My staffy is going in for a minor op tomorrow and I wondered if any of you had any experience of this. 

A week ago I noticed that she wouldn't open her eye properly and it was very red and watery.  I took her to the vet and she had 2 scratches on her cornea.  We were given drops and went back tonight to see if it had healed and it hasn't. 

She is getting sedated tomorrow and I think they are going to file down the ulcerated bits (yuck!). Has anyone got experience of this and was the experience positive?

I've had a dog with an eye ulcer, but it was treated with antibiotic drops succesfully.  Hope your op goes ok tomorrow.  Sending positive vibes.

Jean

I had this happen to myself a few years ago but it was treated with eye drops.  Hope all goes well but for a positive story albeit slightly different, my little one had her eye scratched by a cat when she was very young. The claw not only scratched but pierced the eye ball. Thanks to our lovely vet who was  left with the unenviable job of dealing with it on a saturday night having not done the op before and no opthalmic vets available until monday successsfully operated and as far as we can tell she has perfect eyesight.

Thanks, it seemed to go ok and she is bouncing about as normal.  She is struggling to open her eye at times but they have made the 2 ulcerated sctatches into one big one and taken the ulcerated edges off it so it should heal over the next couple of weeks.  We are back again on Tuesday so hopefully some progress.

T-Bone always gets ulcers on her eye- we have always just used drops and one time it was taking awhile to heal. Our vet said about scraping it down if it didn't heal up, she also said some ulcers can take abit, it did finally heal. Took about 3 months of drops 4 times a day but if it was to take longer we would have ended up doing the other option...

Best of luck :-)

Ok, the saga continues.  Back at the vets again and she needed her eye scraped again.  The vet suggested that her corneas may not be particularly healthy as they are taking a while to heal.  The problem seems to be that there aren't apparently many blood vessels near the eye so the blood isn't getting to the area to promote healing.

Does anyone know of any supplements, crystals, food etc that would promote circulation or healthy eyes or anything that may help her.  The next step is apparently to scratch the eyeball to irritate it to the point that it would begin to promote healing longer term.  Apparently this could go on for months so anything to speed up the process the better.

Sorry to hear of your dogs problems, ulceration is one of the reasons why we encourage people to take a dog with an eye problem to a vet without delay, getting an ulcer is all to easy but getting rid is difficult. I know of no way to speed things up if the dog has a lack of blood vessels then there will need to be stimulation to help them increase and I do not know how this can be done except with controlled damage.

I don't have any helpful advice, I just wanted to send you positive vibes for your lovely girl.  You must be so worried.

Jackie, she was treated at the vet immediately upon her eye looking red.  I noticed after a walk and the vet gave drops that we dilligently used but it still ulcerated.  The vet was saying last night that my dogs presentation was quite unusual as they would have expected her to be struggling to open her eye and looking like she is in discomfort but she is fine in herself - despite having a crater scraped out of her eye.

I have had eye surgery and the recovery is extremely painful but it isn't affecting her much which is why she thought that blood circulation was poor.

Thanks for the kind words Jean, it is always worrying when a poochie isn't well but I am just too impatient and want it fixed NOW!

Hi Cheekychow

Recently (around 6 months ago) my female 8½ year old Stafford developed a corneal ulcer on / in one eye.
Tess didn't close her eye or look in too much discomfort, just a bit of blinking, eye a bit watery and red, but actually quite bloodshot.
It had, unfortuntely (due to me thinking it was an allergy to our Qld grass and leaving it be for around a week!!), become too large (I say large but it was only around 2mm) for what is considered 'usual' treatment.
I think this is the treatment that you're referring too?
Also known as the cotton bud treatment, whereby the area around the ulcer is rubbed to hopefully encourage healing.
Tess initially had Conoptal eyedrops in the hope that they would encourage healing.  After around a fortnight the eyedrops had made no difference sadly.
The vet then decided that Tess would have to have a 3rd eyelid flap surgery.  Basically under GA the 3rd eyelid is pulled over the eyeball and stitched in place underneath the eyelid.  It has to be left this way for 3 weeks.  Poor Tess had her Elizabethan collar on the whole time and drove herself mad!! I also had to administer eyedrops - Framixin, as well as Doxycyclin (ab's)and Rimadyl (anti inflammatory).
However, I'm pleased to say that it did work and the ulcer went.
Unfortunately just a fortnight later, another much smaller ulcer appeared in her right eye - grrrr!!
Thankfully, I spotted the symptoms much sooner and acted much more quickly.
We were given more Framixin which thankfully worked...
and touch wood, we're ok so far!
It was a long haul though!  Hope you manage to get it sorted!

Sorry, I did not mean to suggest that your poor girl was not treated straight away - it bought to mind people who insist on leaving a week or more. Do hope I did not cause you additional pain my post was supposed to be more general. The fact remains I do not know any other way except that suggested by your vet. You could I suppose ask to be referred to a specialist if you have doubts about the treatment you are getting.

