It seems 2024, which as a Dragon Year under Chinese astrology was forecast to be either a very good one or a very bad one (depending upon the whims of the Dragon, which are never predictable). At any rate, Dragon years are typically full of uncertainty, volatility and variable outcomes. This year has proven no exception for us, although up until two months ago everything seemed smooth enough, as our virtual ship sailed onwards towards the 2025 home port.

While a few of my cronies are coping with serious age-related physical infirmities, wifie and I have been thus far spared any significant health problems, other than a few aches and minor pains that one anticipates near or at the 7th decade of life. Otherwise (knock-on-wood), so far, so good (as the suicide who jumped off the Empire State Building said, as he passed each floor on his leap off of the uppermost observation deck…).

The Dragon, not content to leave us alone and not mess with us personally, apparently decided to inflict another kind of concern…but let me elucidate for you.

About two months ago, our pup (Nala, a 17+ year old Siberian Husky female) suddenly developed a rather mystifying eye problem in her right eye. Normally, her eyes are crystalline ‘Arctic Blue’, a common-enough feature of the breed. Then, for reasons unclear, she came into the house from the back yard one afternoon with an inflamed right eye.

Thinking it might have been due to a foxtail, or perhaps a poke from a twig or small branchlet on our Camelia bush, we didn’t pay much attention to it, although we scheduled a vet visit as a matter of routine, to have it looked at.[Spoiler alert: Recent logical deduction seems to confirm the 'Camelia twig' theory, but whoda thunk a mere encounter with a Camelia twig would result in almost $8000 in vet costs AND loss of an eye?! Yikes!]

Our local vet of several decades (a canine vet specialist) that has taken care of all our previous Sibes decided to leave the ‘Muller Animal Medical Center’, a private practice last year, after its owner sold out to VCA (Veterinary Clinics of America), a large ‘for-profit’ corporation that has been gobbling up small, private vet practices all over the nation over the past 10 years. That left us with a new vet, who is a feline vet specialist. Not a very satisfactory arrangement, although technically all DVMs are trained in all phases of what is called ‘small animal medicine.’

She had no idea as to what the eye problem was all about after her exam, so we were told to keep our girl under observation, administer some ophthalmological meds (topically) and schedule a follow-up visit if things didn’t improve in two weeks.

To shorten this tale a bit, ‘things’ didn’t get any better. The eye continued to NOT improve and, if anything, became even more inflamed, so we tried to schedule a return follow-up with our new cat doc. This proved easier said than done, since they were overbooked, short-staffed and could only see our girl about a month down the road. Whaat? The only option they could offer was a special referral to a Sacramento Veterinary Emergency Specialist Group, which means a fee of roughly 3xtimes the usual (non-specialist) veterinary fee (e.g. $600-800).

OK, that seemed a bit outrageous, so we searched for another vet and found a private practice (The Broadway Veterinary Clinic) that might prove satisfactory. It is located, however, in a seedy neighborhood, since they do a lot of animal ‘charity work’, but we pressed on and were able at least able to have Nala seen without having to wait for several days.

That visit ($250) proved a repeat of the Muller Vet Med Center appointment, in that they were also mystified by the possible causes for the eye problem, but they at least suggested we contact the University of California at Davis (UCD) vet hospital (this is The Pritchard Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital, which is highly rated as one of the best in the entire United States). Fortunately, it’s located in the city of Davis, only 15 miles from us, so we followed up that suggestion.

On the way to the Broadway appointment, we had encountered a brace of whacked-out drug users (or substance-addicted schizophrenics, take your pick) on the street outside the vet’s office, one of which was throwing hostile vibes at us as we passed them on the sidewalk. If it hadn’t been for our 70 pound ‘domestic wolf’, which probably threw them off the scent, as it were, we might have had a real problem there.

When we left, they were still there, hanging around on a bus bench, but again Nala's 'presence' made them uncertain enough to back off. She is, of course, as fierce and vicious as a marshmallow, and as gentle as a kitten…but they were clear-headed enough to be uncertain of that, LoL! This psych-out effect works to our advantage every time in situations like this and spares us from a lot of nasty encounters. Sacramento is full of these homeless, drug-addled dregs of humanity, thanks to the city’s progressive, left-leaning Democratic civic government, so you never know whether all you’ll need is a bit of good fortune to evade trouble, or a hefty canister of military grade Capsicum pepper spray in your pocket.

Anyway, we did manage to contact UC Davis Vet Hospital and scheduled an appointment to have our girl seen the next day, as an emergency clinical visit, for a thorough ophthalmological examination.

This initial exam proved as unproductive as the earlier ‘regular’ vet visits, although everyone from the attending ophthalmic specialist on down to the residents and techs had a chance to evaluate and speculate on the presentation. This is of course a primary objective of all teaching hospitals: educating and providing clinical experience for post-docs. They too were mystified by the cause of Nala’s problem, other than to refer to it as “idiopathic Iritis" or possible "Uveitis" (irritation of the Iris or of the Uvea of the eye, due to unknown causes).

