Saturday evening, 9/21, Comet wanted attention in the middle of the night and spent more time in my bed than usual (he gets hot and leaves). Sunday morning we noticed his eye was red and slightly swollen. We checked for debris in his eye and flushed it but found nothing. We took him to the vet (emergency call) that day where he was checked for scratches but nothing was found for his eye. He was not in apparent pain at that time. The vet gave him trioptic and sent him home. His energy level was good, and his general behaviour, including appetite, were normal. Tuesday, 9/25, we became further concerned that it appeared to be getting worse, and his third eyelid was closed tightly. Lots of squinting and obvious pain. I took him back to the same vet where he was diagnosed with uveitis and put on prednisone eye drops as well as steroid pills and told to continue with the antibiotic ointment. All in the infected eye. The eye appeared to be getting somewhat better until we were on the downside of the steroid pills when I became concerned that it should be looking almost healed, and it was actually getting worse. His eye had a cloudy look, but it was obvious he could still see. He was also in increasing pain. His other behaviours, including relative energy, were normal. Comet is a field trial competitor as well as my beloved companion, and we suspended all conditioning and training during this period. On 9/30, Sunday, I took him (emergency call) to our previous vet for a second opinion as I felt the first vet was ignorant of the problem, was not searching for an underlying cause of the uveitis, and had not even called to check on him during any of this (still has not!). The second vet said she specialized in opthamology but was not an optho. I took Comet to her immediately where he was given a diagnosis of glaucoma. Again, case shut and dried -- no intent to search for underlying cause. She wanted to keep him there, put him on IV steroids, told me this would be very expensive, that they right eye should be removed, and that the efforts would be to save the left eye. I told her we needed a plan B. She told me that the Virginia Tech teaching hospital had an optho that might be willing to see me -- EVEN THOUGH THIS WAS NOT AN EMERGENCY. She called, the optho was there, I went immediately. My husband met me there. Without my GPS navigator I would still be driving around :-) Comet underwent extensive testing including blood tests, ultrasounds of both eyes as well as liver, kidneys, bladder, and lungs, chest x rays, bladder aspiration, liver aspiration, and probably more. The liver enzymes were slightly elevated, but no signs of affectation in any internal organs. Just the right eye, which was blind and but had a normal IOP of 12. She now attributes this to the steroids he had been on as she tested it late that day and his IOP was 40 in the right eye. The left eye continues to be normal. The next day they did a retinal aspiration on his right eye which showed signs of fungal infection -- the first. They prescribed Itraconzale which we began that afternoon. He receives Itraconzale twice daily (1.5 capsules with the capsule removed) for 3 days and then once daily forever, it seems. She is initially thinking 4 months, but it is going to be difficult to know that Comet has recovered since his only obvious affectation is his right eye. He is on 4 other meds as well: Prednisone eye drops (every 3 hours), antiglaucoma drops (Timolol - every 6 hours) , and Dorzolomide Hydrochloride (every 12 hours) plus Tramadol for pain (1/2 of a 50mg tab every 3 hours). His condition immediatley worsened when he started the Itra. His appetite decreased, so I am cooking special meals of his favorites (chicken, beef tenderloin, egg) and trying to slip in a little dog food, his normal supplements (Missing Link), and lots of water which is the broth I cooked the meat in with extra extra water. So far, he is eating ok and has not lost weight. We are on the back half of day 3 of treatment. His right eye is golf ball sized and causes excrutiating pain. His left eye remains clear but he has general head pain from all the pressure in his right eye, so he often will not open his eyes at all. He has alert periods but no energy at all. His bathroom habits, now that he is eating, seem to be consistent with the intake. We keep fresh ice water near him at all times, and he has been drinking so far. The first night was unbelievably horrific, and I think I cried most of the night. I do not leave him except for absolute necessities. He is restless much of the time, but the tramadol has helped tremendously, and he even sleeps on occasion. His head hurts so much. I have consulted with the opthol via phone two times in the past two days, and I took him there yesterday for a general check. The opthol was surprised but not shocked that his right eye was so swollen. His left eye continues to be normal with IOP low at 5. The vet suggests it is so low because he keeps it way back due to the pain in his right eye which affects his whole head. The prognosis for his right eye vision is zero, but we are still hopeful that we might be able to save the actual eye even though it seems cruel to try to hang on when it hurts him so much. The vet feels this is the best course for right now. This morning he seems more alert, and is laying on the cool cement of the back porch right now. He had a fever yesterday afternoon (102.
but it went down to 101.9 later in the evening. The only thing I have done is to keep the house at a bone chilling 70 degrees. We are watching closely for fever, and are instructed to call if his fever approaches 104 degrees at which point we will be expected to put ice packs on the pads of his feet, and possibly some other non-drug efforts as he is on too many meds to introduce more. The vet is hopeful, even optimistic, for his outcome due to the fact that she saw no indication of the disease anywhere but in his right eye. But we are far from out of the woods. The Itra, from CVS, was only available in capsules, so I am removing the beads from the capsules and feeding this in a rolled up piece of roast beef deli meat, which he likes. The first supply of meds (days) was $190. I have found, thanks to this site and others, Roadrunner Pharmacy in Phoenix, and my vet will send in a prescription to them. Otherwise, we were looking at $800 per month. We have a young male 2 year old black lab also. So far he has shown no signs, but we are taking him in shortly to have him checked over by the vet as well. No specific tests at this time. Meanwhile, Comet's blasto test came back this morning, and he tested something like "light positive". His other blood tests, kidneys, liver, bladder, etc. came back normal). We have had none of the other symptoms some folks have described on this site. My husband excavated a large area of the back yard a few weeks ago with the tractor to level an area where we will have a shed built. We are suspecting the blasto was unearthed there. Keeping the dogs away from it is extremely difficult. Comet also travels for competitions and does a lot of water work along creek beds, ponds, etc. Also, we have a tract of land along a large creek near our home that I have been taking the dogs to every single day since we bought the land two years ago. Oh, Comet was also tested for tick borne diseases and leptosporosis. I think they all came back negative. Anyway, the fact that he became so sick once the meds started indicates, according to the optho, that we are on the right track with blasto. The death of the organisms is clogging the area behind his eye which accounts for the incredible swelling and pain. This morning, it seems to be no longer increasing. Perhaps it has even decreased slightly; or maybe we are getting used to it. The next few weeks are critical. It is possible he has light infections that did not show up in tests in other areas. We feel blessed that we might survive this. As you can imagine, we are frightened that our other dog has it or will get it and that Comet will get it again. Comet's competition days are over, and the ribbons and trophies we have will be additional reminders of how special we already know he is. We had never heard of this disease. In fact, no one we know has ever heard of this disease including the first two vets, apparently. We are all suffering greatly -- mostly Comet -- and our only goal at this point in time is to make him well. Anyone can feel free to contact me with advice or questions. This is so frightening and painful. Thank you so much for this site. It is not only a wonderful source of information; it is a diversion which helps me put my thoughts in order and begin to sort out some of my own feelings as well.
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Topic: Comet -- uveitis first presentation (Read 800 times)