On loosing an eye...

[Bosun11 537]

Ok, to be honest I really don't know if Ox is going to loose his right eye but it's looking very likely.

 

I was out a week last Sunday with Strong Stuff & TimmyK and we were again heading to the dunes for a night on the bunnies (and whatever else pops up). I wasn't my usual speck but farther north along the coast, though i'd done it plenty of times 5 or 6 years previous. Tim had been there a few nights before and had a respectable 14 within an hour and a half and so we set off hoping to do well.

Running SS and Tim's young dogs I took along my halfx dog Ox for the longer slips and anything bigger. After a pig of a walk, to hit the better specks, we settled in and started catching, with the two young dogs really doing well.

Ox had a couple when we put him on a difficult bunny sat on the brow of a dune about 25 yards away. Getting up to the rabbit he turned it back toward us before missing his strike on the down slope and the rabbit made good, back up over the brow and into the darkness....... followed closely by Ox.

 

On his return, I put him back on slip and we moved forward looking for the next. Stopping every few yards to flick the beam in this hilly wilderness, Ox kept pawing his eye but as soon as the beam moved round he'd be right on it again. Now usualy it's a bit of sand, either kicked up whilst running or blown on the exposed parts, that can be a bit of a bugger to the dogs on this terrain and its usually sorted by the dog with a quick wipe or two, so I only asked for Tim to shine on Ox's eye after the fourth wipe, sommat was wrong?

 

Illumination found the oval heel of a thorn sticking out of my boys right eye, dog rose, I thought and though bad, should be ok. I asked SS to hold his head whils I got it out but try as I might, this thing wasn't for shifting and it was becoming apparent that whatever it was, was lodged pretty deep!

One last effort and I managed to get my nails in either side of it and pull. To my horror (and SS & Tim's!) it kept coming out to the length of about 3/4 of an inch.... Blackthorn!! As the last of it was pulled clear his eye poured its liqid down his face and we all gave each other 'that' look to head for home and to a vet.... sharpish!!

 

So thats the tale and Ox has been back to the vets 3 times now, our vet is a good practical countryman who is a former greyhound specialist and a lover of working dogs, he's seen a thing or two over the years but even he winced when he saw Ox's eye. Especially the second time, when my Mrs called me home from work last Thursday as Ox was in serious pain. To be honest I drove home a little pissed off as I thought Tracy's claimes were over exaggerated but when I waked through the door I realised she'd been bang on. Ox was in so much pain he was almost passing out and could bearly stand. We got him to the vet and left him in the car whilst we secured our vet and waited for his current patient to leave. Going back to the car to fetch him, his eye had ruptured and burst and thick bloody mucus was pouring down his cheek. As bad as it was, the timing couldn't have been better!

 

A week from there, Ox is making fair progress, he's been living in so we can keep an eye on him (no pun intended!) and through his antibiotics and painkillers he's over the worst, we hope! Though its far to early to know if he will be able to see from that eye. The eye is very milky with an evil dark blood ring were the white should be. He's back the vet again tomorrow as his perscriptions will have ran out, so, its fingers crossed.

 

So there's the story so far but what i'd like to ask is, has anyone had the a similar thing happen, what was the outcome and 'if' he loses the eye, who has worked a one eyed lurcher, expierences please??

 

 

Cheers

[Guest bullterrier]

bosun 11 sorry to hear about your dog mate hope everything goes alright for him mate .. ..john

[skycat 6,174]

The thing is not to try and pull a foreign object, thorn etc out of the eye yourself: it needs to be done professionally as you could do more damage pulling it out yourself than has already been done. Friend of mine had a similar thing happen to his dog: took it straight to vets: dog fine now but needed micro stitches to eyeball.

 

We had a situation once where a twig had gone into the corner of the eye: about the thickness of a thin pencil, seemed imovable.

Trip to vets with my OH sitting holding the dog so she couldn't paw at her eye: knocked her out and found a twig nearly 5 inches long!!! It hadn't actually gone into the eyeball itself, but had gone into the corner then glanced off the bone and wedged itself between her skull and her skin on top of her head: unbelievably there was no serious damage.

 

Good luck.

[DOOZER 0]

Hi mate, i was gutted for you when i heard about ox, hope all heals well for the big man and there is no long term damage to his eye/sight.

The pains of working dogs!!

 

Will buzz you in the wk

 

all the bast Doozer

 

[Guest reload]

I had a thorn removed from my younger dogs eye, it was right in the centre of the eye. It was a old thorn which broke apart during surgery, but they got it all out, and re inflated the eye with air and stitched the eye its self.

The dog has made a full recovery, and has caught a hell of a lot of game since the incident, with no obvious side effect from the surgery.

Hope your dog comes right for you....fingers and paws crossed

[Strong Stuff 2,171]

it would be a worry to me working him any where near thorns again incase the remaining eye was damaged..

Cheer's

Millet

 

I'm glad you said that mate, am a bit reluctant to go back to the same place myself, didn't want to sound like a fanny but now we know there are a lot of blackthorn bushes there I'd prefer to swerve the place.

 

 

With regard to Ox, we're all hoping everything will be ok, fingers crossed etc. The good news is that I am 100% sure that the dog will get everything he needs, there are lads with dogs and then there are lads like Paul, a credit to the working dog world.

 

Good luck mate.

[Bosun11 537]

Firstly, a big thanks for the kind words above and the expieriences given.

 

Good to read that one eyed lurchers can still do well in the field, though if their were no replies on this, i'd ensure Ox would be the first! As he ain't goin anywhere and while he still has a heart beat he'll graft.

 

Skycat, your bang on about removing a foreign object, though at the time we all thought it was stuck through the lower lid and not nearly as long.

