Mr. Peabody - A Present for Christmas
24 Dec 2004
We had a little scare this week with Mr. Peabody’s eye pressure. We’d decided to do weekly pressure checks so that we could evaluate how effective his meds are at keeping his internal ocular pressure (IOC) in the normal range (less than 25 mm Hg). Based on discussions with his doctors and reading some literature, we’ve learned that at some point the meds will fail to keep the pressure under control. We want to get as much warning so we can pursue our last hope for extending his vision (laser surgery).
Mr. Peabody was being treated with Demecarium Bromide drops twice a day. Last week’s check showed his pressure at 14 mm Hg in his “good” eye.
Grandma brought him in to Chicago Illinois Eye Care For Animals for a pressure check on Wednesday afternoon. The IOC came back at 24 mm Hg in his good eye at the top end of normal. The doctor there wasn’t concerned and sent them on their way.
When Nancy and I heard the reading we went nuts. That reading meant that the Demecarium Bromide was already not powerful enough to keep his pressure under control. We burned up the phone lines with Dr’s Bobofchak and Sisler at the Wheeling Illinois Eye Care For Animals location. We were particularly concerned with the timing. Not only did the Demecarium Bromide only work for two weeks, but with a long Christmas weekend coming up we didn’t want Mr. Peabody’s IOC to move up out of control potentially blinding him before we could get him help.
With the doctor’s help we came up with a plan for treatment. We had discussed performing the laser surgery sooner rather than later. But there is an ~15% risk of blindness being caused by the procedure. The procedure temporarily increases the IOC which is what destroys the retina. So we decided the best plan was to put Mr. Peabody on a stronger medication Trusopt together with the Demecarium Bromide and continue monitoring the pressure. If the pressure continues up we’d seek surgery. We started the Trusopt Wednesday night.
So today we visited Mr. Peabody’s excellent “GP” Dr. Young at Lincolnwood Animal Hospital for another pressure check to see if the new meds were working. We couldn’t stand not knowing if his eye was being damaged over the long holiday weekend. To our delight his eye pressure was already down to 10 mm Hg in both eyes!
With luck these new meds will work longer than a few weeks. For now this is the best Christmas gift we can hope for.
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