The eyes have it

At my last visit in July, Dr. Johnson said to watch my left eye. Well, it suddenly swelled up last week, so this morning my Tortoise Mom and Dad took me to Eye Care for Animals where I got a thorough exam by Dr. Church.



I got the full treatment, including Tonometry, just like people get from their opthomologists. Who knew?



Dr. Church found that my right eye has problems too: red spots on the iris (should be green) caused by bleeding and minor inflammation.



She diagnosed the left eye, the worst one, with a small cataract (but not the usual variety) that releases protein to cause inflammation. As a result that eye has "discoria" which means an abnormally shaped pupil. Plus I can't see out of it.

 

She said the underlying cause is systemic or metabolic health problems, or even anemia (why I'm eating Mazuri Tortoise Diet now).So she'll talk to Dr. Johnson about that, and she prescribed anti-inflammatory eye drops.



Eye drops? Yikes! Having eye drops twice a day means I have to stay in the winter burrow and can't hunker down in the old burrow. You know how I feel about that. But I also know how lucky I am to have such good care from my Tortoise Mom and Dad, and from Dr. Johnson and Dr. Church. I am one lucky tortoise!