# Hole in eye, help!



## PinkRockz (Apr 1, 2009)

A friend of our family passed away on Friday. As she wished, we took in her 3-year-old female Shih Tzu, Bebe. We already have a 12-year-old male Westie and a 3-year-old female cat (unsure of breed). Bebe is traumatized by all the sudden changes and terrified. The dogs get along fine, but my cat became possessive and hostile, which is unlike very her. They crossed paths and my cat took a swipe at Bebe, and caught her in the eye. We took her to the vet today and he said there was a "hook-like" hole in her eye from the cats claw, but if we take good enough care of it (with the medicine he gave us) she should be fine. Is this true? Or is he trying to make me feel better? I'm so worried about her


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## Pepper (Jan 27, 2008)

If your vet says its true, then its probably true. 

If you see complications, a call to the vet won't hurt.


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## tut078620 (Feb 5, 2009)

I think she should be fine. My Yorkie got a very deep-looking scratch across her eye, it was about a quarter of an inch long and was white - we think she scraped her eye walking into a bush; it wasn't just a little thin line either. At that point I thought she was going blind because this scrape caused her to develop a film on her eye. It took a while to nurse it back. My vet first gave me an eye ointment to help it and asked me to come back about a week or two later for the eye drops, which contained steroids. That eye drop completely healed her. I had waited about a month to go back because the ointment seemed to heal her, but the scratch came back in the form of an aggravated red line and the eye drops (which were anti-inflammatory) made this disappear completely. My vet also did this thing where he turned off the lights, shined a flash light in her eye and let me see where the area may have been affecting her eyesight. He told me it looked to be on the surface of her eye and shouldn't really affect her eyesight. It's been about 2 - 3 years and I don't see any scars of vision impairment. The only thing I noticed, and I'm not sure if this is a result of her injury, is that she will have slightly more discharge on the eye that was injured. But other than that, it looks to have healed 100%.


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## Trainer (Feb 18, 2009)

If you have ANY doubt about what your vet told you, I suggest you see a vet opthomalogist asap. I had experience with one a few years ago and they are so far ahead of regular vets when it comes to eyes, it is unbelievable.

I took my dog with a torn cornea to a regular vet and after 2 months of him trying to get it to heal, he finally told me he didn't know why it wouldn't heal. I got refered to an opthomalogist and she found the tear had ragged edges. She had to clip the rough area away so both sides of the tear could reattach to each other. It was amazing that she worked on my dogs eyeball with sissors and stuff without putting him to sleep, strapping him down or anything to restrain him. He was awake the whole time. I was very impressed.


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## PinkRockz (Apr 1, 2009)

Thank you so much for that answer, I'm so worried about her.

That actually sounds kind of similar to what our vet said. He gave us pills (for the infection), 1 ointment to be applied once per day, and another ointment to be applied 3 times per day. He said that within 10 days she should be fine.. but if not, then he will have to perform surgery on the eye and stitch it shut for a little while. I hope it gets better within the 10 days


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## Trainer (Feb 18, 2009)

If the tear has ragged edges, it will never grow back together. I wouldn't trust a regular vet to do this surgery. FInd a vet opthomalogist. Thats what they do for a living. They do stuff like this every day.


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## cshellenberger (Dec 2, 2006)

As Trainer said, do NOT allow a regular vet to do a sugery on the cornea, get a refferal to a veterinary opthamoligist. Yes, it will cost a little more, but you'll have the reassurance of knowing the dogs eye is in good hands.


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