My dogs 8th vet visit tonight - wish him luck

marshallka

simontheiceman wrote: »

Hmmm. Not so simple methinks. Breed? Could I hazard a guess at Boxer? If not then my Derren Brown tactics dont work.

Corneal ulcers can be VERY hard and FAR from simple. Gold standard is a limbal based split thickness conjunctival flap but this will probably require you to visit a specialist. I do them but that is because I am a soft tissue surgeon with some eye experience. They require 2 ops - one to create the flap and one in a few weeks to sever the attachment and allow it to heal into the cornea. The whole healing process takes a few months but I rarely have any failures.

DO NOT under any circumstances put any rubbish into the eye which is not specifically licensed for ocular use. I have seen 2 very serious eye problems due to "self medication" this year - one dog will almost certainly lose its eye as a result.

Note to readers... Featured in the above: 400 reasons not to cancel insurance as an "economy measure". Just had to euthanase a dog yesterday as owners could not afford a referral for a straightforward problem - cancelled insurance in a similar way- not funny, not economic and not good for anyone.

He is a border collie. I have read about the boxers and corneal ulcers before. In fact I have researched so much about these ulcers now. He is taking rimidyl and some tablet antibiotics and also has an antibiotic eye drop too. I would never self medicate him. Thanks for the input. We are doing what we can and will continue to do what we can.

They have mentioned about another op they can do there which would mean a contact lense type thing and taking slices off the cornea but he is too boisterous and she thinks he would get the lense out but we may give it a go if this does not work.

Just noticed you said you do these ops. Just out of interest how much do you say for this type of op (Not the contact lense one but the gold standard which I assume is different to that,??? (If you don't mind me asking).

simontheiceman

marshallka wrote: »

Just noticed you said you do these ops. Just out of interest how much do you say for this type of op (Not the contact lense one but the gold standard which I assume is different to that,??? (If you don't mind me asking).

I charge about £350 for a split thickness flap but it does need a follow up op as stated which costs about £100 so not much change out of £500.

marshallka

simontheiceman wrote: »

I charge about £350 for a split thickness flap but it does need a follow up op as stated which costs about £100 so not much change out of £500.

Wow, we have paid about £575 so far and then another £100 next week and its not healed so why have they not suggested this to us as an alternative. I am confused why we have paid this when probably your type of op would have worked much better.

marshallka

simontheiceman, can I ask your advice on this one if you do not mind. As my dog has had his op again this week would you say to not walk him when its raining and really windy as when I do I must admit he comes home and then after an hour it seems irritated more. Would it be best to tire him by playing just whilst its healing??? I read where the weather can not help and especially windy weather.

simontheiceman

marshallka wrote: »

simontheiceman, can I ask your advice on this one if you do not mind. As my dog has had his op again this week would you say to not walk him when its raining and really windy as when I do I must admit he comes home and then after an hour it seems irritated more. Would it be best to tire him by playing just whilst its healing??? I read where the weather can not help and especially windy weather.

Sorry, can be a bit slow with answers as tend to limit my access on here.

I would try and avoid deliberately irritating situations - I certainly advise that round here (I am on the coast and salt / sand can be really bad aggravating factors). This may be less of a problem inland and I have not, when working at inland practices, ever worried about weather factors in corneal ulceration cases.

What you have to remember is that by exposing the corneal stroma (as ulcers do), you are exposing the nerve endings in the cornea and anything which touches the eye such as wind or rain will be uncomfortable.

This is why contact lenses can be helpful; although these have fallen out of fashion in recent years. Contact lenses for dogs have a number of issues, not least of which is maintaining them in place for the duration of any treatment.

To comment on what has happened so far... You seem to have spent a fair amount of money to go nowhere. With the benefit of hindsight I would suggest that you would have been better to go to a specialist sooner rather than later. I do however think that you have been very unfortunate not to have a good result by now.

simontheiceman

Actually... Has this vet done a simple 3rd eyelid flap ? By this I mean stitching the 3rd eyelid across for 2-3 weeks to allow the ulcer to heal underneath. It looks a bit gross but works quite well and should be quite cheap (£150 in my hands). This is a much simpler op than a flap such as I mentioned above. It does require sedation to remove the suture at the end of the period.

marshallka

simontheiceman wrote: »

Actually... Has this vet done a simple 3rd eyelid flap ? By this I mean stitching the 3rd eyelid across for 2-3 weeks to allow the ulcer to heal underneath. It looks a bit gross but works quite well and should be quite cheap (£150 in my hands). This is a much simpler op than a flap such as I mentioned above. It does require sedation to remove the suture at the end of the period.

