Caleigh's Surgery
We totally neglected to update the happy news: Caleigh was adopted by her foster home Debby last year. She just couldn't let Caleigh go. 
Update on Caleigh, my failed foster.
For some time, I have been tracking what I thought
was poor vision in Caleigh. I thought maybe she
was myopic (near-sighted). She bumped into things,
especially at night. At the dog park, she had a
very hard time finding me. I would call her, and
she would stop and look for me, but I would have
to wave my arms around until she spotted the
movement. This would occur even when I was only
20 feet away from her.
In December, I took her for her annual checkup,
and Caleigh was diagnosed with early-onset
cataracts. She was referred to the veterinary
ophthalmologist at the University of Minnesota
Veterinary school. Today we had that appointment.
Caleigh has a pretty advanced cataract in her
left eye. It is so cloudy that the vets cannot
see her retina at all. It is sufficiently
advanced that it is causing inflammation of the
other eye tissues. One of the vets said that she
is probably completely blind in that eye at night.
The cataract in her right eye is not as advanced.
They are able to see most of the way back to the
retina, but cannot see all the little blood
vessels of the retina that they are supposed to be
able to see. This eye is also inflamed, but not as
severely as the right eye.
The ophthalmologist says that if the cataracts are
not removed, her eyes will continue to get worse,
and she may get to a point where surgery is no
longer an option. Between the cataracts and the
damage caused by the inflammation, she could become
completely blind. Waiting is ok for now, but not for
a long time.
The post surgical care includes giving her eye drops
around six times a day - not an option while I am in
the middle of a semester. I just can't be home enough
to do that. So I'm thinking maybe next summer.
The ophthalmologist thinks that summer will be ok, but
wants to monitor her again in 3-4 months to see if it
is progressing faster or slower than she has predicted
for now. She says that it might even be ok to wait till
the following summer, but that is much less certain.
The projected costs are around $2650 to 3350. The prices
are going up, but these numbers include the increase.
Prognosis is pretty good for surgery. About 95% of dogs
do extremely well, and get their vision back. The other
5% have complications, or never regain their sight, or
lose their sight altogether.
She is being put on anti inflammatory eye drops as of
today. When (did I say when rather than if?) I decide
to do the surgery, she will need about a month of very
aggressive anti inflammatory treatment to prepare
her for the surgery. So it's not something I can decide
to do on short notice.
It's an interesting surgery. They make a cut in the lens
of the eye and remove the cloudy protinaceous liquid that
is blocking the light.
Then they replace it with an artificial lens made of a
folding acrylic. Once it's inside the lens, it unfolds
and liquifies, serving the same function of focusing the
image that a normal lens with non-cloudy liquid would do.
Poor Caleigh was a champ for the exam. They tested her tear
production, did a pressure test to be sure she did not have
glaucoma, put fluorescin dye in her eyes so they could see
if the lens had any lesions on it (none), and dilated her
pupils to give them the best chance at seeing all the way
back to the retina (still not possible at all on the left).
They also dimmed the lights and gave her an obstacle
course to get back to me. They wanted to see how well she
did in various levels of low light. When the light got low
enough, she had a little trouble, but she found her way.
The vet said that English Setters with poor genetics
(puppy mill) are prone to early onset cataracts.
It's a crap shoot. There is no indication of any other
underlying cause.
I have attached some pics of Caleigh for those who don't
know her. On the couch, he head is on her GSP sister
Savanna's butt.
I hope the pics come through.
Debby
