How To Decide What’s Best for Your Dog With Glaucoma

Miss. Bella Weeds it was a fun run with you. The ending could have been ten times better, but I kept my promise that I made you from day one.

You’ve wondered where I have been for the past four months. A lot has happened in those four months. A lot that will be written and shared with you as time goes on, but one thing I should probably put out in the open now, is my beloved Bella Weeds is no longer here. 

Just writing those words is hard. It makes me want to scrap this piece and start a work-at-home piece or whatever. I don’t want to face the fact that Bella Weeds the ultimate nap companion for the past 8.5 years is truly gone. 

What Happened to Miss Bella Weeds?

This all was so sudden. This all was in the span of merely 24 hours that she was with me and then she was gone. 

On the night of May 3, 2019, I came back from picking something up for dinner. She was under the table, and she greeted me when I went over to her, which was unusual for her as she would greet me at the door. 

Well, I noticed that her eyes were closed shut. As I tried to open it (used a wet washcloth) and I noticed puss and immediately started calling around emergency vets to see how much I would be charged to bring her in, etc. As you know it’s Friday evening, and all regular vets are closed for the week now.

I was able to bring her to the emergency vet. They told me she had dry eye and was not producing tears. They gave me VERY vague instructions and sent me home with some eye drops and a script that I needed to get filled out. 

Luckily my vet was open on Saturday mornings. I hurried in and brought her to my vet, where they looked at her eye and said no, it’s not a dry eye. 

So, the vet I went to at my vet’s office (not the regular vet) said to let me take her eye pressure because I have a feeling it could be glaucoma. 

Lo’ and behold, it was glaucoma. The vet said we needed to get her eye pressure down. But, what didn’t seem right was the eye pressure was high in both eyes, but we were only focusing on the one that was essentially shut. 

What Is Glaucoma In Dogs?

Glaucoma just like in humans is an eye condition where pressure is placed on the eye, which as a result causes inadequate fluid drainage. Now, if the condition is chronic or goes without treatment, it will ultimately cause permanent damage to the optic nerve, which as a result, will cause blindness. 

Glaucoma is common in a variety of dog breeds, such as the following: 

• Cocker Spaniels
• Chow Chows
• Siberians
• Samoyeds
• Poodles
• Schnauzers
• Dalmatian

And more!

Sadly around 40% of dogs that are affected by glaucoma will become blind in their affected eye in about a year, no matter if they received surgical or medical treatment. 

There are two types of Glaucoma: primary and secondary. 

Primary glaucoma is where there is an increased intraocular pressure in the eye that is healthy. This tends to occur due to anatomical abnormalities within the drainage angle. 

Secondary glaucoma is where there is increased intraocular pressure due to a disease or even injury to the eye. 

What Type Of Glaucoma Did Bella Have? 

Unfortunately, my vet said with the onset of this (her eyes were opened the day prior to this), that was a very good chance it was secondary glaucoma. That there was some underlying issue that needed to be addressed to fix this situation. 

The vet did say that she could only see 95% of her cornea, I believe, but there was no injury to the eye as far as she could tell. 

What’s Best for Your Dog With Glaucoma

Saturday, May 4, after the vet, I went to Walmart to pick up more of her medicine that our vet gave us. While waiting for the medicine to be ready for pick up, I researched and researched more about glaucoma.

I wanted to know everything from how it is treated, the quality of life, and everything else in between. 

The more I read up on it, and the more I am learning what secondary glaucoma is, it got me thinking about the promise I made Miss. Bella Weeds when I first got her back in April of 2011. I promised her I would do anything to ensure she was happy and healthy, but I also put her quality of life over anything. 

This was when I had to decide what was next. I said, we can try, and we can fight this, but when I went home to see her laying in pain, her eye closed shut and whimpering when trying to open them, and realizing that this was just one step out of a million steps to see if she can even go back to everyday life, I knew what I had to do.

It Was The Most Humane Thing To Do

It’s like when you know they are done fighting. Like it’s time to do the right thing and let them go, I knew that it was her time. 

I could keep prying her eye open 10 times a day, and we can see if this will work, but we also have to put her under many other tests to see what is causing this and if that can be treated. 

This situation did not come lightly. This was the most challenging situation I had to make in my 27 years of being alive. I had to do one of the most selfless things and let her go. Let her cross that rainbow bridge. 

Bella passed away peacefully on the couch with her mom (me) and my mom, just like in old times in our laps. I couldn’t have asked for a better environment for her to start her adventure over the rainbow bridge.