This past Monday I took Hope, our goat with the injured eye, to our local vet. She examined her just by looking at the eye with dye in it, and thought there might be a thin thorn or needle – maybe from a thistle – lodged in the eye. She referred us to the only veterinary eye specialist\/surgeon in the area.<\/p>\n
I thought Hope might be seeing a little, it looked like she was looking at me, whereas before – in the past two days – she kind of just gazed up into the sky. I got an appointment Tuesday and that morning had to load poor Hope back into the back of the truck. She was tied to each side of the truck bed, and off we went. When I looked back while driving, she looked calm enough. Lifting her head into the air occasionally, she almost seemed to enjoy the ride, as a dog does when his head is in the wind.<\/p>\n
Arriving even in the parking lot, Hope started collecting stares and admirers who thought she was very cute. I could tell from all the reactions I got that day, that they didn’t see many goats there at the Santa Cruz Veterinary hospital.<\/p>\n
The specialist used various instruments to examine her eye and finally determined there was not after all anything lodged in the eye. From as much as I could understand from the vet’s technical explanation, she has an “adhesion” the iris seems to be stuck or fused to her lens and cornea as well. She recommended we try topical medication for a week or two first to dilate the eye and undo the adhesion. She may need surgery eventually. The vet was not sure if it was illness, a congenital condition she was born with that made her blind in the other eye originally, and now effecting this good eye, some trauma like a poke, or some combination of those. She did draw blood and we are doing a blood test to see if there are signs of a toxic condition they can get from rodent feces. (We certainly have our share of mice running around the goat\/chicken house.)<\/p>\n
The great news is that the next day I could tell Hope had regained some vision. She stopped at the fence instead of bumping into it, and followed my daughter around when she went into check for eggs. I’ve been applying the medication, and tonight she followed me when it was almost dark out. We hope the eye is repairing itself and she won’t need surgery!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This past Monday I took Hope, our goat with the injured eye, to our local vet. She examined her just by looking at the eye with dye in it, and thought there might be a thin thorn or needle – … Continue reading