First of all thanks for taking the time to read and reply to my questions. We have been told they can do the contact lense op next but they really cannot guarantee it would work for us and she has doubts with our dog (being a hyperactive collie) in keeping the contact lense in. We have however been and bought a more flexible elizabethan collar and he seems to wear it better so we are better geared up if he does have it done. They told us its our only option and then a specialist. Going to ask about it though now.

We have another problem today. I got up and my dog was outside the bedroom door and did not stand up. I then thought maybe he had messed or something but when I unlocked the door he hobbled and hopped to the door and would not go over the step. He has NEVER shown any sign of leg/hip probs before and I first thought maybe he was constipated or had not urinated cause I did not take him for a walk yesterday evening (he does about 20 wees on the way). This was not the case but I got his lead and he seemed fine and you would not realise he was having trouble walking until we got home and then again after sitting he is still having trouble standing up. It seems to be his left back leg/hip that he will not put to the floor and has trouble walking so he is hopping. I cannot believe his problems are one after another now after 9 years of nothing. His hip seems to be the problem as when he lies down he has to get in a comfy position first. We have tried to look at the paw which is fine we think but he will not let us touch his hips/leg. We go back the vets on Wednesday so if he is no better then we will have to get them to take a look. Like I say once he is up he is OKish but getting up is a problem. We went to pets at home yesterday and got him a new squeaky toy to help take his mind off his eye and he goes wild with one of those so maybe has twisted a little too far. Just hope it is that but will have to see tomorrow. He lies on his back with his toys and holds them in his paws squeaking them like mad and twisting from side to side .

twinklie

Fingers crossed he's just over stretched himself then I guess. Poor you and more to the point, poor him. It really has been one thing after another. I'm sending as many positive thoughts as I can to you both.

teachergirl

AAAAARGH!:eek: Spent ages writing you a really long message and then lost it all. Havn't got the time now to repeat it all.So here is the very brief version. We are in a very similiar situation. However the last time I took my dog to the vet when it was clear that the antibiotics were not helping her eye and the ulcer at all we saw a different vet. She said she had had excellent results in the past using a human antibiotic eye drop. We were desparate so we took her advice even down to putting them in every 2 hours for the first 24 hours. Within two days her eyes were looking better. The ulcer in her left eye can barely be seen now. ( a week from staring the new drops.)Simontheiceman is right you cannot self medicate but maybe you could ask to change the antibiotic?? We still don't know what is causing her problem and when it reoccurs as it does frequently we are taking her back so they can take a swab and send it away to the lab. Cost so far £600+ !!!!!! We have seen a specialist! I really wish you loads of luck it is horrible to see them suffer.

marshallka

teachergirl wrote: »

AAAAARGH!:eek: Spent ages writing you a really long message and then lost it all. Havn't got the time now to repeat it all.So here is the very brief version. We are in a very similiar situation. However the last time I took my dog to the vet when it was clear that the antibiotics were not helping her eye and the ulcer at all we saw a different vet. She said she had had excellent results in the past using a human antibiotic eye drop. We were desparate so we took her advice even down to putting them in every 2 hours for the first 24 hours. Within two days her eyes were looking better. The ulcer in her left eye can barely be seen now. ( a week from staring the new drops.)Simontheiceman is right you cannot self medicate but maybe you could ask to change the antibiotic?? We still don't know what is causing her problem and when it reoccurs as it does frequently we are taking her back so they can take a swab and send it away to the lab. Cost so far £600+ !!!!!! We have seen a specialist! I really wish you loads of luck it is horrible to see them suffer.

Hi teachergirl, thanks for replying but horrible to know your dog is also suffering.

Has your dog been operated on at all. Mine has had 3 ops and still not worked and we have proper mouth antibiotics and also the eye drop ones which I have not used since the 3rd op but may do now as I did not want to hinder any healing.

The hip/leg problem has only been today and he has not shown any signs before and its quite a worry with all the other going on too. I just hope that he has pulled a muscle.

I may ask out vet to change his antibiotics then and give something else a try. We have had chloramphenicol eye drops and synulox tabs. Before that he has had fuciderm gel and atropine eye drops. He only has the first two though now.