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Born under a Bad Sign?

8 month post op check up

Jackson went to the eye doc for his check up. It been about 8 months since his surgery to remove one eye and remove the lens from the remaining eye. His good eye is VERY GOOD! The doc said the pressure is perfect so we just keep on with the two eye drops we're using now. The non-eye is another story though. He has a prosthesis on that side, and we noticed it looked like it was bulging out more than it should be. Turns out his body is forming scar tissue behind the prostheis which is pushing it outwards. He will have to have it taken out.

The dogudrama continues....

Where we left off last time....Jackson, the poor the little guy, had an allergic reaction to the internal stitches they put in where his eye was removed. It didn't start until they began dissolving a few weeks after the surgery. His doctor, Dr Smedes, said that, although she knew an allergic reaction can occur, in 20 years of practice she has never seen one before. After the swelling was knocked down with prednisone, the site drained for the next week or so. It is starting to look better now, but is still pretty red. Jackson is feeling fine, though. He gets around perfectly well with just one eye. He enjoys running out to bark at the horses and llamas (they are fenced off from the dogs), and jumping up and down outside the door of the room where the cockatiels are when he hears them chirping. He loves to lie on my lap when I'm at the computer, and is lying there as we speak. He is a happy little guy and we're sure glad to have him in our lives.

More Trials and Tribs for the Plucky Little Guy

Jackson's surgery to save his eye was successful. Each check-up since then, the pressure in his remaining eye has been very good. He is on three different eye drops, (one of which costs $75 for .025 ml, ouch!). However the other eye, or non-eye actually, where the eye was removed, has had some problems. Three weeks after the surgery, that whole side of his face swelled up, and he had to stay all day at the vet. They think it was an allergic reaction to the stitches dissolving. When I picked Jackson up at the vet that afternoon, someone had a chinchilla in a carrier in the waiting room. Jackson went nuts when he saw it, scrabbling frantically at the end of his leash, whining in desperation in his eagerness to attack the cute little thing. Jackson's essential Jack Russell nature is very much intact! He barely notices that he is having problems, he is just so eager to experience every drop of life to the fullest.