Trixie’s Surgery

Hi!

I’m happy you are here. Let me tell you about Trixie. Trixie is our one year old golden retriever pup. She was born in July 8th 2019. Her favorite things to do include swimming, running around our yard, tug-o-war, cuddles, belly rubs and playing with all her dog friends. She is a super happy pup and she loves other animals and people.

Let me tell you about our story.

On September 2nd, 2019 we brought home our puppy, Miss Trixie. We were super excited to raise this pup and do all the fun things associated with having a puppy/dog. We didn’t know anything was wrong and we didn’t even know what to look for. Trixie had no medical problems before this and both of her parents were super healthy. She is a super happy pup and loves other animals and people so much.

Well at eight months old (April 2020) we took Trixie to the vet for an ear infection that she got from swimming. We were told she also had cortical juvenile cataracts in both eyes. We were told she would be blind by two years old. We were devastated. Our perfect pup was slowly going blind. We were upset because she was only a puppy and the thought of her being “sick” was horrible. We were told they were slow growing but that was not the case at all. We were also assured it was nothing we did, it was just a crap lottery. It has nothing to do with her breed or genetics, it was just a random thing. We prepared ourselves for the long road ahead and made sure she got all the help/medication/eye drops she needed. Right before she turned one, we took her in for what we thought was an eye infection in her left eye. It turned out to be uvitis(inflammation) from a mature cataract in the left eye. We struggled keeping the pressures in the left eye good and the inflammation down. We are still battling the inflammation today making surgery and other options hard. We are trying to get the inflammation better or we run risks of it permanently damaging the eye. If we don’t get it better soon she will develop glaucoma and need to get the eye removed.

On August 26th, 2020, we had a surgery consultation at UW Veterinary Hospital in Madison, WI. We found out the inflammation is still prominent and we were given more medication while we wait for another appointment in three weeks. Currently she is on two different eye drops, six times a day for one and once a day for the other. We are also working on training for the possibility of her being blind forever. Right now she is completely blind in her left eye and can only see shadows in her right. She’s doing great but it’s just hard seeing her struggle with some things. Vets have all reassured us that the animal going blind is harder on us than it is for them. I hope that is true!

We are planning to have bilateral cataract removal surgery in four months. We are excited but scared of the possible outcomes that will come from her left eye being much worse than the right. We are hopefully the surgery will be a success at least for the right eye. We are nervous about the future because we are worried about the possible financial problems this might cause when we have so much uncertainty in this. We are looking at what’s best for our dog and what will give her the best life. We know many people that say having a blind dog is not bad but if we can do something to restore her sight we want to at least try. We love her and we just want what’s best for her.

The money is going to be used for her cataracts surgery and any other unexpected things that might come up post surgery.

Thank you for reading our story!