9 am: there is a rush in the door. “My
dog has been shot with a paintball gun!”
Blood was streaming slowly from her face as Reyna, a 66 lb.
Staffordshire Terrier, is carried in by her emotional and worried owner. “She had been inside, the garage door had
been shut, I was doing target practice, I don’t know how she got out…” Reyna’s
owner was beside himself, and seeing his dog like this, he could hardly
speak. Reyna was calm and as sweet as
could be. But we knew we had to do
something. Her eye had apparently taken the paintball squarely across her
cornea. The blood was thick and it was
difficult to discern where normal tissue, if any, still remained. Reyna was so calm. We put a numbing agent in
her eye and tried to apply a cold compress to slow the bleeding and swelling
down while we got more information. Her
gums were nice and pink still, and her heart sounded normal. Reyna had to have a headache but she was calm
and let us examine her. We got
permission to give her some pain relief and identified that the top layer of
the cornea, the protective layer on the surface of her eye, seemed to be
torn. It was unlikely we could save the
eye. Colored paint adorned her
face. It was now clear to all of us why
goggles and other protective head gear are important… 
Soon Reyna was resting more comfortably and the bleeding
subsided. She went into surgery shortly
after that and her eye was enucleated (removed). This was the only reasonable choice, both
from a financial and a humane standpoint, to minimize her trauma and get her
back to her normal happy life as quickly as possible.
Two weeks later, Reyna is a happy dog again! Despite
having spent two weeks in an E-collar, she is wagging her tail and getting around
as if nothing had happened. The
forgiveness and unconditional love of a dog is truly remarkable. The love of a family that had to find the
unexpected funds to take care of her accident is also
remarkable. We must be careful out
there, even when we are just having fun!
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