Cherry eye questions

[NoneotherthanJ]

YAY! I finally figured out the forum. Anywho, my 9 month old male bully (Charlie...aka Mr. Handsome) has cherry eye. He's had it for about a month and Ive read all sorts of things on what to do about it. I tried massaging it back in place a few times, and it would stay for a few hours or half a day but it kept popping back out. The eye goo is building up pretty quickly no matter how many times I wash his face and around the eye. My question to you fine folks is which method do you recommend on fixing the cherry eye? Ive read about tucking it back in under anesthesia, staples, and removal. Also, could anyone give me a ballpark on what these things may cost. I would really like to know what I am in store for (price wise) because I am also planning on getting him neutered at some point. From my understanding, it would be financially reasonable to get both done at once while he is under anesthesia. Thanks for any advice you have to offer. I really appreciate it.

 

[Pamperedchefjen]

Our girl had cherry eye as a puppy and our breeder was set against surgery of any kind for it. As soon as it would pop out we would ice it, massage it, and it would go down. After she turned 2 it no longer happened. If you are not that lucky, I recommend getting a couple estimates from different vets in your area. Get some recommendations for bully specialists in your area - from your breeder or a local breeder. You usually can call around at first and then go in and see the ones you were happiest with. It is amazing how the price can vary!

 

[punky]

my odie had surgery done when he was 5 months old.. never had any problems after that.. it was 6 years ago..

 

[2BullyMama]

Charlie sure is a cutie pie! I tagged a few members that have experience to help with your questions

to EBN!

 

[Vikinggirl]

YAY! I finally figured out the forum. Anywho, my 9 month old male bully (Charlie...aka Mr. Handsome) has cherry eye. He's had it for about a month and Ive read all sorts of things on what to do about it. I tried massaging it back in place a few times, and it would stay for a few hours or half a day but it kept popping back out. The eye goo is building up pretty quickly no matter how many times I wash his face and around the eye. My question to you fine folks is which method do you recommend on fixing the cherry eye? Ive read about tucking it back in under anesthesia, staples, and removal. Also, could anyone give me a ballpark on what these things may cost. I would really like to know what I am in store for (price wise) because I am also planning on getting him neutered at some point. From my understanding, it would be financially reasonable to get both done at once while he is under anesthesia. Thanks for any advice you have to offer. I really appreciate it. View attachment 90766

hi, my female Blossom developed cherry eye when she was 5 months old, and I was also able to massage it back in for a short while, but whenever she played or got excited, it would pop back out. When I had her at the vets for her vaccinations, we discussed cherry eye repair surgery, and she explained the procedure to me, my vet does not remove the gland, as she says this can cause dry eye which requires eye drops for life. She uses the tacking in method and she did an excellent job, you would never know she ever had cherry eye or surgery. She had this done almost 4 years ago. We are very happy with the outcome. We opted to wait until she was 7 months old and had her spayed and her eye repaired at the same time, to avoid having to put her under anesthetic twice. Unfortunately a week after her surgeries, the other eye developed cherry eye as well and we had to do a second surgery a month later. I don't know what the costs for both surgeries are in the United States, but we paid $980 for her spay and eye surgery together. The second surgery cost $890 for just the one eye, because she had to be put under anesthetic again, so we had to pay for that, the IV fluids, medications and her surgery again. It would have been cheaper to have them done all at once, but we didn't know the other one was going to pop out as well. There is a high risk of this happening and is common. I used over the counter eye drops to keep her eye moisturized until we could have it repaired to help with dryness and irritation. You can use any saline based over the counter eye drop from the drugstore like Refresh or Visine. Most products that are safe for humans are also safe for dogs, and they are also a lot cheaper at the drugstore than from the vet.

 

[Donnam]

I have had two bullies in the past develop cherry eye. The first one, Rosie, we decided not to have the surgery based on the fact that cherry eye is a cosmetic problem only and that when the ophthalmologist measured her tears, she didn't have any to spare. She didn't have dry eye, just fewer tears than that doc wanted to see. I think the method of surgery he used was to remove part of the glad, which does cut down on tear production, and we didn't want to risk dry eye.

My second one to have cherry eye was Annie. She developed it when she was just a puppy. We took her to another doc, who was an expert in cherry eye surgery. She had trained under the top guy in the country and then had made her own adjustments/improvements in the procedure and had never had a recurrence in all the surgeries she had performed. Annie had cherry eye in only one eye, but the doc did her procedure on both eyes. She said that usually the other eye will develop cherry eye at some point, so she recommended doing them both to avoid having to do another surgery. The surgery went great. Annie wore a cone for a while, about a week I think. There were no complications at all and the cherry eye never came back. I believe we paid about $800 total, which I thought was reasonable at the time. I have read on this forum about surgeries that cost a lot less than that though. But I've also read about cherry eye coming back after the surgery. If it was this doc's experience we paid for, it was a good deal. I don't really remember her method, except that she enlarged the pocket and stitched the gland in. Annie was only about four months old when she had surgery on her eye. Then we had her spayed when she was 7 months--so different surgeries.

I wish I had had the second doc when I had Rosie, because she could have had the surgery. I didn't like it that she had to live with the cherry eye, only because it looked bad. She only had it in one eye. People would always say, "Ewww, what's wrong with her eye?"

 

[NoneotherthanJ]

The cosmetic aspect is one of the things that I keep thinking about. I have read that cherry eye does not bother them and many owners just fix it for the dog to look asthetically pleasing. I get the same question all the time; "whats wrong with his eye?"....usually followed by a look of uncertainty, as well as a few extra steps distance from him. I know it doesnt look good, but I also know what it is and dont really care what they think. My main concern is that his eye goo (like the eye crust that humans get in the morning) is sometimes so prevelant that his eyelids crust shut.

 

[Donnam]

The cosmetic aspect is one of the things that I keep thinking about. I have read that cherry eye does not bother them and many owners just fix it for the dog to look asthetically pleasing. I get the same question all the time; "whats wrong with his eye?"....usually followed by a look of uncertainty, as well as a few extra steps distance from him. I know it doesnt look good, but I also know what it is and dont really care what they think. My main concern is that his eye goo (like the eye crust that humans get in the morning) is sometimes so prevelant that his eyelids crust shut.

We never had any eye goo or crust. I would get the vet to check for something other than cherry eye to be causing the gunk. Maybe an eye infection or eyelashes causing irritation. It could be the cherry eye, I guess, the gunk just never happened to my girls.

Charlie is a real cutie--even with cherry eye!

 

[benny316]

I had a partial reduction of the gland done on two of mine no problem since they would cut away about a third of the gland but still leave most of it for tear production

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

 

[nycbullymama]

One of mine got cherry eye when he was about 4 months old. We were also told there's a good chance the second eye will get it, so we waited a few months and sure enough, he got it in his other eye.

We decided on having them tacked as opposed to removed based on the convo. with the ophthalmologist (she's opposed to removing).
The cost for us was over 1k, but again, we had it done by a specialist in a veterinary hospital, and, it was in NYC.

Only thing I would suggest is to find someone that has a ton of experience with Cherry eye, preferably a board certified ophthalmologist and talk with them. And no matter where you have it done, remember that your pup will need to be anesthetized which is very dangerous to bulldogs.
So even though they're under for a very short time, I would still like to know if their facility has the means to deal with emergencies- too many vet offices don't.