Doctors manage to cure baby squirrel from glaucoma after removing right eye.
Thelma, a rescued baby squirrel is glaucoma free thanks to Michigan veterinarians from Southfield’s BluePearl Veterinary Partners.
The baby squirrel named Thelma was found in an abandoned yard along with two of her sibling. Immediately after they were discovered, rescuers rushed them to the Gasow Veterinary Hospital in Birmingham and placed in the care of doctor Laura Witherell.
When she was brought to the hospital, Thelma was approximately four weeks old. After a few days, she managed to open her eyes. During a close examination performed on the baby squirrel, doctor Witherell discovered that there was something wrong with one of her eyes.
Thelma was then taken to the animal ophthalmology center in Birmingham, where she underwent additional investigations. Veterinarians diagnosed her with severe glaucoma and scheduled her for immediate surgery.
After a couple of hours of the table, doctors realized that Thelma’s eye could not be saved and decided to remove it. The surgical team declared that the baby squirrel’s right eye was so affected by glaucoma that she was physically unable to use it in order to see.
Hence, they removed her right eye and now the baby squirrel is glaucoma free. Doctor Michael West, one of the veterinarians that was in charge of treating Thelma said that each and every one of them had a moral obligation to do whatever they can in order to help the animal and to make it more comfortable.
We should also add the fact that instead of euthanizing the three squirrels, Witherell, the one who discovered Thelma’s eye defect, decided to adopt all three of them.
Sadly, one of the three baby squirrels found in the back yard didn’t make it through the first night, but Thelma and her little sister Louise seem to be faring well.
In an interview for Newsradio 950, doctor West declared that the surgery was a success and Thelma’s process of recovery seems to go well. Now their biggest concern is to make the baby squirrel eat.
Glaucoma is considered to be the prime cause of blindness both in animals and humans. Basically, the disease occurs when the intraocular pressure (pressure inside the eye ball), rises above a certain limit that, in term, leads to impaired vision. Medical literature on the matter says that there are two types of glaucoma: primary glaucoma that usually occurs without any underlying cause and secondary glaucoma that has an underlying cause.
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