About a year ago while taking Mia over to my parent’s house, I noticed that she had a spot on her eye. It was small, and almost looked like a shadow.  She didn’t seem bothered by it, and since I could only see it when the sun was shining directly in her eyes, I forgot about it soon after.

A few months ago I noticed it again, but it was significantly bigger than I remembered. I asked my vet about it, and she referred us to an eye care specialist. I had no idea they had ophthalmologists for dogs, but I’m glad they do. We had an appointment with her yesterday, and she’s a lovely woman. Sadly, it was not a good outcome.

Mia is going blind.

She has what’s called Pigmentary Keratitis, which is extremely common in pugs. It’s basically brown scar tissue that grows over the cornea, effectively rendering the dog blind. The doctor gave me drops to try and thin the scar out, and an ointment to try and stop the scar from spreading.  According to the doctor, there’s no “cure” for this problem, just options to try and deal with what’s there. She wants to start with medication to see if that decreases the problem, before we discuss surgical options. Surgery wouldn’t be to remove the scarring, however, as that’s too deep into her eye. The surgery would be to reshape her bottom eyelid, so her eyes close completely, therefore eliminating the irritation that is speeding up the growth of the scar. It’s just a way to slow the process, it’s not a way to stop it. No matter what happens, Mia will eventually be blind.

I am devastated. I know it doesn’t hurt her, and that it’s actually better for her (comparatively) to go blind gradually, rather than just be born blind. Her sense of sight is only her 3rd most important sense (smell and hearing being 1st and 2nd, respectively), and there are plenty of dogs that are born blind or who go blind that are completely happy and just as fabulous as if they could see. It’s just hard to know that eventually she’s going to lose her sight, and there’s basically nothing I can do to stop it.

Blind or not, I can take you!