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Grif's Grumbles

Saving my right eye

Mum took me to see an animal eye specialist today. He shone lights in my eye, and poked and prodded around it, and dropped something in it that made it go numb. Then he pressed this metal thing onto my eye ball. I heard him say something to mum about low pressure, which seemed to be a good thing.

Unfortunately, all mum's questions about what could possibly be done to help me keep my right eye were met with a "no" or "probably not". It didn't sound good. Mum couldn't help have a bit of a cry after the appointment. She is sad that I might have to go through what I had with my left eye again. She really doesn't want me to. I don't think I want to either. It hurt lots, and I think the world would go all dark. Mum is mostly upset because at 10 1/2yrs, I'm not that old. I'm not worried yet. But I guess it would make it difficult for me to play ball if I had both eyes removed.

Mum really wants to make sure that people know about this Cairn Terrier condition. It doesn't affect all Cairns, but it does run in families, so people who love a Cairn that develops this disease would do best to contact their breeder. Then they could follw up any relatives that may have gone on to be breeders themselves, rather than just pets. Unfortunately because it doesn't affect us for many years not a lot can be done to prevent it being passed on by the time it's discovered. It only tends to happen once we're passed our best breeding years. But with human responsibity it could be prevented.

If you are a breeder and you find out that your breeding dog has this in it's pedigree, do not breed from that dog anymore. It is a very distressing condition for mummies and daddies, and very painful for us pups.

For more information have a read of this: http://www.sumac-cairns.com/TotoFact.html

otherwise, just type "cairn terrier glaucoma pigment" into Google (and have Wikipedia open in another window to help with some of the non-everyday words). It'll be great to have a genetic test for this condition, especially since us Cairns aren't bothered by very many other problems at all.


Much love to my fellow Cairns. Mum hopes you don't have to go thru what I have.

The world will never look the same...

Well, I always like to be the centre of attention, but not in this way!

Where to begin... at the start, I guess.

Last night, I was running around chasing a ball with dad, when all of a sudden my left eye began to hurt immeasurably. I yelped and ran under a table. I couldn't hide from it though. My eye hurt. Mum kept talking to me, but I wasn't interested, I hurt too much.

After a night's sleep, I still didn't want to open my eye, so mum asked dad to drop me off at the vet to see what was going on.

Well, I heard the vet, a gentle man called Alister, talking about glaucoma, and that the pressure in my eye was painful (sure was!), and that the best decision would be to remove my eye!

Truth be known, I haven't been able to see out of it very well for a while anyway, it's been cloudy to look through for ages.

Mum works for a human eye speciaist, so she was asking at her work, too. And although there may be the option of just having the cataract removed, which could let my eye drain and relieve the pressure (IF the cataract caused the glaucoma), it would mean waiting to get the surgery from a specialist who only comes to town sometimes. Mum wanted me to stop hurting right NOW. Which is fair enuff, cos I do too.

So, now I only have my right eye. It will take a bit of getting used to, I guess. But for now I am going to rest up and heal.

Will try to remember to keep you posted.