Complications

 
A little nervous panting but pretty relaxed for the ex-Cujo Vet dog. 


I had Luke back at the Vets yesterday.  Recently I noticed that his eyes looked like they had sunken.  With his loss of weight I assumed that this was the cause, and I was correct.  Luke's face was getting quite furry and I couldn't see well enough to be sure what was going on.  He'd also been having goopy eyes so I shaved his face nice and close making sure to get the hair right around his eyes.  Luke has amazing eye lashes, although those gorgeous lashes grow so long that they go over his eye, so off they came.  Once I could see his eyes better I was sure that they had sunken.  In the next few days the shaved hair did not seem to help with his goopy eyes so we head to the vet.

I met a new vet which I really, really liked.  He was very kind, caring and gentle with Luke.  As are the vet techs out front; never have I met a nicer bunch of techs.  So the vet took one look at Luke's eyes, checked his chart and agreed that his eyes had sunken.  Luke is suffering from Cachexia which is the loss of muscle and fat due to his cancer.  This has caused the muscle and fat behind his eyes to deteriorate causing his eyes to pull back. 

After talking to the vet he said that Acquired Entropion is common in old dogs.  Entropion can be genetic and is common in many breeds and can seen in dogs from birth.  Acquired Entropion is different. Luke has never been a big and buff guy so his loss is bad.  He has always been light on the muscle scale which has nothing to do with his exercise but how he was built, light.  His loss of muscle and fat behind the eye has caused the skin around his eye to pull inward which is very irritating.  His bottom eyelashes are pushing directly onto his eye. 

Canine cancer link

So what do we do about it?  First we are trying lubricating drops.  It seems to have already helped; Luke looked much better by bedtime last night.  At this point I can try to keep weight on Luke by feeding him the great diet that he already eats but the loss will continue.  The only other option for his eyes are staples which are placed about 1/2 inch below the eye itself and pull the skin down to keep it off of his eyeball.  We'll see if we need that.  The Vet joked that it would be just like a piercing that humans get.  Luke already has a tattoo so it might be a good look.  :)  Just kidding.

Luke in general

So we now have an eye issue.  Luke is having more tired days but he is still very happy.  I'd have to say that this eye thing has been bothering him so once we get that fixed up we should be good again.  He has good days and bad, I hope today is a good one. His spirits are great and he loved the fresh batch of cookies I made for him yesterday, he chowed down. 

2 comments:

  1. Poor Luke, I wish I could take away all his ailments right now. <3

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  2. At least Luke has an owner who knows exactly what to do with an older dog. I know how hard this is.

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