Dog eye removal ?

Hi. I have an 7 year old (almost 8) Boston terrier. In 2019, she started having horrible skin problems. She was constantly scratching and would scratch her body and face until it was raw and bleeding. It took a long to get this under control, she started apoquel in 2022. A month or 2 after starting apoquel, she started having cluster seizures. We stopped the apoquel but the seizures persisted. She was having seizures at least once a week and 3-4 in the days where she did have them. It took a lot of trial and error of meds to get that under control but finally we did and she has been seizure free for over a year. Then, suddenly, she got aggressive cataracts about 3 months ago in both of her eyes, they appeared quickly and got worse very fast and she lost her vision in both eyes. The vet did not recommend cataract surgery for her breed. She scratched one of her eyes about a month and the ulcer is not healing despite treatment. Her ophthalmologist is only recommending eye removal at this point, and she thinks the other eye will eventually also have to removed, but given her other health issues I’m not sure that is the right choice or fair to put her through yet another trauma. So heartbreaking either way. Thoughts?

Hello and thankyou for raising this difficult subject.  Regarding enucleations (eye-removal operations) and ignoring everything else for the moment, my experience of this operation has almost always been positive.  Painful eyes have a massive negative impact on an animal's comfort and welfare and we know that ulcers are very painful.  Sight through this eye sounds to be badly compromised in any case.  Imagine the pain when a small piece of grit scratches the surface of the eye, and now imagine that pain persisting and covering the area of the ulcer; that best describes it.  Most owners report that removing the eye, although it sounds dramatic, brings a good deal of relief to the patient and I feel that when treatment is exhausted, such eyes are better removed than ignored. However, there is not just an eye here; there is a whole dog, with several co-existing issues.  What I do not understand from your message - although if you don't already know yourself, your opthalmologist will be able to clarify - is what caused the ulcer.  Cataracts are inherited in this breed and it could have been secondary pain from a complication (as in, the eye was hurting as a result of the cataract for some reason, your girl scratched it and caused this painful ulcer) or it could be caused by a second eye issue, for example dry-eye; there are definitely medical precautions that may reduce the chance of dry-eye occurring in the second eye.  In either case, pain relief and early detection and treatment of ulcers may prevent their ever getting to that stage. I have certainly never seen an ulcer as an inevitable consequence of a cataract; this is something to ask you clinician about. Enucleation is not considered a treatment - the sight is obviously not saved - but a salvage procedure to make life more comfortable for the patient.  The welfare implications of not removing an ulcerated eye can sometimes be high - and no less expensive, because of the treatment is still required to try to keep the eye as  comfortable as possible.  However I am also aware that your dog has multiple issues and that anaesthesia may not be recommended, or this could be the point where you say 'actually I don't think that my dog's quality of life would be good enough even with the eye removed'; this would be a very different conversation.

we think she scratched the eye due to her allergies as she usually gets itchy around her eyes and that is how the ulcer came to be. As for the other eye, she has had instances of high pressure possibly glaucoma and that is why the vet anticipates removing the other eye eventually. I am feeling that he quality of life has declined greatly from her other health conditions and now with the blindness. It feels quite cruel to put her through a surgery though it doesn’t feel quite right saying goodbye to her as she is still a happy girl. Just not sure how to move forward at this point. I hate to see my poor baby girl suffer