I don't know if this is interesting to anyone, but I figured I'd share since this was a whole experience that might help others.
Vaks has been gradually losing his sight to cataracts for the past year or so. The past 5-6 months he's been almost entirely blind and not very happy about that. He'd be fine when I was home, but it was clear that he slowed down a lot, was less sure of himself and he obviously needed help with finding everything including his water. The minute I left he was no longer feeling safe.
That's not how I want my dog to feel. Vaks is almost 18 years old and I did a lot of debating with myself if this should be his last summer. I just couldn't quite shake the feeling that it was too soon, because apart from losing his eyesight, he's doing really well, very active, no arthritis, no movement impairment or anything like that. He's a very active dog despite his age.
It just was too soon.
After a lot of debating, we ended up deciding that we would look into cataracts surgery. Fair warning, it's very expensive and did eat up a lot of our savings, but if he was a good candidate, we were gonna go through with it.
Initial consult looked at the condition of his eyes and the vet was a bit worried, that there was a fair chance that he couldn't see "under" his cataracts, so we had to do a thorough examination with mild sedation, we had to look at pressure in his eyes, all of that. Thankfully, Vaks had good function in his eyes, despite having severe cataracts and being so old.
Surgery itself was the next day and went really well. There wasn't any major concern, though he did gain a small scratch on his cornea, that we caught the next day for first control.
Now... This is where I wouldn't have done it if he wasn't otherwise in great health, because he does not like eyedrops and we had to give those 13 times a day for a few weeks. We're down to 4 times a day now for about another month, but that's a lot more manageable.
There's also always the risk of complications, which we did have a few of as well. It wasn't actually majorly related to his eyes, but his one vein where they had put in a catheter got infected.
He was in so much pain. In that moment, I really was wondering if I had made the right choice. We obviously rushed to the ER vet, and he was given all the right meds, so he could once again be pain free and we could deal with the infection. A few days later, he had black poops, which was determined to be from his small intestine being a bit inflamed from all the meds. Thankfully not anything serious, but it was once again a trip to the ER vet for some fluids and bloodwork to make sure it wasn't serious.
Within a few days his leg looked great again, his stomach was fine, no major issues followed after this.
Because he had the cornea scratch, he couldn't have antiinflammatory eye drops in that eye until the 2 week control, so his iris did get a mild infection in that time. That was quickly adressed with some oral medication.
We are now 3 weeks post op and I can confidently say, despite all of this, that I don't regret this decision at all.
Vaks can see, even at night (though not as well as he would if he wasn't almost 18 lol) and he is SO much happier in every way.
He gets excited for walks, he sleeps less, he walks around more, he explores, he's happy to greet people, he almost played with Sprinkle, he runs when we go for walks again, he goes up and down the stairs no problem, he's just overall so much more energetic and happy.
I was really worried when I made this choice, that he would still be slow and old and not back to his normal self, but I am so happy to report that this isn't the case.
I don't know how long I have with him, but I know that however long I have left with him (with his current health, I'd guess a few years still) will be with him being really happy and enjoying life to the fullest again and that makes these past few weeks more than worth it.
