Pancake, my family's 7-year-old lab mix, almost seems to back to her usual dog personality.
You have to look closely, but there are still some lingering signs that she recently experienced an extremely painful eye infection.
We don't know exactly what caused it, but her veterinarian told me the culprit is likely as simple as something dogs do all the time: chewing on a stick.
Last month, we noticed one of Pancake's eyes was red and droopy. We took her to the vet, who prescribed some medication, but said if the condition did not improve, we would likely have to seek a specialist or emergency care.
By the next morning, the swelling was so bad that Pancake could not even see because her third eyelid was covering her pupil. It was also clear she was in a lot of pain. Even coming close to that side of her face would elicit a loud yelp.
At Tufts Veterinary Emergency Treatment & Specialties in Walpole, the veterinarian diagnosed Pancake with something called a retrobulbar abscess. She added that Pancake was the latest in a slew of cases they'd treated at the clinic.
"Really?" I asked.
You never know where the next story will originate, right?
According to my quick research in the waiting area at Tufts, I learned that the risk of retrobulbar abscess increases during periods of drought, something we've seen throughout the year in Massachusetts.
So what is a retrobulbar abscess? For that explanation, I enlisted the help of Dr. Kelsea Studer, an emergency and critical care veterinarian and assistant clinical professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.
"A retrobulbar abscess is an abscess, so an infection, or almost like a mass effect, that happens right behind the eye," Studer explained. "It can definitely happen from trauma, or what we call 'migrating foreign bodies,' so particularly, things that come from the mouth, that actually get into the roof of the mouth and travel up."
Studer said the infection is very painful for dogs. Even trying to open their mouth to eat, drink or bark can cause extreme discomfort.
Because of the drought conditions, the daily dog walk can feature a landscape of dry bushes, brittle plants and sticks more prone to splintering and getting lodged inside a dog's mouth.
As normal as it might seem for a dog to nibble on some brush, mulch or a stick, Studer said you should try to avoid it as a pet owner.
"I would recommend that you avoid it because of the risk of these types of traumas," Studer said.
Once the antibiotics kicked in, Pancake had to go through a pretty gross -- but necessary -- draining process as the swelling in her eye subsided.
On Thursday, she received a positive progress report during a follow-up appointment with an ophthalmologist at Tufts.
This was good news, because if the infection does not go away, it can mean more expensive treatment like surgery or a CT scan to locate the source. In some cases, the cause of a retrobulbar abscess is tied to dental disease or a cancerous mass.
The symptoms to be on the lookout for include bulging of the eye, presence of the third eyelid, swelling around the eye and face, pain opening the mouth, which could cause a reluctance to eat hard food or drink water.
Veterinarians say it is important to get the infection checked out as soon as possible. If left untreated, a retrobulbar abscess can result in vision loss.