Hi I am new to this forum and was wondering if anyone can give a little insight to my question. My husband's and I have been waiting for a chocolate male from a breeder for a while now and haven't had any luck! The last litter had 3 males and we were 4th on the wait list. The breeder have me another option to take a puppy from a previous litter that was supposed to be taken from a different breeder as he was apparently very good quality. Well at 7 weeks of age this little guy developed entropian in both eyes and required surgery. Not knowing much about this problem I turned to the internet and found its fairly common in labs and other large breeds. I did read up that in young pups it is more common to do something called a "tack stitch" to temporarily pull the rolled in skin away from his eye and wait till he grows and see if the problem fixes itself. The other option is to do plastic surgery where the vet trims away some of the excess skin and sew it together again to pull the skin away from the eye. This is the surgery that they did to this little puppy. My question is have any of you had experience with this? Online it says that if a young puppy has this particular procedure done it can often be overcompensated and when he grows the skin on his head will pull away from the eye and cause ectropian or a saggy eyelid resulting in future surgery. I need to decide if we are going to take on this puppy or wait for a different litter. Any advice is welcome! Thanks!
Re: entropian on new puppy Hi and welcome to the forum Entropian is a very painful condition for dogs , one that I have a little experience of but am no expert My Lab Sam is now two and a half years old , when he was a puppy he had conjunctivitis so I took him to see our Vet . I have much faith in my Vet but he was on holiday and we had to see a locum who told me that Sam had entropian, she wanted him booked in for an operation immediately . I like to consider all options before taking any major decision so I refused and began to research the issues . I discovered that sometimes, in a young dog as Sam was , there is a lot of spare skin as the skull is growing slowly and hasnt fit into all of the skin and that unless is was an extreme case where the dog is in pain, it was maybe best to watch and wait or to go for the stitch option that you mentioned . With my lad , I also felt that the conjunctivitis had also added to his puffy and swollen eyes and so we took no action and by the time he was fully grown, his eyes were perfect and his skull had taken up all the excess skin that was there before . You are right , sometimes if pups have the more complex surgery of removing skin , they can be left with a rather odd stretched expression and may need more surgery . I do understand that you want to take this puppy, but if it were me , I think I would wait for one who hasnt had a surgical proceedure that may need corrective surgery, it may not require it of course, but I would err to caution I think , good luck with your decision
Re: entropian on new puppy Hi there and welcome to the forum! It is very frustrating waiting for a puppy, isn't it. Especially when you miss one by one place on the waiting list. My very personal view would be to walk away from a puppy with problems like this. It can be a struggle at times, caring for a completely healthy puppy without making things more difficult for yourself. You won't be able to insure him for this pre-existing problem and you could be looking at further surgery down the line. The great thing is that Labradors are so popular and numerous, you won't have to wait long (even if it seems that way) for another opportunity to own one. So my counsel would be to hang on in there, and wait for a healthy pup. Are you in the UK?
Re: entropian on new puppy Thank you for your replies! I am leaning towards waiting for a new litter because I don't want to take the chance on future surgeries! It's nice to have other opinions to help make a decision. Pippa I'm actually from Canada.
Re: entropian on new puppy Sorry I only have experience with entropians in adult dogs. I have to say though that I'm surprised they did the surgery on a puppy so young - I would have thought they would have been of the mind to wait a while and see if he grew out of it, which can happen as evidenced by Kate's dog Sam. I've known a few adult dogs who had ops to correct their entropians. Only one was with me for long enough for me to see it happen again and she had to have surgery a second time. Be aware if you do decide to take on this puppy that you will not be able to get him insured against this condition and will have to meet any veterinary costs for this yourself. Chances are he could be fine, or it could reoccur and he could require another surgery, or you could get complications resulting from him having the surgery done so young and not having had the chance to grow out of it... It's all a huge unknown. It will be difficult to walk away, especially if you have already seen and met the puppy but you need to make sure you are fully prepared for the care and cost of treatment in the future.
Re: entropian on new puppy I had exactly the same experience as Sam...We did the watch and wait approach too and by 12 months ( probably sooner) when he was nearly full grown there was no eye issues at all x
Re: entropian on new puppy Same as Dex and Sam here - droopy lower eyelids, bit of irritation, vet (Kate's vet) said wait and see and it's now a lot better, certainly now not worth doing anything about. It gets slightly worse if he is stressed (I've never looked up why) but mostly it's now fine. I don't think I'd take a puppy that had such serious problems that surgery was needed so young (unless I was already in love, then of course I'd do whatever....).
Re: entropian on new puppy Some of you guys seem to be describing ECtropion, where the eyelids droop outward. ENtropion is where the eyelid turns inwards and the eyelashes brush the eyeball. This is a very painful condition and does need surgical correction.
Re: entropian on new puppy You are quite right - I looked that up as I finished typing, remembering there was a difference!
