Corneal ulcer

[Idgie]

My chin, Idgie, has a corneal ulcer. My vet and I have been treating it with antibiotic ointment, but there is a lot of tissue build up around it and the ulcer is unable to heal. We are considering a grid keratotomy and consulting with an exotic ophthalmologist to see how effective this would be. I am also looking into the option of having the eye removed. Idgie is otherwise in very good health. Eating, pooping, playing, etc. She just keeps that eye almost half closed--not sure how well she is seeing out of it. She is able to run and jump okay. She is about 11 years old.

Has anyone had experience or know of experience with this? I don't want her to suffer and go through tons of treatment. (She is taking a pain med). I just feel that if the procedure is unlikely to be effective and take months of healing to find out, it may be just easier to not try and save it. But how awful would removing her eye be? I am not ready to put her down because she is healthy and happy otherwise.

Thanks

 

[Idgie]

Saw the ophthalmologist vet. She suspects that Idgie is older than I thought. (She was a rescue). She has corneal dystrophy and degeneration in both eyes with the ulcer in the one. It is due to a blink deficit. It will not be able to heal and grid keratotomy will not be successful due largely to her age. The vet states that her ulcer is to the point that it is numb and should not be hurting her much.

The risk is that the ulcer could rupture or the other eye could get an ulcer. So we are going to give her lubricant gel in both eyes and antibacterial drops in one eye for the rest of her life. We will try and cut back on her pain meds, but we want to keep her comfortable. Certainly if she gets worse or the eye ruptures, the plan is to euthanize her. She currently is eating and playing, so we are going to see how it goes.

 

[Tagna]

I had a chin with an ulcer that would not heal. The vet suggested using a serum from dog blood. They had used it with rabbits but never a chin but it worked!

 

[Idgie]

I did ask my regular vet about it and it requires many, many treatments--not just a simple thing. I even talked to the ophthalmologist about removing her eye, but she did not believe that Idgie would survive the anesthesia or recover well if she did. We really don't want to put her through all that. She already is hiding in her house to avoid the eye drops that we do three times a day. Her physical health is slowly getting worse, but more so, her emotional well being is not good. She is unhappy and the joy in our relationship is gone. Plus, at any moment that eye could rupture.
When I rescued her, I promised her that I would not let her ever suffer. I would be inconsolable if I had to let her go, but I would do it for her. That time may be coming soon.

 

[Idgie]

I am not sure if I mentioned that Idgie's eye is making no attempt to try and heal. She has no blood vessels going there. And the ulcer is deep and down to its very last layer. It is quite tenuous and there is no hope that she can get better.
But I'm so glad that the treatment worked for your chin. I had never heard of this being an issue for chins. When she first had an eye issue, I thought for sure it was her teeth.

 

[Tagna]

The ulcer I dealt with responded quite well to the dog blood serum, within days there was a lot of improvement. It was a "last thing to try" because nothing else had worked.

I have only dealt with that one eye ulcer but have dealt with eye infections.

 

[Idgie]

I would have tried it too if we had any hope that it would work. Her disease is degenerative and only getting worse. She has had a long, happy life.

 

[Idgie]

I am pretty inconsolable now after finding the strength to put Idgie down. It was especially hard since she wasn't sickly. But her eye was hurting her (we had her on pain meds) and she hated us putting the ointment in her eye three times a day. We did not want to wait for it to rupture-which obviously would have been extremely painful and an emergency euthanasia. I promised her when I rescued her that I would never let her suffer and she didn't.
Idgie was such a sweet chin and brought great joy to our lives. I will miss her beyond words. Our house is now petless (we lost our dog several years ago). Not sure when we will get another chin or dog. I need time to grieve.

 

[mercynursie]

You gave her the greatest gift of all, to not let her suffer in pain and poor life quality. You will be in my prayers.

 

[Idgie]

You gave her the greatest gift of all, to not let her suffer in pain and poor life quality. You will be in my prayers.

Thank you