Corneal Ulcer That Will Not Heal

[RileysLegacy]

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts. About 3 weeks ago, I noticed Legs squinting his left eye. The night before he was completely fine, & then in the morning he was squinting. It didn't improve the next day, so I took him to the vet. She found a large ulcer (in the perfect shape of a heart, which is apparently rare since all the techs came to take pictures ) & sent us home with neomycin/polymyxin B/gramicidin to put in his eye every 4 hrs. A week went by & I did not see any improvement so I took him back. The ulcer appeared worse, so she added ak-poly-bac every 2 hrs. That was 2 weeks ago. I took him in again today & it doesnt look much better at all. Now we are trying Remend 2x/day as well. She said if it's not better in 2 weeks he needs his eye sewn shut for a couple weeks so it can heal. I am freaking out! Legs also has multiple heart problems so putting him under anesthesia is a big risk. The cone he has to wear is totally stressing him out & he's been having more episodes where he can't catch his breath & his back legs collapse (b/c of his heart). This poor dog can't catch a break! I have absolutely no idea what even happened. Anyway has anyone dealt with this? Is the treatment correct so far?

[KF_in_Georgia]

Is he still getting neomycin? I'm allergic to the stuff, and any problem just gets worse if I use it, so I wonder if he could just need a totally different med.

[RileysLegacy]

Is he still getting neomycin? I'm allergic to the stuff, and any problem just gets worse if I use it, so I wonder if he could just need a totally different med.

No, but he has been up until today. From now on just the Remend & ak-poly-bak. That is interesting, def something I will ask my vet about, thank you!

[Maddiesmom]

Maddie has a corneal ulcer too. Our doctor gave us Ofloxacin Ophthalic Solution 0.3 percent. We still have the bottle from the summer so that is the only way I remembered what it was. We used 1 drop on eye every 2 hours and she healed up fine. It has acted up on 2 different occasions but not since summer. Knocking on wood now. Hope this helps. Hugs to you and your boy

 

Amy and Maddie

[Newgreymom]

Lucy, Daisy had an indolent ulcer on her eye. Not sure if it's the same thing, but they had to "scrape" her eye and after that it healed up perfectly. We tried the drops and ointments first. Is there a veterinary ophthalmologist in your area??

[3DogNite]

YES!! my girl Spirit has an ulcer that will not heal ---- however, she was diagnosed as an age related degenerative disease of the epithelial layer of her eye. so basically, not from a scratch, and what is ulcerated now ~ could get worse,, could get better.

Spirit is on neomycin/polymyxinB/sulfates and bacitracin zinc. I was told it could take many weeks to heal~we are on week 7

 

I was told to help the eye heal they could make a serum out of her own blood (it must be refrigerated and thrown away after 5-7 days)

we haven't done this yet but am thinking we need too.

If this doesn't get the ulcer healed, then a surgery where I think they take most of the epithelial layer off or at the least sort of make the edges of the ulcer fresh so it has the ability to heal....and more drops in hopes that she grows a new

layer... I THINK this is close to what they told me. they did not say anything about sewing the eye shut!

 

I am praying not to have to do the surgery option. but Spirit still is squinting and her eye is weeping and she is rubbing it occasionally.

so the jury is still out. I was told to give her tramadol if she seems really uncomfortable, and i have done that a time or two. It seemed to make her feel better.

 

Good Luck and i'll be waiting to hear how things go for Legs!

I also have a boy with heart issues so I KNOW what you are going thru with surgery options.

[o_rooly]

In case it helps -- akin to what Newgreymom mentioned, my friend's horse had an ulcer on his eye that wouldn't heal, and they did end up taking him to a specialist who scraped his eye with a razorblade (or some surgical instrument close to it) in order to get fresh tissue exposed to heal, is my understanding. Prior to this, they had also spun down his plasma to use as direct treatment, and I think there was some success with this prior to the ulcer that wouldn't heal otherwise (the horse has a history of ulcers... he likes to rub his eyeballs on stuff
He is currently ulcer-free; when he has an ulcer, he wears a mask that has a giant bubble that covers his ulcer-prone eye.

