The One-Eyed Dog

Our Australian Shepherd, Duke, recently got into a little trouble. One day a few weeks ago, he came limping back to the house. His left eye looked a little glazed over and his lip was torn. I don't know what happened for sure, but I have a sneaking suspicion he got cornered in the heifer pen and got stomped on a little bit. I thought the eye might get better, so I left it alone. His lip looked fine until I tried to super glue it back together. This is a trick I've used to avoid stitches for a minor cut on an animal. Unfortunately, at that point I realized the lip was torn all the way through and Duke would need stitches. It was too late to take him to the vet, so the next day I brought him in. Now, Duke has a small cataract in his right eye. So even though it only shows in one eye, he has glaucoma in both. The vet said that the trauma he received made the glaucoma in his left eye react, so he was now blind in that eye. She also said his lens was pushing to the front of his eye and causing him pain. That's when I found out that he had to have his eye removed. I almost cried. I realize I was probably overreacting but I felt so bad for him. This dog is the sweetest. He loves people so much. Today he even saved me from a heifer who tried to run me down! So anyway, the vet stitched his lip up and I scheduled an appointment to get his eye removed. I brought him in that morning and he had to be put under to have the surgery done. They thought he might have to stay the night, but by about 3:30 p.m. the vet clinic called and said I could come get him. He was not only loopier than a pet coon, but he had to wear a cone on his head to stop him from pawing his eye. He came out of the clinic rubbing his head on everything he could get to that might pull the cone off. No such luck. I brought him home and he's been on pain medicine and antibiotics. Everyday he would work his hardest to get the cone off until eventually it was too torn up to do any good, so I just took it off. He was pretty excited that day. Today we went in and Duke got all of his stitches removed. The vet said he's doing great. He's pretty well adjusted to life as a one-eyed dog, but he occasionally freaks out if something is in his face that he can't see. 

Duke and DJ. Duke's right foot is actually through the cone. Silly dog. 

All I can say is, I hope he learned his lesson. 

P.S. How do you like DJ's new collar?!