So apparently my dogs listen when I talk about work. I got home from my ER shift today to learn that my puppy has an infected eye that had been angry-looking and swollen shut all day. My wonderful spouse had already made a vet appointment.
The verdict? Anterior uveitis. You have to be kidding me. See picture below (two posts ago). Only in a dog-eye. Now since we're pretty sure my dog doesn't have ankylosing spondylitis (and I don't know enough about uveitis in dogs OR humans to really know what else causes it) we have no idea how it happened. She might have an allergy that set it off, she might have been exposed to something while we were at the Conservation Area yesterday, she might have had blunt trauma to the eye (possibly in the form of older dog's tooth while they were wrestling this morning)... who knows? But she definitely had cells and pus in the anterior chamber, she was markedly photophobic and her pupil was fixed and constricted. Lovely.
So as was the case with my patient last week (minus the stat opthalmology consult)... atropine drops q4h for 24 hours, then q8h, then q12h, then daily to keep the pupil dilated. Steroid ointment on the same schedule, but then twice daily for a grand total of EIGHT weeks. And the puppy is NOT impressed. But at least she won't be going blind in her left eye anytime soon. We hope.
So here's what anterior uveitis looks like in a 7-month-old puppy.
If life continues to imitate work I expect to be extracting a quarter from my dog's nose next week.
Labels: dog, emergency medicine, uveitis
posted by Couz at 8:41 PM
8 Comments:
Try rewarding the dog with bits of treat (cheese, hot dog, deli meat) before and after each eyedrop or ointment application. My dog had to have bilateral cataract extractions at 18 months old (was already blind in one eye before we discovered the problem). Because she could barely see us, she hated to have anything around her head...using LOTS of verbal praise and treats, we quickly trained her to sit in the corner of the kitchen (so she couldnt back away) and let me kneel beside her and wrap an arm around her neck and alternately apply eye drops/ointment and give her lots of love and treats that were all cut up and sitting on the counter and smelling SO tempting....eventually she would sit in the corner and wait as soon as I took the eyedrops out of the cupboard...and the cat learned to jump up to try to get the treats, too! (see, you can train a cat....but only when the cat wants to be trained!)
6:49 PM
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11:45 AM
Couz, I hope your puppy gets better soon.
Um, have you checked out "med student god's" blog? The dude who commented above me. What an asswipe.
He's the reason I have a hard time trusting male doctors.
Calls himself a licensed breast examiner, and expresses how he hopes to see a black lacy bra under his "comely" patient's shirt when he lifts it up among a million other completely offensive remarks.
Disgusting. I hope he never becomes a doctor.
Please tell me most male doctors don't think like him!
3:20 PM
Poor pup! Beautiful dog, even though his eye looks a little freaky. My dogs have been through eye problems and worse. It's heartbreaking to those of us who love them, isn't it?
5:43 PM
Sarah--
I can't account for what goes on in people's heads but I can assure you that I've never worked with a doctor (or doc-in-training) who has expressed sexual thoughts regarding one of his patients.
I imagine 'med student God' will grow up a little before he's let loose on patients. Otherwise, we'll be hearing from him again when his first lawsuit comes to trial!
Dr. Couz
11:07 AM
Hey, at least you don't have to worry about your dog using crystal meth....
7:50 AM
My dog has this same thing right now. Did your dogs eye fully recover from this?
9:14 PM
My dog has this same thing right now. Did your dogs eye fully recover from this?
9:15 PM
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