Helen And Carmel See The Doctor

When I was busy taking photos at the vet clinic this afternoon, I didn't notice this moment when our vet, Dr. Brenda Culver, and vet tech Jayme J. had both crossed their arms over blind Helen.  It wasn't until I uploaded the images onto the computer that I saw this odd pairing of crossed arms, as if it were some kind of Rottweiler religious ritual of some sort.  Or maybe this was a new feng shui practice involving Rottweilers as the energy field.  If so, I'm just not sure who had the yin and who had the yang end of Helen.

But the moment passed and Brenda moved on to the purpose of Helen's visit, which was to examine a growth on her inner thigh that we had found.  Brenda did a needle aspirate to draw cells out of the growth and then examined them under the microscope:

The cells turned out to be mostly fatty ones with some blood, suggesting a simple and harmless if large lipoma.  But because of the size and rapidity of the growth, Brenda will do some further diagnostics to make sure there isn't something else going on deep inside it. 

Next up was an eye exam on Carmel the blind Beagle, shown here with the slit lamp:

When Brenda measured Carmel's eye pressures with the Tono-Pen, she got much lower readings (in the 30s) than I did last week.  She showed me that when Carmel squinted during the measuring and her lower eyelid simply brushed against the base of the Tono-Pen tip, it skewed the readings ... even though the tip of the Tono-Pen was right where it should be, in the center of the cornea.  In other words, I need to work on my eyelid-suppression technique!

The mystery is that Carmel's eyes are far more painful than the pressures Brenda got today would suggest they should be.  The solid gray of Carmel's eyes are from corneal edema, or fluid, and Brenda said this was one of the worst cases she'd seen.  Because the fluid is stretching the cornea, the corneal nerves can become ruptured and exposed, which in itself can be very painful.  There are several potential causes of this kind of edema, from infections to viral inflammations and diseases like glaucoma.  The corneal edema could be only one element.  It's possible she's had glaucoma secondary to uveitis, for instance.

But there are other things to rule out before we know what we can do for Carmel, so Brenda is going to consult with our veterinary ophthalmologist, Dr. Yakeley in Spokane, Washington.

Despite how her eyes feel, Carmel is one happy little girl, and she kept jumping on Brenda trying to give her kisses:

Meanwhile, Helen was wondering why there was yet another blind Beagle at the ranch.

Comments

[feng shui]

Thats interesting.
The ancient practice of Feng Shui is all about joining the various aspects of a good and successful life into one’s environment.For perfect balance it is necessary to feel confidence in yourself, respect from family, and appreciation of the people you work with. Use Feng Shui properly then it can help you achieve all of these things like balance, peace, and harmony in every aspect of your life.

[Jessica, NL]

I share Jin Shin Jyutsu energy with animals sometimes, that looks the same as the crossed arms in the first picture!
And what a timing on that second shot, she actually has her feet off the floor, a jumping kiss ;-)

[Karen]

Had the same exact look from my primary dog when we had an exuberant foster mutt. Pretty sure it translated to "Why doesn't this YAHOO leave already!"

Will keep fingers crossed that Carmel's eyes feel better soon.

[Kathy Soden]

She is a sweetheart. Thank you again for all you are doing for her.

[ginger & Tobias (the greythound)]

I hope the growth that Helen has is nothing serious. She does have the, "Where are the rest of the Rotties?" look in that last photo...
I hope Carmel can get some relief for her eyes.
Big hugs to all,
ginger, Tobias & Tlingit