Farley's Latest Eye Visit

Since April 2009, Farley has been in to see the eye doctor several times. We took him in on September 2, and again today on September 30th. On the 2nd, we lowered his blood pressure medication slightly, but since then, it seemed like the gains he'd made in his vision may have been lost. Today, his blood pressure was back up higher than we wanted: 165/130. It had been holding around 120/80, so this wasn't too good.

The vet also said there was more reflectivity in his retina, which I presume means what it sounds like--or the light is bouncing off his retinas rather than being processed correctly. There also seems to be more edema (swelling) in his eyes, so that could cause some problems too. Finally, he said there seems to be scarring around the optic nerve in his left eye. That basically means that the information may be hitting his eye well enough, but it's getting lost in transmission to his optic nerve. Bummer.

So, we are bumping his blood pressure medication back up and we are increasing his dosage of Lasix (Furosemide) to every 3 days instead of just once a week. Hopefully that will fix the blood pressure spike and clear out some of the swelling in his eyes. With a little luck, he might be able to see a tiny bit better again, but it doesn't sound like he is going to recover much vision anymore.

It makes me sad to watch this video, but I'm happy I recorded it. This was just 3-4 months before he stopped seeing. Y_Y