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1 Week Since Surgery- Why We're Not Celebrating


Now we were presented with the necessity of soaking her eyes every two hours, keeping the open wounds clean and avoiding scabbing, a dog in pain, and a mixture of guilt for putting her through this, so naturally we questioned everything about doing this surgery. No it wasn't an emergency. I kept reminding myself that we were advised, "if you don't do this, then..,." although it provided me with little comfort. I'd never be able to fully know that what we did in the long run would pay off- if in ten years Stella can still spot a crumb on the floor, I'd know this was worth it, but now, there are so many variables causing a cloud of doubt with this procedure.

At this point I felt like as good as we were caring for her, it wasn't enough. Either we couldn't provide the appropriate care due to the nature of her personality (or any dog's for that matter. I don't care how well behaved your dog is, this recovery protocol is nearly impossible) or it was her Addison's preventing the healing, or, even more likely, a combination of both.

I'll reiterate the fact that neither her internist nor the Ophthalmologist anticipated such a poor recovery. In fact she told us that she has never had a dog allergic to the sutures, medicine or both. The double edged sword of the prednisone was considered and yet others yield a much smoother recovery. Why else did this not go according to plan?  I tend to lean toward her personality leading to such poor results, as being a cop out. We witness a much calmer dog than our friends or the office staff, I don't believe the resistance or trouble with the drops, compress etc. is any different than the average dog's would be.  According to our friend who is a retired  vet tech, there are no reasons the recovery should have gone this way. Another friend whose dog had cataract removal told us how easy it was for her to wipe away eye gunk daily.

Our dog is simply not a good healer.


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