Max's Eye

[Julie, Izzie & Max]

I took Max to the vet yesterday to have his eye checked again. He has entropion of the eye. It is a condition where his lower eye lid rolls under and irritates his eye. He is a little over 5 months old and I thought I might need to go ahead and get the surgery on his eye. It had been tearing alot. There are four vets at the clinic I take him two and I have gotten several different opionion there about when to do the surgery. I have had his eye tacked down twice to reduce the irritation to his eye. I had heard from the breeder where we got him and online that he may outgrow the condition. He has grown alot and his eye looks much better and the stitches are no longer in. I don't know why it is tearing. The first time I had his eye looked at when he was about 2 months old, he saw one of the newer vets there and she talked like he needed emergency surgery immediately to correct the problem. Yesterday I asked for the most experienced vet and she said I should wait until he is full grown to do the surgery because he may outgrow it. I am going to continue to watch the eye and hope he does not need the surgery. It is very confusing to get so many different opinions. The condition has improved a lot. When we first got him the lower eye lid was very turned under and watery. Max is such a sweet dog and we want to do the right thing for him.

[Mary Burkovich]

I have a 9 month old currently with this condition> we have been to the opthamologist 3 times just to keep checking to make sure his cornea is not getting scratched from the eyelashes rubbing..as this can happen. The specialist recommened that I put lubricant drops in his eyes everyday just to reduce the chance of corneal abrasion until he has the surgery.
The drops he recommended and not the watery kind of drops that you use for dry eyes,,but the one that are just a tad heavier ..it's a gel..not the heavier ointment.
In fact the pharmasist at Walmart helped me pick out what I needed. It's OTC eyedrops called REFRESH Liquid Gel.
AsS long as there is no corneal abrasion happening..they like to wait until the dog is close to full grown..cause it just may correct itself. At around 6 months old we saw that the eye was no longer improving on it's own and wasn't getting worse so he concluded that it most likley will not improve to the point of not needing surgery. I just had a recheck done last week and his eye is still the same..no abrasion..so we will postpone for another couple months. The reason it's optimal to wait until the dog is mosty full grown is... there is a greater chance of an overcorrection (ectropion) if the dog is still growing alot. The opposite of entropion is ectropion..which is a bagging of the eye lid..Blood hounds are an extreme example of ectropion.

Hope this helps,
mary

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

Hannah is the second doodle on this site that had entropion that I am aware of, she had her surgery at 10 months of age, she didn't start with it till she was about 7 1/2 months of age. She started with one eye and about two weeks later the other eye started. I was told they could tack her eyes but it would do no good, she needed the surgery. The Vets (3 opinions, 3 different Vets not in the same practice) also said with tacking it could continue to come back and bother her, they highly recommended the surgery. I was really wishfully thinking with Hannah I could get away with the tacking, but it didn't work out that way and she had the surgery. I'm glad I had it done when I did, entropion can blind a dog and I would not wait to have this done if a dogs eyes are still tearing after being tacked. Those are clear signs that the tacking is not working. Since the surgery Hannah has not had a problem with her eyes, I am so glad I went with the surgery. I also had a Shar-Pei and they are well know for entropian ..she had her eyes tacked and we never did have to have the surgery, but her eyes were only tacked 1x at 12 wks. of age. Had she had to have them tacked again, I would have opted for the surgery. Here are some good articles about entropian....hope they help you with your decission.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1212456-overview

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001008.htm

[Adina P]

Rosco had entropian in both eyes...we didn't tack, just had the surgery done when he was about 4.5 months old. Vet did great, Rosco did great and he's over 3 years old now and his eyes look great. Not meant as advice, as your vets know Max's situation best. Sorry you have to deal with it...always makes entropian dogs look sad with the tearing.