Hey TT, must be a staffy thing as that is exactly what Missy's is like.  I can't remember the correct word for it but yes it is the cotton bud soaked in red liquid and rubbed to loosen the ulcerated edges.  The first time it was done under sedation and the 2nd and 3rd have been just with local and she is held still while they rub her eye.

I did wonder if they would sew her eye shut to let it heal but they want to try to injure her eye to force it to heal.  Although I am aware it is serious and am worried about her, I start to doubt it when she is tearing about the garden wanting to play with my rott.

Jackie, no worries I must have been having a sensitive moment at work today.  Having re-read your post there is no suggestion you were calling me an irresponsible owner lol ;)

Ah, well look, hopefully the cotton bud treatment will work.
Bloomin' Staffords eh?!
I'm pretty sure, thinking back, that it is most likely she either caught her eye during fairly rough play with her counterpart or scratched it with the long rough tough grass we have here.
Fingers crossed it starts to clear up soon xx 

Cotton bud treatment is called debriding.

They prick the surface of the eye to try and get the eye to heal.

Third eye lid stitch is considered an old method which some don't like
as you cannot see what the eye is doing especially if the ulcer turns into
a melting ulcer.

There is also a serum eye drop which some use made from your affected dogs blood.
This is done every few days. The serum drops are kept in the fridge.
For some dogs this has proved very effective and when the treatment was first introduced
they thought it was going to be 'the' one. However I don't think it has been as effective
as some would have hoped.

Another treatment used is phenol - this treatment is done under GA.
The eye looks awful to begin with. But does heal quickly and the inflammation settles
down over approx 2 weeks. The eye looks a blue/grey colour for two weeks.
The vet has to determine that this is the right treatment for the sort of ulcer that your dog has.
Plus they still give your dog antibiotic drops etc.

The other thing to note is if your dogs ulcers are taking a long time to heal it may well be
worth asking the vet to test your dog for hypothyroidism.
As this conditions slows healing in dogs.

A supplement that you can try is vitD (Cod liver oil) but you have to be careful that you don't overdose.

Good luck and keep going, if you see any changes especally if the eye looks worse take dog back to vet for check up as some ulcers can turn into melting ones and these are very serious indeed.

I've had dogs over the years that have had all the above treatments for eye ulcers.
Not individually but have experienced all the treatments.
The main thing with eyes is prompt quick action when you notice that squinting/blinking/watery eye
can lessen the duration of treatment. So with eyes I'm down my vet the same day that I see the
tell tell signs of eye ulcer.

Where my breed now has tails I've had a few ulcers caused by others being caught by my longtailed Boxer
tail in their face. Nightmare! Plus mine do play rough at times so a foot in face can also cause them by accident.

Actually, now you mention the serum Boxacrazy, I remember someone on a Stafford forum I go on used this method which seemed to work quite well.

Hi, One of our boy Boxers had Serum treatment after weeks of debridding and cross hatching of his eye we are lucky to have a opthalmic specialist at our surgery she said that he was no getting any better that this was the next stage so this went ahead blood taken and spun the serum had to be put in without fail every 2hours even through the night for 36 hours and to our relief he turned a corner almost instantly.The original ulcer was caused by a small ingrowing eyelash that could only be seen under a split lamp this was plucked out luckily when it grew back it grew outwards,all this was done with him being a Boxer and Boxercrazy will vouch for this that they are mental! was done without any sedation only local in the eye,so lets hope your Staffie  gets better soon,and the Buster can come off.Ps they also put Murphy on Oral Antibiotics which help as the ulcer gets deeper the harder it is for drops to penetrate so they fought it this way.hope all goes well.

Thanks for the comprehensive post boxacrazy.  we went back for an unplanned visit to the vets tonight as I came home and she had the eye shut and my dog walker said it was really inflamed and oozie today so phoned the vets for advice and now back on antibiotics and viscotears.

thanks for reminding me of the word debriding, i always think bridling and associate with horses so close but not close enough lol

I will mention some of the other treatment options to the vet on Tuesday when we go back.  He said tonight that they might try closing up the eyelid if things keep going as they are.  I am off to look up melting ulcers and hope we don't end up with one of those as they sound nasty.

Thanks again for the descriptive post boxacrazy.  back at the vets tonight and the patch is spreading.  she is going back in again tomorrow for extensive debriding and they mentioned tonight getting the serum from her spun blood that has to be put in frequently to promote healing.  I read elsewhere it is recommended every 3 hours for 36 hours - ouch!

Good Luck and hope it heals.
The serum drops have to be kept in the fridge too.

Yes to get on top of some eye ulcers the drops do have to be put in
on a very regular basis (every few hours).
I was lucky at the time that I was dealing with a serious ulcer that I worked
very near to home & could take my dog to work. So was able to work a combination
of part time & full time plus still get the drops in etc.
This one took so long to heal and at one time the vet thought my dog was going to lose her
eye if we couldn't get on top of it.
Turns out after we finally got it healed that she had hypothyroidism and hence that slowed
down the healing process. Although she never really had all classic symptoms of the condition
and vet was most surprised, said had she not taken the blood she'd have never put the results
to my dog.