Glaucoma in Animals - Something You May Not Know, but Need To

Glaucoma in animals is a common thing, especially in dogs. There are so many different signs of glaucoma you may not notice them.

What glaucoma is
Glaucoma is an increased pressure in the eye. the eye is approximately round, like an egg, but rather than having a hard shell like an egg, the eye has a soft flexible outer covering. The flexible eye would collapse except that is it kept expanded by fluid. The fluid is mad within the eye at a steady rate and flows out of the eye through a canal at a steady rate. If too much interocular fluid is made, or if the fluid cannot flow out through the canal the pressure builds within the eye causing Glaucoma.

What is normal eyeball pressure?
Normal pressure of dogs is approximately 25 mm Hg.
Normal pressure of cats is approximately 30 mm Hg.

Eyeball pressure is low compared with blood pressure. Eyeball pressure is measured with a tonometer, just as it is measured in humans.

Eyeball pressure in healthy and diseased dogs.
There may be small differences in pressure from one eye to another, from one day to another, from one hour to another.

Normal Interocular pressure (IOP) 15-25 mmHg
Glaucoma 25-30 mmHg
Anterior uveitis (inflammation) 10-15 mmHg
Anterior uveitis & secondary Glaucoma 10-30 mmHg

There are two forms of Glaucoma: Primary and Secondary

Primary Glaucoma occurs in an animal because it possesses physical or physiologic traits that predispose it to glaucoma. This is usually predetermined by genetics.

Primary glaucoma is most common seen in Beagles, Cocker Spaniels, and Basset Hounds. It also occurs in Norwegian, Elk hounds, Miniature Poodles, Dachshunds, and a few others. The exact cause of primate glaucoma is slightly different in each of these breeds, but suffice to say that the end result is the same. With primary glaucoma both eyes are rarely affected equally or at the same time. The disease usually occurs in one eye months or even years before it affects the second one.

Secondary Glaucoma means that the disease is secondary to, or caused by, another condition. A common example is penetrating wound to the eye. This often causes an inflammation and the fluid may become too thick to flow out through the drainage pores, or it might cause scar tissue to form with he drainage angle, causing it to close.

Possible causes of secondary glaucoma would include, bleeding in the eye, inflammation within the eye, luxation or displacement of the lens, attachments or scarring between the iris and the lens, degeneration of the structure within the drainage angle, or anything that causes the angle to narrow or close.

Signs of Glaucoma

Early signs of glaucoma to watch for are pain, a dilated pupil, cloudiness within the cornea and or an increase in the size of the blood vessels in the white portion of the eye. You may notice that one eye seems larger or protrudes more than the other. One sign of the pain you may notice the dog rubbing its eye with its paw, against the furniture or the carpet. Also some fluttering of the eye lids or squint with one eye.

The pupil of the affected eye will usually dilate early in the course of the condition. It may still react to all bright light shining in it, but it will do so very slowly. If the pupil in one eye is larger than in the other, something is definitely wrong and it may be glaucoma.

The blood vessels on the white portion of the eye could be enlarged showing some early signs of glaucoma. Making the eye look bloodshot.

Treatment

There are different treatments for glaucoma depending on the cause and severity. There different things to try to fix the problem of glaucoma. Most usual is ointment on the eye, but can also be given something orally. Usually given 3 or more times a day or an unknown length of time. Keeping in mind that the treatment in dogs don't work as good or as quick as it does in humans. The best option to do but also the most expensive would be surgery for your animal.

Please remember that after internal changes have occurred, the eyeball itself swells in size, tilts off to the side and all the surface blood vessels enlarge giving the appearance of a large ugly bruised radish. So knowing that please also remember this is something very serious and needs to be taken care of IMMEDIATELY!! Don't hesitate your dogs/cats life could be in jeopardy.

Sources:
peteducation.com
pethealth101.com
shawneeanimalclinic.com