What ensued thereafter was a series of follow-up visits for subsequent exams and we began an intensive course of topical Prednisone therapy, administering steroid eye-drops to the affected eye on an ‘every 8 hour’ basis. As the ophthalmological specialists were unable to determine what was going on with her eye, we were instructed to stick to the topical Prednisone drops regimen and ‘observe.’ [Intraocular tests revealed normal pressure in the eye (no glaucoma), by the way, but one possible complication if the pressure increases is ‘Secondary Glaucoma.’]

Several more weeks went by, with two subsequent returns, and the eye strangely improved somewhat, then didn’t, etc., etc., following a sort of ‘sine wave’ up and down pattern that was most puzzling. A few days ago a visit confirmed what we didn’t want to hear, that idiopathic secondary glaucoma was now present. Things were about to get much worse, as we soon found out.

Then, after a few more days, the eye definitely seemed to be getting worse quite rapidly, with increased scleral redness, spreading inflammation and overt lenticular opacity. Motion-reactivity testing demonstrated that regardless of how things appeared (good or bad), she had also lost all vision in that eye. So, no matter what else developed, she no longer had functional vision in that eye and there seemed no possibility of restoring it, now.

The good news (in the midst of all this gloomy prognostication) was that she didn’t seem to be experiencing any pain or excess discomfort…more puzzlement.

Additionally encouraging was that otherwise, she seemed perfectly normal…normal appetite, thirst, stools and daily activity, for a Husky of her very ‘senior’ status.

The only real option on the table, if the situation didn’t improve quickly, was surgical excision of that eye, since a rupture (perforation) of the eye (iris) would be quite a serious development indeed. With a noticeable clot-formation already formed within the eye (behind the lens), the only reasonable long-term resolution to all this would be orbital ‘enucleation.’

Enucleation would leave her with only her good left eye. With no prosthetic implant possible or desired, the eyelid would be sewed shut after removal of the orb and the poor girl would suffer some temporart, mild facial disfigurement. It would, however, preclude further difficulties.

Given this news, we elected to go ahead and have the enucleation done, as much as we didn’t want to avail that dire option, so she was scheduled for the UC Davis Ophthalmological surgery team in three days. Meanwhile, she continued getting the 3-times-a-day topical therapy until we brought her in on the appointed pre-op check-in day.

So there we were, having made the appointment on Saturday (not during normal UCD vet clinic hours, naturally ($-ka-ching, $-ka-ching) and hoped to make it through the three days remaining until the surgery date without complications.

After one uneventful day, we thought we had aced it, since she seemed OK…until a quick look at the eye first thing in the morning confirmed that it might have sustained perforation. There were gobs of mucus, pus and exudate present to suggest that she would probably need immediate hospitalization to stabilise the eye, so that screening labs could be quickly done and surgery performed as quickly as possible.

Quite understandably, the uncertainties, anxiety and stress of monitoring her closely at home, even for that short period, makes us both feel absolutely knackered and emotionally fatigued. We’re just lucky that despite our own advanced age, we’re both in reasonably good shape!

Now it’s up to the docs to take care of the mess and two days hence we will hopefully pick her take her back home, post-op and recovering satisfactorily, albeit without a complete bilateral set of those beautiful Arctic Blue eyes.

The total cost of all the above care to date is probably going to be in excess of about US$8,000+, which is a huge, unanticipated expense to just have dropped on one from out of nowhere, thanks to the capriciousness of this year’s Chinese Dragon deity! But despite the extreme cost, Nala is, after all, our ‘girl’ and when you have benefitted from the full and unconditional trust and love of a dog or cat you have adopted for so long, you do whatever is required to repay all that  affection and trust she or he has placed upon you! I can’t imagine any other arrangement out of respect for our wonderful animal companions…

One excellent aspect of having this performed at a teaching hospital is that all of the staff are VERY compassionate and are regularly sending us frequent progress reports on her. A majority of the DVM residents and interns are young women, very committed to their work and bring natural feminine nurturing assets to their practice.

Nala is the last of our seven Huskies and we estimate that over the course of the past 25-30 years of rescuing and adopting Husky dogs, the total outlay for their medical care probably well-exceeds $50,000 or more. But, as I’ve already noted, as helpless ‘victims’ of the current corporate hijacking of the national veterinary medical support system that continues, we have no choice but to pay the piper if and when our much-loved doggie companions need medical care.

I can’t help but reflect, however, that given the impact of all this on our own lives (despite our being moderately solvent retired individuals), on all the neglected, homeless and abused pups in shelters cavalierly adopted or rescued (often on an altruistic whim) by poorer people (e.g. homeless people who want a dog as a companion, despite their miserable circumstances, substance problems and destitute status).

