Priscilla's eyes are all right!

[phesina]

I took her to Michigan State's vet school teaching hospital today.

It was a long day, and I'm too tired to write more, but: They found nothing wrong with her eyes!!!!

The dilation is a side effect of a medication she was on for a few days: Centrine. We finished that a couple of days ago, and her eyes are starting to get back to normal.

Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes. Again, they worked!

Love,
Pat and Priscilla

[Laura's Babies]

Ack! A side effect of some medicine she was on? Poor baby! Hope you and her feel better now! Glad it was such good news!

[jennielynn1970]

I know that happened to ME when I was taking an herbal/holistic migraine medicine. It had Belladonna (Nightshade) in it, and it dilates the pupils. It also was used for that purpose during the middle ages by women because they thought it made them look more attractive.

[lvpets2002]

I am so glad Priscilla is doing much better.. Glad your eyes are all right.. The girls send Whisker Kisses & Huggss..

[kb2yjx]

WHEW!!! That is great news!!!

[Freedom]

Yay!!! *do a little victory dance around the room**

[phesina]

Thanks so much, Laura, Jenn, Helene, Sandra, and Freedom (are you Sandra also?)!

Here is kind of a wrap-up of the entire eyes story, which I just wrote out for a cat-loving friend in Los Angeles and don't have a whole lot of energy to rewrite too much.. Starting with, Priscilla is in kidney failure, not doing great but still hanging in there, and we're taking things a step at a time with that.

Then last week I noticed that her pupils were dilated and did not constrict when the light was increased. I took her that day to see the vet, who first suspected hypertension, a serious complication with kidney disease. It turned out her blood pressure was normal, so at least it wasn't that. The vet thought it must be something happening with the eyes themselves, and she wanted me to see a specialist.

So yesterday I drove her to the Ophthalmology Department at the Vet School's hospital at Michigan State University, some 70 miles away. Two very nice, very bright students were the first to examine her. When she came out of her carrier, the student and I noticed right away that her pupils contracted a bit in the brighter light! I thought, oh no, she's not suddenly getting better on her own, after we came all this way?

They examined her thoroughly, and then 3 faculty members checked things over. They all determined the eyes were okay and the dilation was a side effect of a medicine she'd been taking (Centrine, which she took for some 8 or 10 days, supposed to reduce vomiting), and since we'd finished the medicine a couple of days before, the eyes were just starting getting back to normal.

So we started back. A wet snowstorm had been predicted, and it was just starting to get heavy about then. First I got lost trying to retrace my route to get back to Interstate 96. I finally got back there, then about 10 miles along I had a flat tire! I called Triple-A with my TracFone and waited about half an hour on the shoulder as enormous trucks roared by right next to me, kicking up snow and slush all over my car behind them.

A repair guy came out from Triple-A and put my little baby spare tire on the car. I asked, can I make it all the way to Ann Arbor on that? He said I could go about 50 miles at no more than 50mph on it. I said I still have about 60 miles to go. He told me to go to the Sunoco station just off the second exit ahead, and they'd replace the tire. So I got to the Sunoco station, and they didn't have my size tire! But this guy told me I could make the distance with no trouble, just keep the speed at 50mph or below. So we did get back that way on I96.. At least with the lousy weather, most of the traffic was going about that speed or not a lot more.

I dropped Priscilla off home and then had to go do a pet-sitting job about 10 miles across town. In Ann Arbor the weather was messy too but more a mix of rain and snow. On the way back I stopped at the Kia dealer's, conveniently over on that side of town too. They sold me a new tire and did an oil change that was due anyway, while I waited a couple more hours.

So I had left about 8:00am and finally got home about 6:30 pm. And I wish my vet had thought of medication side-effects.. maybe I could have saved $150 for the MSU consultation and another $50 for the tire! Well, I guess we had to have the eyes checked out to make sure there wasn't something going on with them too, even if it was a medication side-effect. Priscilla and I will be seeing her again on Saturday.

And what is most important is: Priscilla's eyes are okay, and we made it back safe and sound. And I finally got to see the MSU Vet School's hospital, which I'd wanted to see quite a long time and was quite impressed by.

Her eyes are still pretty dilated and slightly responsive to light.

And money is just flying out the window (e.g., $122 to get her blood pressure reading at the emergency vet's), but what better to spend it on than to keep my kitties as well as I can?

Thanks again, everyone, for all the good wishes and prayers and kind thoughts,

Pat and Priscilla and the rest of the gang

[catmandu]

Thats Such Great News And If You Pm Us There Will Be An Animal Welfare Mousie For Priscilla To Celebrate That Grrreat News.
We Always Enjoy Hearing When Our Friends Cat Get Good News From The White Coats.

[Medusa]

That's great news, Pat. One less thing for you to worry about.