Our lovely three year old yellow lab ran into a thorn bush and damaged his eye about five weeks ago. In spite of all the vets can do, it looks as if he will almost certainly lose it. Has anyone any experience of this? He already has had a juvenile cataract in the other eye and had a replacement lens last year before at the age of two. This has been successful although it presumably has reduced his vision in that he can't change focus. He also fractured an elbow when he was six months old. We love him so much and are devastated by all this. Any comments would be most welcome. Thanks!
Hi and I'm so sorry to hear of all the problems with your boy. My father in law has a spaniel and he lost an eye at age 2 years. We were all really worried but he was absolutely fine and managed very well from recovery. He's now 8 and losing most of the vision in his remaining eye but once again has coped with it so well. I really hope your boy gets better really soon and that this might reassure you a little, good luck.
Thank you so so much jbg and Saffy/Isla - especially for the information about your father-in-law's spaniel Saffy. At the moment it is 6 drops of steroids a day, three tablets and a special eyedrop in the evening until the opthalmolgy vet comes back from holiday. it's reassuring to know that eye removal isn't that bad. Thank you again. it means so much!!
So sorry for you and dear boy. I'm not sure if this is exactly relevant but my OH had cataract surgery and his vision is excellent. He needs reading glasses but otherwise his near vision is fine - I know this because he picks up the dogs' toys When our cat went blind the vet was kind enough to explain that cats and dogs depended much more on their other senses and that in fact dogs rely on their noses more than their eyes. Talk to your vet about this. Fingers crossed for a good outcome.
Hi Everyone, I just wanted to give an update on this. After weeks of trying to save his eye DJ eventually had it removed last summer. Recovery took about a week with strict bed rest, followed by walking on a lead. When allowed to eventually be off lead initially he seemed to be a bit wary of other dogs and we tended to avoid any close contact with others by calling him to us and choosing an alternative path. Within weeks though he was totally back to normal, chasing balls with enormous enthusiasm, not seeming to miss his eye at all and perfectly happy with other dogs. I try to throw his ball into open ground so as to avoid him crashing into bushes and possibly damaging his remaining eye but. apart from that, everything is exactly as it was. If anyone else finds themselves having a dog whose eye is similarly damaged I'd be more than happy to correspond and tell them what happened with DJ. Sandra (Alessa)
Thanks for coming back and updating us! It's great to hear that your boy took the operation in his stride
Great to hear it all went went.They are so resilient it never ceases to amaze me. It was the thought of Toby having his ear removed that was far worse than the reality of it and he knows no difference( I assume) He handled it a lot better than I did! I met a lady with a one eyed Golden Retriever and a cocker spaniel puppy. She had the puppy to help the retriever when he would eventually lose the other eye through disease. It was really sweet seeing them already great friends and how it would eventually work in the future.