 

Took Ox back to the vet yesterday, he was really pleased with the progress, though he said it would be a long haul of a few months before its looking anything like normal. As for him seeing out of it, well there were good signes too. One of the assistants walked past the door with a moggy in a cage and caught 'fat heads' attention, he did his usual stand to attention, opening both eyes wide and stared at the cat.

The vet took the opportunity to keep the cat there and have the cage moved back and fourth across the doorway to look at his eye movement, with which he was very pleased, saying that it 'looks like' he has some vision in it but its still early and things could change, fingers crossed 'eh!!

I'll keep you posted.

[Guest bullterrier]

hats good news mate keep us posted on how hes doing atb mate . ..john

[blacktabs 3]

Hope he comes good mate i would have left the thorn in till you got to the vets but its easy to panic when something like that happens .

We had a whippet that lost her eye do to a thorn the vet took it out and stitched the eye over as there was no way to save it never stopped her catching though she compensated for the lost eye used to try and get the bunnys on her good side when running and shed go down the beam with her head at an angle to get a better look and she still caught good numbers

[skycat 6,174]

That's good news about your dog. I remember seeing a one eyed coursing dog once, though apparently it had lost the eye as quite a young pup so had had time to adjust. Caught a decent number of hares, but like has already been said, tried to keep the quarry on its sighted side and ran with its head at an angle.

[tdavepat 8]

Sorry to read this mate and I really hope things work out ok for Ox and you. My whippet hits cover and hedgerows hard when after prey. He has punctured his eye once and it took a month to heal. Luckily the thorn stayed in the tree.

 

I would have probably done the same as you and felt the same feelings as you obviously did.

 

I too (coincidently) was rabbiting last night in the sand dunes. The same whippet was again ripping through the brambles and cover with no regard for his safety. I already decided last night that its a place for the ferrets and nets and just reading this has reinforced my decision.

 

Dave

[Bosun11 537]

Sorry to read this mate and I really hope things work out ok for Ox and you. My whippet hits cover and hedgerows hard when after prey. He has punctured his eye once and it took a month to heal. Luckily the thorn stayed in the tree.

 

I would have probably done the same as you and felt the same feelings as you obviously did.

 

I too (coincidently) was rabbiting last night in the sand dunes. The same whippet was again ripping through the brambles and cover with no regard for his safety. I already decided last night that its a place for the ferrets and nets and just reading this has reinforced my decision.

 

Dave

 

Thanks, I take your point Dave, though I pm'd SS earlier today about the same thing. Sounds like you have a good game whippet there.

 

For all the times i've lamped those dunes, about 25 years, thats the first time that has happened.

Yes, it probably will bring back that night if I go back because I/we know what happened BUT knock's, bangs and injurys are all part of the night game, we just hope they don't happen too often and are not too serious.

It's all about perspective.

 

I lost a young promising dog last year to a broken neck whilst lamping, so i've had my share of bad luck of late.

 

Still for me, whatever the cross, I expect a lurcher to pursue its quarry hard into cover, many many catches can be made that way, perceptive dogs learn to use edges to their advantage, it's rare a dog is injured not the norm in such cases.

I'd never want to own a dog that pulls up 4 yards off a hedge to watch its quarry make it to safety. Danger can lurk in both open and enclosed countryside, night or day, it's all part of working lurchers.

 

[tdavepat 8]

Sorry to read this mate and I really hope things work out ok for Ox and you. My whippet hits cover and hedgerows hard when after prey. He has punctured his eye once and it took a month to heal. Luckily the thorn stayed in the tree.

 

I would have probably done the same as you and felt the same feelings as you obviously did.

 

I too (coincidently) was rabbiting last night in the sand dunes. The same whippet was again ripping through the brambles and cover with no regard for his safety. I already decided last night that its a place for the ferrets and nets and just reading this has reinforced my decision.

 

Dave

 

Thanks, I take your point Dave, though I pm'd SS earlier today about the same thing. Sounds like you have a good game whippet there.

 

For all the times i've lamped those dunes, about 25 years, thats the first time that has happened.

Yes, it probably will bring back that night if I go back because I/we know what happened BUT knock's, bangs and injurys are all part of the night game, we just hope they don't happen too often and are not too serious.

It's all about perspective.

 

I lost a young promising dog last year to a broken neck whilst lamping, so i've had my share of bad luck of late.

 

Still for me, whatever the cross, I expect a lurcher to pursue its quarry hard into cover, many many catches can be made that way, perceptive dogs learn to use edges to their advantage, it's rare a dog is injured not the norm in such cases.

I'd never want to own a dog that pulls up 4 yards off a hedge to watch its quarry make it to safety. Danger can lurk in both open and enclosed countryside, night or day, it's all part of working lurchers.

 

 

Agree 100%. Nothing I said was in any way meant as a criticism.

 

I said only a few hours ago that I wouldn't take my dog lamping to the dunes again. But one look outside, the wind's blowing hard, the fields are still boggy and heavy so what do I do? Take my No. 1 dog to the dunes!!!

 

He's not the one who punctured his eye and he's a bit more measured. In saying that he's just recovered from a broken elbow, sustained on a low hard strike. It took me 12 weeks to get him fit again. He took 3 brilliant strikes, but it could easily have been 10 and felt like 10, which is a great night for here.

 

Keep us updated on Ox.

 

Dave

Edited January 29, 2009 by tdavepat

[Simoman 110]

Wow just read this Bosun, hope his eye is healing, 3/4 of an inch sounds bloddy painfull

[Strong Stuff 2,171]

Saw OX last night, I wouldn't like to say how his eye is doing, that's for B11 to say, but he does seem up in spirit and one thing is for sure he's getting all the love and care any dog could hope for!