Briggs's Eye Surgery: Success So Far!
I headed to Helena bright and early this morning to take blind Briggs in for a recheck on his eye surgery, drop off blind Evelyn for a skin problem, and pick up three ladies -- Duchess, Lady and a new arrival named Sweetie. (More on them tomorrow!)
As you may recall, our vet Brenda Culver did an intrasclera implant procedure on Briggs, in which the internal contents of the eye are removed and a prosthetic -- a silicone ball that looks like a small black marble -- is placed inside the globe. The cornea holds the prosthetic in place. This procedure allows the blind animal to maintain their natural look with eyeballs.
Well, sort of "natural." At the moment Briggs's eyes are kind of a mottled black and red, and they still bulge out from the lingering effects of the glaucoma. This gives him an odd appearance that, combined with the cone he's been wearing, makes him look as if he recently stepped out of a Martian spacecraft.
Typically the eyes become a blueish gray over time and shrink back to a normal size, and that should happen with Briggs, too.
But despite their current appearance, Brenda said Briggs's eyes looked really good ... and the red and black pigmentation is actually a healthy sign. His eyes have reduced in size a bit already, and he can now -- for the first time in what may be years -- close his eyelids entirely over his eyes.
Because of how bulged out they were, the shrinking is causing some creasing on the surface of his cornea, so it looks a little rough. To rule out any ulcers or holes in the corneal surface, Brenda stained his eyes and then used the blue light on her slit lamp for a closer examination:
(Do you think we have enough hands on that Beagle face?)
Brenda didn't find any breaks in the cornea, so that's good news, too.
Briggs thought this was going to be "Cone Independence Day" but alas, the doctor ordered that the cone stay on for another two weeks. Brenda said we could remove it while he was being supervised, but it was too early to leave it off. The surgery was four weeks ago, and we have about another two weeks to go before he can go cone-free. So far, though, it looks like this eye surgery was a success.
While in Helena today I also had the studded snow tires taken off the truck and horse trailer, which of course only guarantees the imminent arrival of a spring blizzard!
Yay! We are so thrilled to hear Briggs' progress. I can't tell you how many times I had him in my lap and gently smooshed his forhead skin down so he'd get a bit more coverage of those poor eyes. He's such a great little guy and I can't imagine how someone could just let him get like that. I'm excited to see him (and Widget and Lucky!) in June.
Posted by:Morgan Skilling | April 18, 2008 at 02:45 PM
So glad to read the great news on Briggs! He's a real trouper, & on the downside of being a "conehead"! It's great that the news is good.
Give him some hugs from me,
ginger, Tobias & Tlingit
Posted by:ginger & Tobias (the greythound) | April 17, 2008 at 05:19 PM
Yep, there is talk of blizzards this coming weekend.
Poor Briggs! Cones are such a pain. Maybe something like this http://www.vetamerica.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=510 or this http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=15678&cmpid=01csesz&ref=3474&subref=AA&srccode=cii_10043468&cpncode=07-52637301-2 would be more comfy.
Posted by:Robin | April 17, 2008 at 09:20 AM
In a couple of weeks, we all can celebrate Cone Independence Day! But then who is going to pick up that great television reception? I'm so happy everything turned out well. Have a wonderful day.
Posted by:Candace | April 17, 2008 at 07:58 AM
Great to hear that Briggs is doing well!
Let's all burn our head cones in 2 weeks to celebrate. heee---heee.
We're looking forward to meeting Sweetie soon.
Posted by:Boundforglory | April 17, 2008 at 07:10 AM
There you go Steve, teasing us once again with news of a new arrival, with no pictures, tisk tisk! lol
Posted by:Andrew, NZ | April 17, 2008 at 02:37 AM
Yippee for Briggs - hang in there boy, you're almost there! Removing the snow tires bringing on a snowstorm - sounds like washing our cars bringing on a dust storm here ;-) Can't wait to hear the news on Duchess, Lady and Sweetie! Stay warm.
Posted by:bregda,south africa | April 17, 2008 at 02:29 AM
Yesh, good luck for the handsome fellow and wishing you well with the "reverse-weather-action-forecast". That ALWAYS works... leaving laundry out to 'dry' on a sunny day, booking your ski holiday in advance, things like that ;-).
Posted by:Jessica, NL | April 17, 2008 at 12:50 AM
Way to make it snow again Steve! We've had enough of that "down" here in the flatlands.
Can we have a pic of Briggs the martian?
Can't wait to visit this summer.
Posted by:Craig from Great Falls | April 16, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Hurrah for Briggs! I wish you a speedy recovery, handsome!
Posted by:Moon Rani | April 16, 2008 at 09:14 PM