Protruding Eye

[KRiO]

I'm in the process of adopting a four year old husky/german shepherd dog mix (naming her KRiO) and she has one enlarged, protruding eye that is filmy. They still don't know for sure what is wrong with her or what caused it. Pretty sure she's almost, if not completely, blind in that eye. Anyways I was suppose to get her tomorrow but now they have to keep her to do some test and the eye might have to come out. They asked me if I still wanted a one-eyed dog and I answered of course! I already love her and want to take care of her. So, I want to know just how to go about that. What, if any, special care do I need to do if this eye does come out? Do I need to keep the socket clean myself? Also if the eye stays in I might have to start giving her drops to reduce the swelling. Has anyone else experienced this with their dog?

I appreciate any and all advice,

[Christine]

Bless you for not wavering in your decision to take Krio (how do you pronounce that?). I don't have any experience with enucleation, but one of our moderators has cared for at least one cat who had that done. The first thing I thought of when you described Krio's eye was glaucoma, but it is just a gut feeling. I am glad she is receiving proper testing so you will know how to care for whatever the reason.

If they do have to remove her eye, the lid will be sewn shut and when the hair grows back, to me she will look like she is winking out you. I am sure you have probably Googled about this, but here is a short and informative article that might help. http://www.petplace.com/dogs/enucleatio ... page1.aspx

One thing it points out is a dog with one eye will funtion normally. They are so resilient that this is nothing to them. My Bailey was totally blind and she handled it much better than I did. Another of our members has a deaf and blind dog who most people would never know has those limitations. In fact, he has won competitions over fully sighted and hearing dogs.

Looking forward to hearing more about your newest family member and hoping for an easy fix for her eye. Maybe you will show us a picture once you are both settled in. I am glad you found us!

[KRiO]

Thanks for the welcome! Yes I'm already smitten with her, she's a good dog but needs some training. It's pronounced cree-o, I like it better than her name now (Bella). Anyways, at first we were told she was less than a year old so they didn't think it would be glaucoma, then turns out they read her file wrong, she's almost 4. So could be, I should know for certain by tomorrow. Yes I did some googling but couldn't really find something that looked like her eye does now, cause I'm not 100% sure they'll remove it. The shelter keeps telling me different things about eye-drops to medications and as far as I know she hasn't received any care for it yet... I don't know why. But she doesn't seem in pain at all. I just want to be as prepared as possible for her and how to make her comfortable. But thanks for the link, very helpful indeed. I'm also happy to hear she should recover quickly and she can start to settle into her new home, healthy and happy. I'm happy to hear of your success with your special pooch Very inspiring.

Thanks again for all your help and support!

[critters]

An eye can also be knocked loose by trauma, but it's not a big deal to enuc if health is otherwise OK. Like Christine said, the lids are sewn shut when it's done, so there's seldom any other fuss or muss needed after healing. Incidentally, I work with somebody whose parents-in-law had a prosthetic eye done for their pupper, but that's the first time I'd ever heard of that.

[KRiO]

My mother was convinced (and maybe still is) that the eye was caused by trauma or abuse. I think Krio is just shy, but she's warming up to us very well. Turns out her eye could just be an infection. It looked much better after a day or two of eyedrops, so perhaps it can be saved . However they don't know if they can bring back her sight in that eye. *Crosses fingers*

[Christine]

Sounds encouraging...please keep us posted.

[KRiO]

Well her appointment to be checked up on is on the 23rd. While the eye looks better I'm starting to get concerned for the other eye. It could just be my imagination though. While the one protruding eye is silver the other is normal and half brown/half silver. I thought it was less silver before but it seems like the silver part is overtaking the brown, yet I don't know what that would mean if anything. An infection wouldn't take over like that would it? And not just the iris color I'd think.

Thanks again for the support!

[Christine]

I thik I would call the vet just to put your mind at ease.