Senior Pit Bull Gets Contact Lenses and Her Joy is Amazing

Source © Shutterstock

Chris and Mariesa Hughes love their animals. No one that knows them would ever question that fact. Over the years, they have adopted a number of dogs with various physical problems as well as older animals. They even had a special bed custom made so that they could share it with the nine dogs that they currently have in their New York City apartment. As it would happen, one of those dogs is an elderly Pitbull named Gremlin. She hasn’t exactly had the easiest life to speak of, but this couple is determined to make sure that the days she has left are as happy and healthy as possible. They’ve even gone as far as getting her contact lenses so she can see, something that most pet owners would never even think of as a possibility.

A Difficult Start to Life

As previously mentioned, Gremlin the Pitbull hasn’t exactly had the easiest life. As a matter of fact, she was bred to fight and up until she was about four years old, that’s exactly what she was used for. It’s heartbreaking to even think that someone would do this to a living, breathing creature, but people do it all the time. Unfortunately, Gremlin was part of the Pitbull fighting world, through absolutely no fault of her own. For the first four years of her life, she was thrown into a ring as either a bait dog or as one of the main fighters and was forced to fight for her very life each and every time. Eventually, law enforcement seized the animals and arrested her so-called owner, but that didn’t really improve things all that much for her. Because of her breed and the fact that she had been forced to fight for so many years, most people wouldn’t even think of adopting her. As a result, she spent several months in a rescue, waiting and hoping that the right person would eventually come along.

A New Beginning and New Challenges

When she was adopted by the Hughes’s, her life definitely started to improve. However, she still had to face a number of new challenges that would have to be overcome in order to enjoy a happy life with the couple. This came mainly in the form of a series of health problems, some of them life-threatening. According to the couple, Gremlin was always a relatively well-behaved dog, despite the fact that she had been forced to fight when she was younger. As a matter of fact, they say that she is a silly, loving dog that simply enjoys being around people. Throughout her years with them, she’s had to fight a dangerous and potentially deadly blood disease as well as cancer. Clearly, this dog is a fighter in more ways than one. It’s obvious that she eventually learned to take that same fight that she was forced to have in the ring and use it to help ensure her survival when things started going sour. Currently, Gremlin has overcome both the cancer and the blood disease in order to live a relatively happy life. However, there was still one hurdle that had to be overcome, one that dealt with her vision becoming increasingly worse. This forced the Hughes’s to take on a new chapter in their life that most dog owners have never even heard of.

An Eye Doctor for Your Dog?

A few years ago, the couple noticed that Gremlin was developing cataracts. This was definitely a problem, especially when you consider the fact that she suffers from farsightedness anyway. Because of her condition, she is only able to see things that are far away, not up close. As the cataracts continued to get worse, so too did her vision. She began to bump into things and eventually, she became so startled by the fact that she couldn’t see that she didn’t want to be around anyone, including her owners. As a result, she largely kept to herself. The once happy-go-lucky, curious dog became reserved and depressed. Her owners knew they had to do something because she was no longer happy. Her veterinarian recommended that surgery be performed to remove the cataracts, which the couple decided to move forward with. Unfortunately, there was a complication and Gremlin developed a painful condition in her right eye because of increased pressure. This also caused her to lose all of her sight in that eye. Unfortunately, there was nothing anyone could do to save her right eye, and that made improving vision in her already damaged left eye even more important. This is where things start to get really interesting. Her veterinarian recommended a canine ophthalmologist that suggested contact lenses, the very same ones that human beings wear. The couple tried it, and Gremlin took to it just like a duck takes to water. She’s been wearing them for a while now and the couple change the contact lens out of her left eye about once a week. Gremlin’s vision is much improved and the best thing is that she’s back to being her curious, jovial self and she loves being around both her owners and all of the other pets in the house once again.

Gremlin is very fortunate to have owners who will clearly do anything they possibly can to help their pets. Because of that fact, she is able to see well enough to recognize herself in the mirror now and she’s capable of living a happy, full life, even well into her senior years. Gremlin doesn’t have to worry about being forced to fight any longer, nor does she need to be concerned with feeling fearful because she can’t see what’s around her. Instead, she has the chance to live out her days in a happy and loving home with owners that will clearly do anything they can to help her.