"Have
you snipped off the Shih Tzu's hairs growing from the white
tissue covering the left side of its cornea at 9 o'clock?" I asked the pet shop girl for the
fifth time over several days.
The thick white tissue was snow white and looked like a wing.
Hence its medical term is dermoid. People like
sun lovers do suffer from dermoid which is said to be caused
by excessive exposure to ultraviolet light but this puppy was
born with a dermoid.
The dermoid had grown from the conjunctiva which is the
tissue covering the sclera (eye white) and advanced to cover
the left side of the cornea of the right eye.
When the pet shop girl wiped the eye discharge during one of
my visits, I saw hairs growing from the dermoid which is
unusual as a pterygium should
not have hairs. (THE EYE CONDITION IS A DERMOID, NOT A
PTERYGIUM - see e-mails below).
These hairs irritated the eye and cause
inflammation and eye discharge overnight.
It was uncomfortable for this puppy and I could only pester
the pet shop girl to snip off the hairs as veterinary surgery
was not advised in such a young age.
"No," the pet shop girl apologised. "I have been
busy with my work." She needed to be careful
not to puncture the cornea and that might be the
reason she had procrastinated.
The pet shop girl loved animals and usually swiped off the
sticky yellow eye discharge with a piece of tissue paper
before showing me the puppy. I saw the hairs clump together
and stand out vertically during one such visit.
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The discharge was seen the next day when I visited the pet
shop to vaccinate the other puppies. The puppy would feel
uncomfortable and rub the eye. Soon, it would get infected sore
eyes.
This three-month-old Shih Tzu pup was amongst ten imported
from Australia.
"Can the dermoid be removed by surgery?" the pet shop
proprietor asked as I vaccinated the puppies.
He would not be able to sell it as fast as the other puppies.
Who would want to buy a defective puppy for nine hundred and fifty
dollars?"It happens to other pet importers too," I said. "Some
Australian pet exporters will throw in a healthy puppy with a defect
occasionally and this means extra veterinary costs for treatment or
a loss for you as nobody wants to buy the puppy."
I examined this very cuddly Shih Tzu. "The surgery will
not remove this dermoid completely as there are chances of
recurrence. There will be a scarred tissue over the cornea where the
dermoid had been removed."
I elaborated: "A very young puppy is a high anaesthestic risk
and it may die on the operation table." This means a total
loss to the pet shop proprietor.
"Furthermore, there will be a scarred cornea after removal of
the dermoid and therefore the defect would still be obvious."
What the pet shop proprietor wanted was a clear cornea and if
I could not give him what he wanted, I should not advise surgery as
this would cost him money. The anaesthesia and surgery would
cost him at least two hundred dollars.
Singapore shop rentals are very high as demand is greater than
supply and it is best to save him money if the cosmetic surgery
would not guarantee a perfect clear cornea.
"It will be better to inform the prospective buyer of the eye
defect, sell it much cheaper and let the new owner seek veterinary
treatment." |
The pet shop proprietor decided to sell the puppy at a lower
price but there were no buyers for the next two weeks. The older the
puppy grows, the harder it will be to sell to most Singaporeans as
they buy the youngest puppies available.
I remember this Shih Tzu very well as dermoids are rarely
encountered by
veterinarians.
Snipping off the hairs would help and it was best done by the
pet shop girl.
I guessed there was too much harassment from me. On the
sixth phone call, the pet shop girl who was also a very
experienced and fast dog groomer finally took up her scissors to
trim the hairs.
"Are there any more eye discharge the next day?" I asked her.
"Much less," she said and continued with her work.
"Was there anybody interested in buying this puppy?" I asked
as three weeks had passed.
"No," she replied. "The right owner had not presented himself
yet." She believed in fate. Fate brings people and circumstances
together.
I doubt anybody will buy this Shih Tzu. What will happen to
this Shih Tzu if there are no buyers? I don't really know.
When it grows older, surgical removal of the dermoid will be
needed as it affects the vision. My concern was the inflammation of
the eye as the dog may feel that it has a foreign body and keeps
rubbing its eye, leading to blindness later in life.
Many Singaporean pet owners tend to get advice from the pet
shop girls who will usually suggest eye drops for eye problems in
their pets to save on veterinary consultation costs.
Many will use the potent eye drops prescribed for members of
their family. No amount of eye drops will dissolve a dermoid.
This Shih Tzu would need surgery when it is older to get the dermoid
removed by the vet. |
E-mail on April 11,
2008
Dear Judy
I am an eye surgeon in UK and by chance came across an article
(see
link:
031803Shih_Tzu_pterygium_Singapore.htm
which I believed originated from your practice. I know it has
been a while since it was written but I just wanted to inform
the vet that treated the dog's eye that it is a dermoid and
not a pterygium. It has hair as the lesion is a teratoma. It
can be removed by superficicial keratectomy but it is much
more difficult than removal of a pterygium and may be a patch
graft (not sure if this is available for dogs?)
Hope this helps
b/w
Say Aun Quah
The article was written in April 2003. 5 years have
passed. The eye condition of the puppy is a dermoid.
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E-mail reply on Apr 20, 2008
Hi
I am Dr Sing from Toa Payoh Vets. I am very grateful to you
for taking the time to write to us. We could not find the
article to correct the mistake earlier. 5 years have passed
quickly. It is good that you have found the article in the
internet. The puppy's eye
condition is a dermoid, not a pterygium.
The puppy was sold and another
practice had been consulted to remove the dermoid. I hope all
are well with you.
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