Summer: Day 76

So I decided that I'm going to keep counting summer days until the kids back to school. Because I can. Even if my summer's over. Today I went back to work.

About an hour into the morning session of my training class, my cell phone buzzed. It was the kids calling. I sent it to voice mail. About 2 minutes later, they called again. Thinking the house was on fire or something (they weren't home alone), I called home to see what was going on. Samuel said that Daisy (our basset hound) had 1 eye that was all red & irritated. The lower membrane/lid was covering most of her eye & they weren't sure what to do. I told them I'd look when I came home for lunch...til then there wasn't much I could do about it. I texted Larry to call the vet & ask for advice. They wouldn't give him any over the phone.

When I came home at lunch, the three kids, my mom & I all cornered Daisy in the yard & held her down to squirt some water into her eye to attempt to rinse out whatever was irritating it. She immediately retreated under the shed to hide after our brutal 'attack'. They were right. It looked pretty bad. I really wasn't sure what to think about it, but knew I had to go back to work, so she'd have to hold on until I could get off work tonight.

By the time I got home about 4:15, we brought her in and discovered it was now BOTH eyes. She appeared to be completely blind -- redness covering the majority of her eyeball, like the lower membrane had been pulled up over her pupil. It was very odd to see & is hard to describe. A vet tech friend suggested giving her some Benadryl to see if it was irritation from allergies, but said that the vet really needed to see her ASAP. We applied cold wet compresses and wiped her eyes clean & gave her Benadryl and hoped for the best....because Savannah & I had to be at the High School by 5:30 for a big event tonight.

Larry got home during the time I was gone & texted me about Daisy. He was REALLY concerned & called his boss to see if he could come in late tomorrow. He's going to take her to the vet first thing in the morning. (Thank goodness....I was worried about when I could get her there!)

Late tonight, about 10:00, he & I went out to check on Daisy again. Her eyes look a lot better, but still not great. She could see us (earlier it seemed like she was totally blind & was running into things!) & was bouncing & wagging her tail & seemed very perky and happy. She went on a long walk & came in for some more Benadryl & cold compresses on her eyes.

I am sincerely hoping that the vet can tell us it's just allergies or an irritation of some sort & give us some simple meds for her in the morning! Surgery, expensive meds, sedation, overnight stays & such are simply not in our budget.....if she requires any of those sorts of things, I have no idea what we'll do! If you see this before morning, please pray for our sweet Daisy!