Eye Loss

On Friday evening Taz & Wrinkles got into an argument, Wrinkles put
up her paw to protect her self and poked Taz in the eye. They tried to
save his eye but the repair did not work. Sadly today the are removing
his eye. I know that our little Taz will be just fine and be back to
his old self soon!

I would love to hear your experiences with losing an eye and what to expect over the healing process.

Hi Diana, I am glad you posted here, I know a few people here have gone through eye removals!

For those that don't know, Diana is a good friend of SNPR, she adopted Taz and Mugzee-he was the little guy in Elko, NV, and has fostered as well.

Oh, I'm the Queen of Enucleations. Three dogs and three eyeballs remaining.

First, don't be surprised if the dog shakes his head when he gets home and watery blood splatters everywhere. It's happened with two of my dog enucleations and the first time it happened I broke land speed records getting back to the vet. Only to be told it's not abnormal. BUT don't ever feel that you can't ask if the dog is okay. Hazel's blood spatter was normal, but on her second enucleation there was some concern about hemorrhage so I watched that VERY carefully.

Do keep them quiet--you don't want their blood pressure going up during the first 72 hours post surgery.

The swelling can be daunting, but does get better. And don't let the vet send you home WITHOUT pain meds. Demand them. This has only happened to me once and it was the only enucleation done by the vet ophthalmologist. Don't ask me why he sent us home without pain meds, but he did and I ended up back at my own vet's getting tramadol.

Cone. Cone. Cone. And the longer the cone the better--they are very good at finding ways to stick things into the cone to scratch. The only time Hazel or Theo had the cone off was to eat.

No experience here so I'm super glad Blanche has posted. Lots of thoughts and good wishes for everything to go well.

oh Diana - I'm so sorry! poor pugs and their buggy eyes. I know it's hard, but these little guys are so resilient. he will be just fine.

so glad you're here!

My Sammy had his enucleation while he was still in rescue, so I don't have great advice on the immediate post-op period, but I can tell you that they get around with absolutely NO difficulty after they've healed. There's also something incredibly adorable about a little winker!

GingerSnap wrote:My Sammy had his enucleation while he was still in rescue, so I don't have great advice on the immediate post-op period, but I can tell you that they get around with absolutely NO difficulty after they've healed. There's also something incredibly adorable about a little winker!

Same situation here with me and rescue Gooey. Good luck to your little guy in his recovery. Give him lots of tactile reassurance.