[DocsDoctor]

Several years ago now Doc scratched his eye while investigating a thorny bush and gave himself a corneal ulcer. It refused to heal despite two different lots of antibiotic drops so my vet did the op mentioned by 3dognite, cutting back to fresh tissue to encourage it to heal and avoid the risk of it turning into a 'melting ulcer'.

 

After the surgery she didn't sew the eye up, but inserted a sort of protective contact lens. That popped out of its own accord after several days, as she had warned me it would, but by then the eye was on the way to healing. Until it was fully healed he wore a 'cone of shame' while unsupervised, to prevent him trying to scratch at it. The whole process took quite a while - I think 2 to 3 months from the original injury to cone removal - but was ultimately a success. The vet told me eyes are often relatively slow to heal, because they contain relatively few blood vessels.

[Neighsayer]

Mickey had that problem a few years ago. As mentioned above, when they scrape, they get better edges for the healing to take place. It was a five minute procedure after the eye was numbed by drops. He was not bothered by it at all. My vet had just done this on his daughter's dog, and explained that it sometimes need to be done a second time. Mickey only needed that one time. It healed up fine!

[RileysLegacy]

thank you so much everyone!! My vet did not mention the procedure to scrape the eye, but I will definitely ask her about it. It sounds a lot less invasive & traumatic than sewing his eye shut!! I am also glad to hear others have been through this will positive results. I feel a little more hopeful now. I GT

[rascalsmom]

My Buddy had the chemical debridement when he got a corneal ulcer. That could be what others are referring to. Fixed him up, but he did develop pannus in that eye.

[Jerilyn]

My neighbor’s Bichon had a ruptured corneal ulcer and they did surgery and sewed her eye shut to let it heal. I don’t know all the details, but it was successful, they saved her eye and I guess she still has vision in it.

I hope things work out for Legs!

[tbhounds]

thank you so much everyone!! My vet did not mention the procedure to scrape the eye, but I will definitely ask her about it. It sounds a lot less invasive & traumatic than sewing his eye shut!! I am also glad to hear others have been through this will positive results. I feel a little more hopeful now. I GT

The procedures called a grid keratotomy. It's a rather simple procedure but, does require a least a sedation but, usually not full anesthesia. Have you been to an opth????

[JJNg]

Sewing the eye shut is an 'older school' method, and I don't think most ophthalmologists recommend it these days. With the eye sewn shut, you can't always effectively administer meds, and you also can't evaluate for worsening of the ulcer.

 

Simple options that can improve healing include switching to a stronger antibiotic eye drop like ofloxacin or ciprofloxacin, adding serum (from spinning down blood taken from the dog) as an eye drop, and debriding the cornea with a q-tip which can be done with a topical drop to numb the eye and doesn't require sedation. If your vet isn't comfortable with this, it'd be best to see an ophthalmologist if possible. Our local ophtho can even do a grid keratotomy without sedation and just a topical anesthetic eye drop in a calm dog. Or if not, see if your vet would be willing to do a phone consult with a veterinary ophthalmologist.

[Newgreymom]

Daisy didn't require sedation, just numbed the eye and a tech held her while vet "scraped" they eye..

[3greys2cats]

The procedures called a grid keratotomy. It's a rather simple procedure but, does require a least a sedation but, usually not full anesthesia. Have you been to an opth????

Had this same procedure done for my Max almost 2 years ago, he had been on the eye drop antibiotics for some time and then a mild scraping in Vets office and then we went to a Opthamologist for the Grid Keratotomy, mild sedation in eye to numb it and tramadol too, cone afterwards with a contact lens to protect for 10 days and it healed completely.

[RileysLegacy]

Thank you all SO MUCH! If it's not better in a couple weeks using the Remend, i will take him to an ophthalmologist. I love my vet but obviously this isn't her area of expertise. I'm so glad i posted here! Thanks again.

[RileysLegacy]

Legs update: his eye is FINALLY healing!! It's like 75% better. Remend really works well. I'm soo glad we were able to avoid surgery. Thanks again for all the help

[Neighsayer]

Great!

[carronstar]

Wonderful news!

[Tracey]

So glad to hear Legs is doing better. Poor guy.

[RileysLegacy]

Thanks guys!