Dr. Chelsea Sluyter May 24, 2017
Did you know that dogs and cats can get glaucoma just like people? Glaucoma is an increase in pressure in the eye that causes severe pain and lack of vision. This happens because the pathway for the outgoing eye fluid is blocked and starts to build up.
There are many different underlying causes for glaucoma, such as trauma or chronic inflammation, but the most common is idiopathic. This means there is no underlying cause, though we see this more commonly in some breeds than in others. One of those breeds is the husky.
Meet Zuko, a one year husky mix who came to us for a cloudy eye. The pressures were very high and it was really painful. Unfortunately, Zuko’s glaucoma was bad enough that he could no longer see out of that eye even with medications.
Once glaucoma has progressed to loss of vision, the best thing to do for the comfort of the dog is to remove the eye, and that was what we did for Zuko.
Almost immediately after surgery Zuko felt much better. He went back to running around and acting like his normal self!