Eye ulcer

Hi my Maltese shih zhu is 14 and is booked for an enucleation on Friday as he has had an ulcer in his eye for about 2 months and treatment hasn’t been working. We saw a senior vet and that’s when they told us enucleation is the only way. I just wanted to get a second opinion possibly. Is there ANYTHING else we can do for the ulcer? It seems so extreme to take my babies eye 😞

Hello - eye ulcers are extremely painful.  You know the feeling of having a spec of dirt rubbing against the surface of your eye?  Well imagine that a small segment of the top - and sometimes deeper - layers of the surface of your eye have been completey peeled away.  That is essentially what an ulcer is.  It can certainly happen that eye ulcers become so deep, large, long-lasting or widespread that they are a constant source of pain and unlikely to ever heal.  When these happen, enucleation can be a mercy.  However, I cannot tell you whether or not your own dogs' eye is at that stage.  Your vet might be able to arrange a referral or second opinion to an opthalmologist - and the need for this is something you will have to balance against the pain of having an ulcer for the time required to get a referral.  It may be that if anything can be done by specialists, the treatment could be quite involved.  As an online vet reading this, I have read no reason to doubt your vet.

My second concern is that shih tzus appear to be more likely to get ulcers than many breeds and this is in part due to the fact that a large portion of the cornea is exposed to the outside air (look at the amount of our eye that is in contact with the outside world).  Consequently - in connection with the shape of their eye - it is not unusual for shih tzus to have a very poor tear film.  If this is the case for your shih tzu's eye, they could also be at a high risk of repeat episodes.  This is something to ask your vet.