Pretty Miss Emma Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Just wondering if anyone has gone down the path of having gentamicin injected into their dogs eye to stop glaucoma? And how did it go? I'm very seriously looking at this as a treatment for Em, as I don't know if she has any vision left in her eye and I don't want her to have headaches as they make her unhappy and that then compomises her quality of life - something I really don't want. So any experiences are good please. (And Rachael if you are reading this we will discuss again when I'm in next but you can obviously see my train of thought!!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vetrg Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Just wondering if anyone has gone down the path of having gentamicin injected into their dogs eye to stop glaucoma? And how did it go? I'm very seriously looking at this as a treatment for Em, as I don't know if she has any vision left in her eye and I don't want her to have headaches as they make her unhappy and that then compomises her quality of life - something I really don't want. So any experiences are good please. (And Rachael if you are reading this we will discuss again when I'm in next but you can obviously see my train of thought!!!) I suspect you won't get many replies as it's rarely done in dogs,more in horses but still uncommon. We'll talk when you are next in or give me a bell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
periannath Posted June 26, 2011 Share Posted June 26, 2011 Have you tried Xalatan? My bitch is on it for glaucoma and her specialist thinks it is one of the most effective treatments and it works well for her.The down side is the cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Miss Emma Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 I suspect you won't get many replies as it's rarely done in dogs,more in horses but still uncommon. We'll talk when you are next in or give me a bell. Addict!!! I knew you couldn't resist!!! We will try to come in next week to "see" what is going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Miss Emma Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 Have you tried Xalatan? My bitch is on it for glaucoma and her specialist thinks it is one of the most effective treatments and it works well for her.The down side is the cost. So far we have tried every "-an"!!! We've been on xalatan, travatan and now have moved to lumigan. Em pretty much is a bit of an enigma with her eyes (well, mainly the right one!) and is being resistant to everything. So I've reached a point where I am just using a varietal coctail of all her eye drops in any effort to get her pressure going down. The Xalatan worked well for a while but then it's effectiveness decreased, and that seems to be the pattern with everything for her in this respect unfortunately. So even though I don't really want to, I need to look at what her next best options are so that if she can't see she's at least comfortable and happy while she can't see! I don't want to be selfish because I keep holding out this hope of "what if" when it compromises how she feels every day. So if someone could manufacture a miracle cure eye drop in the next week or so that would be really great!! ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vetrg Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Having had a run of glaucoma dogs my cunning plan is to find a cure by christmas and get a Nobel prize- will that do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfsie Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I am only asking , because I am interested. But how does an antibiotic like gentamycin help in the treatment of Glaucoma (intra ocular high pressure) ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Miss Emma Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 My understanding (and I will be corrected if wrong!) is that it actually kills the fluid producing cells in the eye. So it doesn't help in terms of treatment if you are hoping to maintain vision. However if you aren't producing fluid then the IOP can't be going up = no more headaches. I really don't know if Em has any vision left so why have an eye with no vision that is causing headaches, when we could just have an eye with no vision! So I'm looking at in terms of treatment of having headaches from glaucoma not treatment of glaucoma to prevent further vision loss (or be preventative of that). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Miss Emma Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 Having had a run of glaucoma dogs my cunning plan is to find a cure by christmas and get a Nobel prize- will that do? I shall happily fill out required nomination forms for you if this is the case!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Havasneeze Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Slightly OT but still on the subject of gentamicin... my father was given gentamicin when in Hospital for a lung infection. One unfortunate side-effect is the toxicity to the sensory cells in the ear, which has caused my father to now have a balance problem. I don't know if it would have the same effect in dogs, but I would suspect it could and probably would... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormie Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Just curious, but if there's little to no vision, is there any main reason you want to save the eye rather than just have it removed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curlybert Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 Just curious, but if there's little to no vision, is there any main reason you want to save the eye rather than just have it removed? Yes I wondered this too, especially if it is causing pain. I had to make this decision about my Golden (that's her on the left for those logged in :D )who had a non-malignant tumour behind her eye, although it wasn't discovered until the eye was removed. She had a lot of drops, cortisone and visits to specialist vets in an effort to save the eye but when it ended up looking dull and lifeless like a dead fish eye and she was clearly in pain, I made the decision to have it removed. I guess it would have been done much earlier if we had known about the tunour beforehand. Anyway, she recovered remarkably quickly and with the eyelid sewn shut, she still looked very "respectable". Good luck with Ms Emma - it must be very distressing for you both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Miss Emma Posted June 28, 2011 Author Share Posted June 28, 2011 Slightly OT but still on the subject of gentamicin... my father was given gentamicin when in Hospital for a lung infection. One unfortunate side-effect is the toxicity to the sensory cells in the ear, which has caused my father to now have a balance problem. I don't know if it would have the same effect in dogs, but I would suspect it could and probably would... Well I guess the toxicity thing would be that it effects any retinal cells that are still providing vision. So if there is any remaining vision that will be lost. But I think that would be it, but that's also why it's up for discussion - I want to find out anything!!!! Just curious, but if there's little to no vision, is there any main reason you want to save the eye rather than just have it removed? I guess to some extent selfish reasons - aesthetics. Although I understand the effects it can have on the eye may also not be particularly pretty. Cost. Out of all my options it is probably the cheapest for the time being. And also I'm really not wanting to put her under another GA if possible. She's probably had about 4 since November (maybe 1 or 2 more). And she's just been recovering from pneumonia, and is a stabilising diabetic (all was good then pneumonia made diabetes go haywire!). So anything that keeps her from having a GA goes up on my priority list at the moment!! But in all honesty, it's just an unknown quantity and I don't know what to do!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bianca.a Posted June 28, 2011 Share Posted June 28, 2011 I know you listed other meds you have tried but it just made think of my father who also has intra ocular high pressure. He is on this medication (was on just Timolel) http://www.drugs.com/combigan.html. I have no idea if it would do anything to alleviate headaches for your dog but just thought I would throw it out there in the hope it may be of some use to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty Miss Emma Posted June 30, 2011 Author Share Posted June 30, 2011 She's on cosopt which I believe is in the same "family", but it sort of looks like that may cause some of the problems (like I said she's a bit of an enigma who doesn't follow the rules of the eye drops!!!). Tonight her pressure has gone up following the cosopt - so I don't know!!! Plus we're already dealing with 4 different type sof eye drops, I guess at some point you have to say enough is enough and look a bit longer term (just don't know how ready I am to do that though!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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