2953. A 16-year-old Shih Tzu has a painful swollen left eye - Pictures as prompts in writing a chapter of a story

In March 2010, I documented a surgical case to share with dog owners and vet students as part of my "BE KIND TO PETS" veterinary educational project.  At that time, I dared not use video, considering it to be a very time-consuming subject to do and upload as compared to posting images online. So I posted the above 3 pictures and never saw the dog again. The owner did not come for a follow up and this is to be expected.  Did his corneal ulcer heal?  Probably. Or the owner could have sought a second opinion as the outcome was bad.





In April 2016, I connected with this Shih Tzu after not seeing her for the last 6 years. The owners had sought emergency treatment for her bad left eye which was suddenly swollen. The vet advised removal of the eyeball but warned that this old dog might die under general anaesthesia. To do or not to do? The owners discharged the dog and brought her to see me. "You operated on the right eye and recorded the surgery," the lady in her late 20s said to me. I could not recall.  She retrieved the above 3 images for me. I was most surprised that I had even illustrated my operation procedures.


Did the operation produce an excellent outcome? Yes, as you can see the 2016 image below. No inflammation of the cornea or eye white. Just a brown circular spot of around 3 mm diameter where the deep corneal ulcer had existed and had healed. It was a descemetocoele treated surgically. "I did not return to you for stitch removal as you used dissolvable stitches," the young lady informed me.
"However, the left eye suffered a similar injury in 2010 and was treated by another vet. This vet prescribed just 2 types of eye drops. The eyeball seemed to have sprouted water outwards and sunk but had recovered its shape. Then another attack in 2013 and I applied eye drops twice daily for the past years.