Under pressure! Everything you need to know about glaucoma

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On this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast, host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, and special guest Alex Sigmund, DVM, DACVO, chat about all things glaucoma such as tips and tricks on diagnosing the diseases, effective management, and which breeds of dogs have a predisposition to glaucoma. Through the discussion, Sigmund hopes to help to continue his goal of making every veterinarian comfortable with the basics of ophthalmology to improve patient care as well as client understanding.

Below is a partial transcript.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: What are some of the recommendations that we're doing when we're trying to rule out glaucoma? So, I know you mentioned the pen. Do you have a recommendation of even like tetracaine? Is there a particular numbing solution you like? Walk us through some of the diagnostics that we should do.

Alex Sigmund, DVM, DACVO: Any red eye, in my opinion, should not only have a tonometry check, but also should have a stain, like a fluorescein stain, looking for ulcers as well as a Schirmer tear test because there are so many cases that get referred to me that could have been caught months earlier if one of those had been done, it just hadn't been done.

The biggest pushback I get from that type of stuff is, you know, owners don't want to pay for all of that, and so my biggest advice for veterinarians is just to make an ophthalmology fee, like an ophthalmology exam fee, that encompasses all those diagnostics [so] that you can just go ahead and do them.