Seeing clearly: surgery improves dogs’ vision and confidence

When Nico, a two-year-old Italian Spinone, was referred to the Ophthalmology Service with recurrent conjunctivitis and suspected entropion, he was in a lot of discomfort and very head shy. He was so uncomfortable, he had to be sedated to allow a thorough ocular examination.

He was found to have bilateral entropion, and macroblepharon – excessive eyelid length. Nico also had a lot of heavy facial skin that was pulling on his eyelids, compounding the entropion.

Surgical solution

Typically, lower eyelid entropion can be corrected via a relatively simple Hotz-Celsus procedure that involves excising a crescent-shaped piece of skin adjacent to the lower eyelid margin. This can be combined with an eyelid wedge excision to shorten eyelids that are too long.

However, the severity of Nico’s condition meant that he needed a more complex surgery.

Image

Successful outcome

A coronal rhytidectomy was required to excise skin from the top of his head and decrease the drag from his heavy skin, and all four eyelids were shortened. We also performed a Khunt-Szymonowski procedure on his lower eyelids to correct the entropion and provide a degree of lateral canthal support.

The surgery, which lasted two and a half hours, was successful and Nico recovered quickly from the anaesthetic. Apart from a slightly silly haircut due to a wide surgical clip site during surgery, his eyes are now open and comfortable, and he’s far less head shy.