1221Singapore veterinary education shih tzu corneal injuries eye ulcer

TOA PAYOH VETS
toapayohvets.com
Date: 23 August, 2010

Focus: Small animals - dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs & rabbits

Surgical Advices on Shih Tzu's eye corneal ulcerations and injuries
Dr Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
Updated: 23 August, 2010

toapayohvets.com
Be Kind To Pets
Veterinary Education
Project 2010-0129

Treat a corneal ulcer within 24 hours as it is a veterinary emergency

A corneal ulcer is painful and animals with ulcers often squint their eyes. It is wise to consult your veterinarian immediately as the ulcer may be a deep one or an infected one. When the animal continues to rub its eye, the corneal ulcer ruptures and the gelatinous aqueous or vitreous substance comes out.

The eyeball collapses and the animal will have lost it vision. When this happens, there is very little the doctor can do except to cut out the eyeball. If the bacteria goes into the aqueous and the vitreous, the eyeball becomes infected and is very painful. This infected eyeball may need to be removed by surgery too.

Hence, it is always important to treat eye injuries as an emergency and consult your veterinarian.

Shih Tzus in Singapore and all over the world have a high incidence of eye injuries due to trauma. Many owners do not know that excision of the two nasal folds and correction of the medial entropion of the lower eyelid will prevent hair irritating the eye cornea and result in much less injuries in the life-span of the Shih Tzu.

They prefer regular visits to the groomer to trim the nasal fold hairs and other aspects of surgery. However, for owners with no time for groomers or the dog, a procedure that is done at Toa Payoh Vets will provide relief from pain and lower the long-term grooming and veterinary eye surgery cost for the owner. A healthy Shih Tzu can live past 15 years and the savings from doing this nasal fold excision surgery to are considerable but few owners can see the big picture.

This procedure is done at Toa Payoh Vets and is described in medial entropion and nasal fold surgery in a Shih Tzu

A case of a recent eye injury in a Shih Tzu is shown below. One of the causes is that the hairs from the nasal fold had irritated the left eye causing the dog to rub and damage the cornea.

The wife used to clear the tear stains from the inside of the nasal fold but had no time to do that in the past few weeks. It was possible that the nasal fold had become wet and infected. The dog rubbed and rubbed off the itch and damaged his left eye cornea. I advised a nasal fold excision for both the left and right side so that the folds do not trap the tears and it is easier to wash them away when the face is flat after nasal fold excision.

It is up to the owner to request the surgery as it costs around $300 - $500 for anaesthesia and surgery to cut off the right and left nasal folds.

shih tzu, deep corneal ulcer, ulcerative keratitis, tarsorrhaphy, toapayohvets singapore

shih tzu eye injuries ulceration cornea common, toapayohvets, singapore, tarsorrhaphy, 3rd eyelid flap

Advertisement

Asia USA Realty (Singapore)
asiahomes.com Pte Ltd
VARIOUS UNITS ARE FOR RENT AT VARIOUS TIMES:
Tel: +65 9668 6468, Email: judy@asiahomes.com
Asia USA Realty

More info at: Dogs or Cats
To make an appointment:
e-mail judy@toapayohvets.com
tel: +65 9668-6469, 6254-3326

toapayohvets.com
Be Kind To Pets
Veterinary Education
Project 2010-0129

Toa Payoh Vets
Clinical Research