She has been going blue in that eye for time, so her vision wasn't good enough for her to dodge twigs in the garden. She damaged it once last October, we treated it and over some time, it healed. After a few days staying at the kennels, she came home weeping a bit from that eye again. Sure enough she had done it again. I had ointment, so kept putting that in everyday, but it would come good for a few days, then regress. I had a family tragedy arise that slowed my attention to a crawl for time, but finally it got bad enough to warrant taking her to the vet.
My usual lovely vet was on holidays, and the one I saw instead dragged me heavily through a guilt trip, inferring that she hadn't healed from the 2011 issue. It didn't matter how I protested, she wouldn't relent, and suggested I take Lily to see an eye specialist down in Malvern East to try to save the eye. On ringing their offices, I couldn't get an appointment at Moe, who has only one day per month there, so would have to wait a while for the Malvern appointment. Lily was obviously uncomfortable, and I was getting no constructive advice from my vet, so felt it probably should be removed to stop the serial relapses and her suffering. I did ring the night before hoping for some different medication that might help it, but Megan said no, there wasn't.
I had no choice but to use Megan for the surgery, as my lovely vet was still away, but she toned down my guilt trip to a manageable level.
Lily has been brave and dignified through the whole process, but the sight of her stumbling out to me with her topknot clipped off and huge stitches over that side, took my breath away. Such a visual shock! I sobbed loudly all the way home in the car.
She had her stitches out last week and never moved a muscle, earning a dried liver treat from Megan.
I still look at her and am surprised to see her winking, but when her topknot grows back, I will scissor the hair into a fetching Greta Garbo look, and hopefully we'll barely notice. What a girl!
