'26, brought him to the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine 's Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where the ophthalmology team found a partially detached retina.
Aparna Shah teaches Virginia Tech students how the human eye turns light into sight.
Ziggy had started walking toward the bathroom door instead of the bedroom door.
The 9-year-old bluetick beagle was heading for the wrong corners of a room he knew by heart.
Shah and her husband, Ashwan Lewis M.I.T.
Within a day, Ziggy received a steroid injection adjacent to the eye.
A week to 10 days later, he could see again.
"That was, to us, somewhat miraculous," said Shah, collegiate assistant professor of neuroscience in the College of Science.
The injection was part of a novel approach Ian Herring, associate professor of ophthalmology, has used to manage Ziggy's rare autoimmune disease which had already claimed one of his eyes.
Herring turned to it because the standard immunosuppressive treatment could have put Ziggy’s spine at risk from inflammation for which he was also being treated.
Herring said Ziggy's case will shape how he treats the condition from now on.
The report adds to ongoing university-led research relevant to veterinary medicine, animal health, and clinical decision-making.
university website: Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine
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