Very sorry to hear about Snowie's eye, how is the wobble and the diarrohoea? When I worked for the vet, he used to stitch the eyelid.
If it were ME, I'd have my dog at a main stream vet school, or an eye specialist, before you could say tarsorrhaphy. Bugger rural vets. Yeh, maybe you've got a James Herriot there, or maybe you've got an out of date bonkers madman.
I hope Snowie recovers well and isn't too bothered whilst the eye is healing....You must have been so worried,it's frightening when you are away from your normal support network I'll start a Bravecto thread in Health ...I've had experience with it too
Hallo everyone, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thank you for all your kind words of support. I had next-to-no internet connection where we were holidaying and I must confess that, while this forum usually is my go-to place when I need advice and support, I was reduced to a ball of anxiety after reading some of the comments here -- Had I done the right thing? Perhaps I'd caused irreversible damage and blindness to my dog by entrusting him to the closest vet? Should we have done the long drive back to the city and hoped a specialist vet would come out in the middle of the night on new years or even new years day to treat our dog? So, given that it took forever for a post to show up with my internet connection and how awful I was feeling reading some of the comments here, I decided the best thing was to use my efforts to contact a vet or two who has experience in corneal abrasions. Well, it was almost impossible! There are three 24-hour animal hospitals in my city. One of them was closed for the holidays and the other two were working flat-out with emergencies (I learned a new three-letter-abbreviation: HBC - hit by car -- this was a case in at the vet when I called) and out of the three vets on duty (one at one hospital, two at the other), not one of them had a minute to call me back. And I called throughout the day. I also called my brother's father-in-law, who is also a vet, but his phone kept going to voicemail. The ophthalmic specialist was not on duty and the hospital would not give me her phone number, but they did give me her email, so I emailed her asking if the procedure Snowie had was risky. We got hold of my brother's father-in-law late Sunday. He said that the procedure that Snowie had was exactly what he would've done, it is his first line of action for a corneal abrasion and that it has a very good outcome. The third eyelid provides nutrients and protection to the cornea. The ophthalmic specialist responded via email on the Tuesday saying that the indication for a third eyelid flap depends entirely on the appearance of the cornea, and the intraocular structures, which is difficult to convey verbally, even from vet to vet. She said she thus could not advise either way; there are both indications and contra-indications for this approach. A superficial lesion to the corneal epithelium and at the most to the upper third of the corneal stroma, with no discharge, no underlying uveitis and with the patient remaining comfortable are good signs for appropriate use of a TEL flap. The vet who did the TEL flap on Snowie said the lesion was superficial. With each day Snowie became more comfortable, stopped rubbing his eye so much, and there wasn't much discharge. We had to dab it gently with cotton wool soaked in salt water (10%) (not irrigate it), and with each day allowing me to touch his eye and the surrounds more and more -- I'm guessing it was very sore at first. He appeared very vulnerable and stuck close to us even when we visited friends with a couple of dogs that he loves. He'd go over to say hallo and then come rushing back to me. He also bumped into things on his "blind" side -- you can imagine how bad I felt given that I was still worried that he might come out blind after the eye was unstitched! The friends with the Ridgeback came to visit us with their boy -- they didn't get the message to leave him at home! -- so we kept both dogs on leashes. While the Ridgeback moaned the entire time cos he wanted to play with Snowie, Snowie showed no interest except for the initial meet and greet, and was happy to stay well away from him -- thankfully! He clearly understood his condition and vulnerability. On the Tuesday I finally got hold of our local vet when the practice opened. She was so reassuring -- what a delight! She said her first line of action is only ocular antibiotic drops, not to stitch the eye closed -- they like to keep it open so that they can monitor what is going on inside in case it gets worse. She said that corneal trauma is very common and there is no need to see an ophthalmic specialist for this condition, regular vets attend to these traumas all the time. We made an appointment for the Thursday for her to remove the stitches and decide what next to do and if to refer to an ophthalmic specialist. On the Wednesday 4 Jan (yesterday), while we were packing up to leave, I noticed one of the stitches was missing!! We called the vet who'd stitched Snowie and asked if we could drop in on our way back home. He unstitched Snowie's eye to open it and could not find the other stitch -- the one holding the third eyelid in place. He suspected Snowie had pulled it out. He stained Snowie's eye again and