As life in America continues to spiral down and out of control on all levels in our society, it is simply one more symptom of a very sick, failing capitalistic system that continues to masquerade as ‘the World’s Greatest Nation’ while our incompetant politicians quibble over less important pet projects and programs. Think about it…

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POSTSCRIPT NOTE: Veterinary care costs have skyrocketed in recent years, speaking of this, and it’s in large part due to ‘for-profit’ corporations, mentioned earlier continuing their extreme profiteering. But another contributing factor is a proportionately dramatic increase in the academic costs of a doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (8 years of academic study and residency). At present, scores of DVMs have left the practice of veterinary medicine, in response to corporate economic ‘managed veterinary care constraints’ imposed by the large veterinary medicine holding conglomerate owners (like VCA). Additionally, scores of formerly private practitioners have increasingly sold out to VCA and other corporate businesses, as well...all of these factors further increasing the difficulty consumers are having in seeking out and obtaining ‘reasonabl', affordable veterinary care.

The corporate owners typically excuse the dramatic rise in pet veterinary costs by asserting that all the expensive scientific and technical infrastructure they employe, as well as vastly increased rates of professional staff remunerations, are the chief causative factors behind the consumer squeeze. Sorry! Not entirely the case!

This shameful deceit has been convincingly exposed by a number of objective analysts who have carefully studied these trends and found them to be largely a convenient excuse to continue generating substantial (often verging on the obscene) profits for stockholders, investors, etc., much as would any ‘for-profit’ commercial institution in America.

A very interesting, if brief, article on this may be accessed at the below URL, for anyone who has a pet or pets and desires to give them the best care available (as they would to any valued member of the family).

[A personal opinion that only relates indirectly to all this, concerns my earlier observation that most of today’s veterinary medicine students (and recent DVMs) are young women. Interestingly, the ratio of women-to-men in veterinary medicine reflects the same proportions noted in almost all professions these days, in that more than 2/3rds or so of all teachers, doctors, media people and other fields in America are now young females.

Certainly, although admixing inherent female nurturing qualities together with their other high-grade professional assets, isn’t a bad thing in my opinion, America today seems to be increasingly being taken over by women, as radical feminism (under the WOKE, DEI, CT ideological dogmas) beats the drums of leftist, disproportionate female equity louder than ever![Frankly, I'd pay an extra fee, just to have the pleasure of watching a mature woman with a calm, mellow vocal tone on a TV news program (like former NBC journalist Ann Curry), instead of a 20-something 'Valley-Girl-in-Training' with a high-pitched, emotionally excitable voice!]

That said, I must say that I was impressed by the overall quality of these young women I have interacted with in the UC Davis veterinary medicine program. They all evidence high levels of intelligence, sincere compassion, and unquestioned competence…AND…not least by my male chauvinist criteria…they are mostly all rather good-looking, quite attractive young women as well.

I would therefore speculate without being asked, LoL) that veterinary medicine programs and university/college affiliated vet schools are a GREAT place for a similarly qualified man to meet a potential mate who meets or matches him in every possible way!

Yep! Simply put, ‘beauty + brains + higher education = all that is best in the world!’

That’s my story and I’m a'stickin’ to it, LoL!]  ;))

Here’s the LA Times article (URL) I mentioned above: VET COSTS IN CALIFORNIA

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Credit: The image shown at the beginning of this article is an AI-augmented image of our girl NALA, based on a photograph of her taken in 2014. Rather stunning, no?

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ADDENDA:

In view of my above expressed opinion on radical feminism aggressively pushing young women into the forefront, all across our society, let me direct your attention to a 192 page book written back in 2022 by Anthony Esolen, who is an associate of Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts in New Hampsire. It is titled NO APOLOGIES: WHY CIVILISATION DEPENDS UPON THE STRENGTH OF MEN.

It is available in paperback, hardcover and/or Kindle formats and it lays out the argument that it is well past time to 'rehabilitate' men in the eyes of American society at large.

The following is taken from the inner jacket remarks and it perfectly articulates the focus of this excellent book.

"This is a book that should not have to be written. Its purpose is to return to men a sense of their worth as men and to give to boys the noble aim of 'manliness', an aim that is their due by right.

"One of the most courageous and penetrating writers of our time, Anthony Esolen shows that men and women would BOTH be happier if men came to a just appraisal of their worth. The manhood he praises does not boast or swagger, but to appreciate its powers. It is reluctant to hurt but it does not cringe or cower.

"The whole of civilisation rests upon the shoulders of men who have done work that most people would not do--and that the physically weaker sex could not have done. And although the masculine mystique is about more than physical force, the differences between the sexes--manifold and profound--are all related in some way to that one, the easiest difference to see and the hardest to deny.

"The feminist who mindlessly asserts that 'a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle' takes her comfortable world--and her bicycle--for granted. And she betrays her lovelessness and ingratitude. Worse, she poisons the minds and hearts of boys with her talk of 'toxic masculinity.'

No Apologies, with its compelling vision of  a strong and effective manhood, reminds men that they have powers as men, and that those powers must be used for the common good, for everyone--men, women and children all."

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