Magnus must have heard my discouragement in my previous post, ’cause when we went to his recheck at the ophthalmologist today it was good news.
He’s magically cured!
"My Crazymomlady won't take me for a decent walk! Can you believe she only lets me walk 1/4 of a mile??? I'm a wild boy! I need my exercise!! Can someone please have a talk with her?"
Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration. He still has dry eye, but the big concern was over the low pressure in his eyes and today they couldn’t have been better. The measurement was perfect. 14 in the right eye and 16 in the left eye.
Uveitis is low pressure in the eye. Normal for Magnus would be between 8-18. So 14 and 16 today was perfect. A vast improvement over the 2 and 3 it was last Wednesday. It’s a very bad thing for a dog to have since it leads to all kinds of even worse things like corneal ulcers, cataracts and blindness. Plus it just made him so miserable and look so pathetic.
We will probably never know why it was so low, but as long it stays normal I don’t care! The normal eye pressure means no Prednizone, another thing that thrills me. So after hitting a low point this morning I’m super relieved this afternoon. We’ll continue the eye drops he’s on for another week then cut back the dosage for a week after that and then recheck his eyes.
The eye drops have been good proof that dogs learn by association. Did you ever see that friends where Rachel has to get eye drops and it takes the whole gang to tackle her and get them in her eyes? That was Magnus and I last Wednesday. He gets 9 drops a day and basically he was having nothing of it after the first time.
Enter the best ooey-gooey treat dispensers ever. I bought three of these little bottles and put his absolute favorite canned food in them so after each drop he gets a good slurp of something super high value. It worked like a charm, he practically lifts his head up for me to put the drops in now. They’re made for carrying lotion and shampoo and things when you travel, I bet the people who made them never new they’d make great treat dispensers too. I’m looking forward to using them for Maizey when were out and about. I’ve always wanted a way to fill her mouth up with ground chicken liver, the treat of the gods. Now I’ve found it.
The next step in this saga is to get his back better. We’re going to do cold laser treatments, massage and Rymadyl, and the new rehab therapist we’re seeing will set us up with some good core strengthening exercises. Until then the no activity thing will kill us, but it will be worth it if there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
I suppose I should apologize for the dreary post this morning. It’s probably crazy how much these little dogs’ health affects me, but of course it does. My bleariness was not all from Magnus, this cold really is the pits and I’m ready to be over it now, hopefully another night of rest will help since I have a full day of classes tomorrow. Thanks again for all of your thoughts and well wishes. We have a great little bloggers community!
