We talked about a bunch of serious topics this week for the first time in a long time.
How about something silly?
Okay. It's not 100% silly. It turns out our newest greyhound, Fred, who came to live with us around Christmas of 2010 when his previous owner passed away, has an eye disease. It's an autoimmune disease called chronic superficial keratitis or pannus. Pannus isn't painful, but untreated advanced cases can lead to blindness. Fred started showing symptoms in one eye last fall. But it wasn't progressing and just looked like the usual weirdness that I've noticed black dogs tend to have on the sides of their eyes. But this spring, it spread to the other eye and was moving towards the center, and we realised we needed to get him to a vet.
The vet prescribed steroidal drops, but it's not a cure. He'll always have this. It's only really seen in greyhounds and German shepherds. But the drops should prevent the disease from progressing.
Aggravators of the disease include high altitudes (which we're not) or low altitudes in sunny areas near reflecting surfaces like water or snow (bing! bing! bing!). While Fred doesn't spend a lot of time outside, in our Southern-exposed great room, he hogs the sunbeams. And of course there's a River and a Canal (currently empty) glimmering across the street.
So to ensure his eyesight is protected, we've decided to get him a set of Doggles.
The whole concept of sunglasses for dogs may seem silly. And believe me, I'm not the kind of person who even puts costumes on my dogs for Halloween (of course, they're already in period-appropriate costume because they're greyhounds). But Doggles are serious protective eyewear. They were used by the search and rescue dogs at Ground Zero. And the company that makes Doggles donates Doggles to US Military dogs working in the Gulf. So they're not just a silly fashion accessory.
Plus, they're only $20 a pair. =) And Fredling would look so smashing in a pair of bright red ones!