there was a vast improvement: only a small line of dye showing abrasion compared the initial huge area that was stained. He was happy with the outcome and gave us ocular antibiotic drops to apply three times a day. He said we must administer them in one hour again. Which we did at a petrol station stop. And there we saw the missing stitch poking out from under the top lid causing discomfort: every time he blinked it rubbed his eye. Called our local vet and said we'd be there as soon as we got into town. Those couple of hours on the highway were so long!! The vet on duty in the practice is new, a surgeon. He deftly fiddled with the stitch, no sedative, no instruments, and removed it. He said... oh boy, every vet had his or her own opinion!!! As many as you'll find here on the forum!! -- that he also only does the ocular antibiotic gel initially. If the eye does not improve, then he stitches it closed. But he would've sutured the third eye lid differently, holding the eyelid and the outer lids all together with a single stitch -- I guess he's a specialist surgeon. He's also much younger so I'm guessing you get one or the other: age either brings experience or lack of age the most modern procedure. He assumed a rural vet sees a patient once, probably little follow up, in which case stitching the eye closed is a fail-safe measure even if he (the surgeon) felt it was too aggressive given the circumstances. He also said the rural vet probably does this procedure so often (100 calves a week) that it's his go-to procedure. The good news is the surgeon was very happy with Snowie's eye. NO BLINDNESS!!!! Whew. He thought it had healed very quickly -- he did say probably cos it was stitched closed! It was not 100% healed, to be expected, he said it takes time, should be fine by next week. But, he said the antibiotic drops, Octin, given to us by the rural vet were not a good choice, they cause irritation of the eye (he did say all drops irritate the eye, some worse than others), and that we were better off with Fucithalmic. We took the gel cos it is easier to apply -- both my husband and I were useless with the drops, couldn't get one drop into Snowie's eye!! The gel you can squeeze onto your finger and then wipe gently into the eye. The surgeon also recommended an oral anti-inflammatory for the mild conjunctivitis of the lower lid to make Snowie comfortable and prevent him rubbing his eye, which would help speed healing. So all's well that ends well! Sorry for the ramble. Oh! I've left out the best part. When Snowie was sedated for the initial op, the vet injected him to wake him up. And what was the first thing to move? His tail! Immediately started wagging while the rest of his body lay motionless. Too adorable!
The wobble we're guessing was plain stiffness from a massive amount of running around -- and indicates thankfully that Snowie's back has healed well. The diarrhoea no doubt from the salty river water. All came back to normal within 24 hours thankfully.
@MF what an awful time you and poor Snowie have had. I guess it's really difficult when you away from your home and usual vets when something so drastic happens but you did the only thing you could do after a lot of vet contacting. I think we in the UK take it for granted with the vets and specialists we can visit at the drop of a hat, it's not the case in lots of other countries. Don't beat yourself up please. So glad Snowie is OK and I wish him a very speedy recovery and you a well deserved rest xx
So pleased to hear Snowie is making a steady recovery, very traumatic to have this happen when you're away from home.
Thank you! Yes, most definitely South Africa is not the UK when it comes to the availability of vets and specialists! Notwithstanding the level of training at the only vet school is, I believe, of a very high standard. Interestingly -- and it wasn't really a choice because she recently took over my local vet's practice -- my new local vet is actually Cambridge-trained!
So glad Snowie is on the mend! You should also feel really good about going to battle for him. It's so hard to be someplace away from home PLUS over a holiday time period - and it's ALWAYS over a holiday, isn't it? It would be so traumatic to add on top of that seeing your dog's eye sewn shut - I'd be a nervous wreck. But it sounds like even though there was a lot of debate about whether it was 100% necessary and the actual stitching technique, it did help his eye get on the road to recovery sooner. Though I imagine you are all much happier now with the stitches out and just some gel to administer. Get well (the rest of the way) soon, Snowie!
Just to let you know that Snowie had a final check-up at the vet and his eye is completely healed. I must say that getting the antibiotic eye gel into his eye was difficult and I don't think I always got it INTO his eye (he kept his eyelids TIGHTLY shut). Only by the last application did I do a decent job of getting the gel in the eye -- I guess both he and I got used to it (I think I was as much afraid of hurting him as he was of having a finger stuck in his eye). So... I am actually pleased the rural vet sewed the third eyelid across and sewed the eye shut because I don't think I'd have been able to do a good enough job of treating a sore eye with antibiotic drops or gel.
