I took him to a Monday appointment at the vet's; he was able to see to walk up the steps and go into the office. An eye exam indicated there was something seriously wrong with his eyes, but the veterinarian did not have the optical equipment to make a diagnosis. The vet did take a blood sample for testing. By the time we left the vet's office, Ozzie had again lost his eyesight.

That evening our vet called with the results of the blood test, Ozzie has a form of cancer called lymphosarcoma. She had also called the Animal Eye Clinic in Spokane, Washington, which luckily had a cancellation for an appointment on Wednesday, August 30, and was holding the appointment for us if we wanted it. We took the appointment so we could determine what was causing Ozzie's loss of sight.

The Wednesday 90 mile drive to Spokane went well; it was good to have the first appointment of the day. Ozzie was examined by the two ophthalmologists at the Animal Eye Clinic, and they did an ultrasound to see if his retinas were detached. The finding was that the blood flow to Ozzie's eyes were impaired from the swollen lymph glands in his neck, and when his collar was tightened, the blood flow was lessened even further and would result in blindness. The ophthalmologist said that once chemo started, Ozzie's sight would return in one to two weeks. I assured him that we were starting chemo treatments on Friday; we were given eye drops (Pred Acetate 1%) to help Ozzie's eyes in the meantime. It was recommended that I replace Ozzie's collar with a harness to reduce pressure on his neck. I left the eye clinic very relieved to know that Ozzie only had cancer, he wasn't also going blind.

Once I returned home from Ozzie's eye exam, I went to our local pet store to find Ozzie a harness to replace his collar. Finding one of the right size took a while; we settled on a medium sized Four Paws "Step 'N Go" red adjustable harness. It took us a while to adjust the loops and also for Ozzie to figure out how to sit still while we would step him into it. He kept trying to shake it off, but it meant we could walk him in the yard for bathroom trips and not worry about the stress on his neck. Since his eyesight still hadn't fully returned, we would keep him on the leash while he was in the backyard.

As for which chemo protocol to choose for Ozzie, we had done internet research on the various protocols and the one that seemed the best, in our opinion, was the one our local veterinarian was planning on following, the one from Gregory K. Ogilvie, DVM, DACVIM, of the CVS Angel Care Cancer Center located in San Marcos, California. Dr. Ogilvie presented a paper "Canine Lymphoma: Protocols For 2004" at the WSAVA 2004 conference in Rhodes, Greece. That paper can be found at the VIN web site, choose the WSAVA conference proceedings, which takes you to the World Small Animal Veterinary Association; then choose the WSAVA Congress Proceedings for 2004, then select the Oncology category, and then select Dr. Ogilvie's paper. His paper outlined the various chemicals to be used in the protocol, their schedule, and the side effects from the chemicals.