Eye probs - Corneal ulcer

We just got an 18 month male who was looking for a new home from a breeder last Friday. He's a poppet. He came with a very inflamed eye, which turned out to be a "large corneal ulcer". He's got some ointment for it . Vet says eye is damaged as cells have been lost but that if the problem doesn't resolve itself we could elect to have an op where "The bottom eyelid is stretched and pulled over the eye and the eyelid sewn up for 10 days. That idea being that cells from the eyelid would grow onto the cornea, after 10 days the stiches come out and hopefully Hey Presto new cells have grown over to replace the damaged ones".

It all sounds a bit stressful to me. Anyone had any luck either with the ointment, or having done the op?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

I had a Shih tzu who was prone to corneal ulcers. The ointment always worked wonders, and he showed great improvement within 24 hours of starting treatment. The vet never mentioned the eyelid surgery to me.

However, I have quite a bit of personal experience with corneal ulcers, and an opthalmologist told me that I may require a corneal transplant in the future. Both of my ulcers were caused by my children scratching me in the same eye as toddlers. The last injury, which occurred in 2004, was extremely bad. I had to have a "corneal band-aid" put in for 24 hours, wore an eye patch because I couldn't open my eye at all, and I had limited vision for several weeks because the ulcer was right down the center of my visual field. I've been left with some permanent vision loss in that eye and have been diagnosed with corneal erosion. That's why I may have to have a transplant one day. Now that I read your post, I'm curious about the type of surgery you've described. I wonder if it would work in humans?

Lori

I know this is off topic (a bit) but my son also has a corneal ulcer. It doesn't affect his vision but he's been told he'll never be a candidate for laser surgery because of it.

I had a friend whose dog had this operation, they gentle abrade the area first which stimulates the cells to heal. It looks awful but you'd be amazed the dog didn't seem to mind. Her eye went from dull and slightly white to perfectly normal and clear. I'd give it a go. One of Karlin's had this operation.

Thanks for your input.

The vet says its must have been caused by a blow to his eye. The ointment is helping him already and he has stopped rubbing his face along the settee now. He has to go back next week just to check on it.

Corneal ulcers are incredibly painful - it's shocking that the breeder parted with your boy when he needed treatment for this eye

My Kyla had one last year - she had to have the eye abraded, which sounds horrid but they managed to do it under local anaesthetic. The eye healed incredibly well and we avoided the need for that surgery.

Although it sounds a bit horrendous, it is usually very successful - they use the third eyelid which humans don't actually have!!

I believe in people now they sometimes do botox injections to relax the top eyelid, which then droops down and covers the eye whilst it heals. They wear off after a few months by which time it has healed. I don't think they are doing that for dogs - yet!