wider than the doorway. I rigged up a baby gate to run down one side in line with the door frame and she never had problems after that.
I rescued a baby kitten several months before she passed and she’d track him all through the house using mostly scent (she was mostly deaf at that point). They still managed to play a bit and she’d even let him attack her tail.
I think you’ll be surprised at how quickly he adapts! It’s hard sometimes to watch, but consistency in the house and yard is key.
I had a disabled doggy. She was very compromised I do think she could see, it didn’t quite get the right place in her brain though. So she was always running into things and falling off things.
My suggestion is the baby proofing. The cheapo baby gates will be very helpful til you pup is adapted.
And prepare for a leaner. My dog leaned very hard on my leg if she was unsure.
My sister had a blind dog for many years. He did quite well.
He went blind after he was hit by a car, and the original owners didn’t feel they could adequately care for him, so they surrendered him to a specialized rescue, and my sister sent them updates, through the rescue, for many years.
She’s more like one-quarter-eyed. The doc says she can see light & dark OK, for the moment, but it’s impossible for her lens to focus, so the most her retina sees is a blur.
When she had one good eye, she was doing OK - except that she would bump into things on her left side, where her bad eye was.
This has been on my mind a lot, because we live in a bi-level and he needs to go down 2 short flights to go outside. As others have said, down is easier than up - he hesitates when he gets near the top. I have a new gate for the top of the stairs coming tomorrow. The steps are carpeted and the floor at the top of each level is tile and hardwood respectively, so I’m hoping that will make it easier for him to learn.
We had an encouraging visit to the ophthalmologist today. The inflammation in the uvea is nearly gone and his IOP was still elevated but much lower than last week. Doctor says it’s going to be a slow process but he is improving. Eye drops every couple hours for the next few weeks and then a recheck.
Oh, and OP, my sympathies. Is your pup in any pain? That would be my biggest concern. But if you are still getting a wagging tail, I’d take as a sign that your doggy will adapt.
