Blind Charlie At The Vet

I took our new arrival, blind Charlie, to our vet clinic in Helena today for an eye exam and general medical check-up.  (I also had the studded snow tires taken off the truck and horse trailer.  Uh oh.)  In the photo above, our vet Dr. Brenda Culver is using the slit lamp to look into his eyes while vet tech Maddy S. holds Charlie.

We had noticed when we took photos of Charlie last week for the blog that he reacted to the flash of the camera, as if the light startled him.  At first I thought it might be the noise of the shutter clicking, but then I manually held the flash down, clicked away, and he didn't react at all.  I popped the flash up again, shot some more, and he reacted each time to the burst of light.  I mentioned it to Brenda before she did the eye exam, because that indicated to us that he had some retinal function.

Sure enough, Brenda found he has a very good PLR, or pupillary light reflex, which means the pupil constricts in response to light .. .which means the retina is detecting the light coming in.  His eye pressures were normal, so there's no indication of glaucoma.  And his eyes otherwise looked very comfortable, except for the thick cataracts.  Charlie may be a candidate for an electroretinagram, or ERG, which would tell us how well his retinas are firing.

If the retinas are working fine, then he might be a candidate for cataract surgery -- and that could restore his vision.  That's a still a big "if," because our veterinary ophthalmologist in Spokane, Washington, told us years ago that only about 50% of the dogs he sees with cataracts turn out to be candidates for surgery because their retinas just aren't working well enough.  So it's far too soon to get our hopes up.

At this point Brenda will be consulting with our ophthalmologist on the next steps, and we'll post an update when we have one.

Here's Charlie looking for cookies on the counter in the exam room:

You can see in this shot just how skinny he is:

And here he is, listening to all the noises on the other side of the exam room door:

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Update on Callie:  Blind Callie is still at WSU's veterinary teaching hospital and just had her 15th radiation treatment.  She had been doing well until last Thursday, when she developed an infection in her left ear that would not respond to treatment, no matter what her doctors there tried.  A couple of days ago she developed neurological problems as a result of it becoming an inner ear problem, and she began circling and tilting her head.  This was, needless to say, alarming to them and to us.  However, as of yesterday they think she is finally beginning to respond to a new treatment and her neuro signs have diminished.  She is no longer circling but only has a head tilt.

The hospital staff do not think the ear problem is related to the radiation itself -- it's her left ear and the radiation is targeted on the right front side of her brain -- but Callie's oncologist may repeat the MRI this week just to rule out anything else.  That will depend on how much progress Callie makes by tomorrow.  But otherwise she is eating and drinking normally, and she loves being held and carried around by the staff.  If all goes well, I will be picking her up this Friday and bringing her back to the ranch.

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Don't forget, you can vote every day for us in The Animal Rescue Site/PetFinder's Shelter Challenge.  Enter "Rolling Dog Ranch" and our state postal code, MT for Montana, and it will bring up our listing so you can cast your vote.  We won $1,000 in this online contest last year because of your help and would like to win it again this year.

We moved up to No. 6 nationwide today, so please keep voting!  Thank you!

Comments

[Karen]

Could Callie's head tilt and circling been the result of Canine Vestibular disease? I'm sure you already thought of that, but I know those symptoms can last a few weeks.

[Morgan Skilling]

Charlie definitely took a body weight hit with the surgery to remove the towel from his guts. I'm very happy (and not as surprised as you might think) about his eye diagnosis. We always knew he has some sense of movement and/or light. Maybe your vet can try the N-Acetyl-Carnosine drops before doing surgery.

Whatever's up with his eyes his nose works perfectly fine! LOL!

[sharon]

Charlie - honey, you need those cookies to fill out that ribcage! Keeping Callie in my prayers, hoping she does keep getting better you do get to bring her home on Friday.

[Colleen & Sweet Kitty Erin]

Charlie is so cute! I will be praying for him that good news will come his way. He is a skinny guy but in a few weeks living with you all he will be looking normal, I'm sure. Especially since he seems to have the nose for finding treats! Continued prayers for Callie & I know you're excited to be getting her home soon. Looking forward to some good news updates!

[gayle]

Charlie is such a sweet boy. Can't wait to see Callie.

[Carla Polastro-Nigro]

Needless to say, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for both Charlie & Callie, and looking forward to updates filled with encouraging news.

A big hug to you all from Italy.