Springer Spaniel

4 years old

Male

Penetration Injury to left eye.

Problem

Rolo came into Woodcroft Veterinary Hospital with a very opaque and sore left eye. There was a very high pressure inside it, due to the disruption and inflammation it was suffering.

It was likely that a thorn or other sharp object had penetrated the cornea and had also caused significant disruption to the lens and other tissues inside it.

There were grave concerns for the future of this eye and its sight. There was a significant risk that the intra ocular pressure may be persistently high despite interventions, or become too high in the future, and cause irreversible blindness with glaucoma.

We discussed the options to remove the eye or to try and save it and remove the damaged lens. Rolo’s owner decided that she would like us to try and save the eye so surgery was necessary to achieve this.

Treatment

Rolo was anaesthetised and the corneal injury was repaired with suturing. The damaged left lens was removed in the same way that cataracts are removed by a process called phacoemulsification. During this procedure, the end of a sharp broken off thorn was found buried in the damaged lens, hidden behind the iris. It was removed along with the disrupted lens.

The eye was left with no lens at all after surgery because there was traumatic damage to the lens capsule, in which an artificial lens would usually be inserted.