EYE INFECTIONS 5/5 The 16-year-old Shih Tzu recovers well from exenteration
Channel: Dr David Sing
Date: 28/05/2016

May 28, 2016

27 days after the removal of the eyeball and eye socket contents using electro-surgery, the dog comes to Toa Payoh Vets for a review.

No more swelling, bleeding or discomfort in the left eye area. 
Without the surgery, the dog would have suffered a lot of eye pain, lose appetite and die.

Today, the dog is eating and back to his usual weight. His right eye had a corneal ulcer 6 years ago. I operated on it by stitching up the eyelids (3rd eyelid flap and tarsorrhaphy). Now the right eye is still normal except for the cataract and a brown pigmented central corneal scar.

The dog appears to have a cyanotic tongue. He was put under isoflurane gas anaesthesia and the rotten loose left upper premolar tooth and 4 other loose teeth were extracted. He still has a few good teeth at 16 years of age. 

"I expect his appetite to improve and for him to gain weight and live another 2 years to 18 years of age," I said.
 
"You said Shih Tzus live for 12 years and now he is 16." the young lady replied. This dog has good health judging by blood tests. He has  short jaws and was a difficult case to intubate. However, I did intubate him for anaesthesia. 

This is a happy outcome of exenteration (eyeball and eye socket content removal) as the healing is good.  The young lady was in Secondary 2 when her Shih Tzu was a puppy. Now she is a graduate career woman and recently married. She takes over  from her mum the responsibilities of the burden of care for this old companion.

Some Singaporean dog owners deem that the old dog with swollen infected eyeballs does not merit any veterinary treatment or check up as this will be a waster of money. 

In this case, the young lady owner brought the 16-year-old dog for surgery. Now she brought him in for a check up although she needed not do it as the stitches of the eyelids are dissolvable. She got the loose teeth extracted by the vet (myself) and at least 2 ml of thick brownish anal sac oil expressed from the anal sac. So the old dog will feel much more comfortable and be able to enjoy his life with less pain from the eye, mouth and anal sacculitis.   

With good health care, this old dog may live up to 20 years of age although I predicted another 2 years. The 16-year-old Shih Tzu is considered very old, past the usual 12 years of age life span.