luxated lens in one eye

[arabiansrock]

Need jingles and advice for my Sunny dog.

background: age is approx. 14 years (he was full grown as a rescue). Developed hypoparathyroidism approx. 1 year after we got him, so has been on daily medication for 12 years. Breed Chi x most likely with some kind of terrier, small under 12 lbs.

So he woke up yesterday morning with one eye clenched shut. Opened it and eye is milky/cloudy and rolled back in his head. Not good. Call vet, take him in a couple hours later. (Mind you this is after be at the ranch late the night before getting my mares nose stitched up with 7 stitches, UGH).

Get to vet, vet stains eye, looks and says, the lens is luxated, it has moved in front of the pupil and is currently resting between the pupil and the cornea. :eek: Not good. Of course she starts in on you need to go to opthamologist right now, etc, and I’m like, well what treatments would they offer because I’m thinking taking the eye out is the best treatment and I;m not sure he is in good enough health for anesthesia, and at his age and with medical history, how much time might we be buying him?

Vet consults with ophthalmologist, says there is a medical treatment to try to move lens back, it involves somehow dehydrating the eye, the lens gets sucked back into place, then the dog has to live on pupil constricting eyedrops the rest of his life (those drops are really expensive). Otherwise, eye removal, or… treat with DEX eyedrops for inflammation for a week or so, and put him on pain meds for the rest of his life.

For now, we are doing eye drops and pain meds, have an apt for a recheck in a week. But I don’t feel good about this. If he were younger/healthier, I would take the eye out. Problem solved. BUT… he’s neither young nor healthy. AND we don’t know what caused the initial luxation, apparently this can be secondary to glaucoma. I intend to ask vet if she has tool to check IOP in the remaining good eye at check up.

thanks for reading the book, I just am unsure where to go from here. I want him to have a good quality of life, he has always been a “hard Keeper” just getting him to eat has always been a challenge, I don’t mind the medications, but I DO NOT want him to be in ANY chronic pain.

Any advise???

[Horsegal984]

I’ll be honest, my experiences are with primary lens luxation, where the lens slips and then causes glaucoma. However, lens luxations are painful, so definately keep the pain meds high enough. Is the hypoparathyroidism his only issue?

[arabiansrock]

other than bad teeth (we have been afraid to put him under, he has had several bouts of instability with his hypoparathyroidism), incipient senility (eg he walks into a room and stands there looking around, and you can read his mind “what did I want to do in here?”), and general old age, he is good. He mostly sleeps all day.

The vet said he would develop glaucoma as a result of this, but also said specialist did not recommend glaucoma drops for small dogs as they can get bad side effects.

We have the pain meds high, as of last night he was starting to hold his eye open and walk around with his tail up.

[drs]

I had a young Jack Russell who had his lenses luxated and what I did was I had them removed. It happened in one eye but the vet recommended removing them in both eyes because it would probably happen in the other eventually he went on to live to be 13. After recovery the only disadvantage was he could not Focus close-up could see faraway.

[arabiansrock]

Thanks for the positive outcome story drs. If my dog was younger I would definitely go that route, but at 14 and fragile, I’m afraid to put him under.

as a short update, after 3 days of meds now, he is keeping his eye open, and seems to be comfortable, is moving around as much as he did before, which wasn’t a lot as he seems to like his naps lol. Talked to my horse vet (who also does some small animal work) and he agreed the treatment the small animal vet gave me was the most appropriate for his age and condition, so we will carry on and just keep a very close eye on his comfort level. He is eating well so that is a good sign.

[arabiansrock]

UPDATE

Just a quick update, my little dog had one of his hypoparathyroid attacks (eg his calcium level dropped drastically), coincidentally this happened on Tues when we already had a follow up vet apt scheduled. By the time we got him there, I had gotten enough calcium in him to have him stabilized. She looked in his bad eye and said the lens is NOT luxated anymore. WTH? I can’t find anything in the literature about a fully luxated lens miraculously going back into the proper chamber of the eye.

So I am guessing that it was only subluxated not fully luxated. AT any rate, old man dog is quite happy now, eye is much more comfortable, fully open, calcium back up, and eating well. I am going to have to rename him Lazarus, he has come back several times from what I thought was the end.

Whew!