The news just came back from your dog’s vet or eye specialist: one or both of your dog’s eyes need to be removed.

It’s normal to go through a rollercoaster of emotions after you get this news. You may worry about what your dog will look like once the surgery is over. You may worry about the surgery itself, especially if your dog is older. And then you can’t help but mourn your dog’s loss of sight, and you may even worry about your dog’s quality of life after the surgery.

Many of these issues will be covered on this site. For this article we’ll talk about what to expect when your dog has enucleation (eye removal) surgery.

One quick word of warning…

I’m going to share pictures of my dog Sashi. Some readers may feel squeamish about seeing the first couple photos, as the surgical area is bleeding. Nonetheless, I felt it was important to share this so that you’re prepared for what you might see when you go pick your dog up.

And one more disclaimer – these are Sashi’s photos and experiences. Your dog may have a different experience. But at least this will give you a good idea of what to expect.

Onward…

Why Do Enucleation Surgery?

Removing the eye is generally the option of last resort for eyes that are blind and/or painful. If your dog has glaucoma, you can bet he’s in a lot of pain. Even if he’s already gone blind, the increased pressure in the eye is giving him a screaming headache. The quick and permanent way to remove the pain forever is to remove the eye.

Many owners report their dogs springing back to life after surgery. Some people didn’t even realize their dogs were such clowns until after the eye was removed. That’s because once the surgery was finished the dog’s pain was gone (save for the normal surgery pain, which your vet will control with pain killers)… and suddenly the dog was eating better, playing more, etc.

Removing a blind eye also protects the dog. A blind eye has no blink reflex, so it’s easy for a dog to injure it – run into the sharp corner of some furniture, get jabbed by a stick while running around the yard, etc.

So, the point is – if your dog’s vet or eye specialist is recommending enucleation surgery, there is a reason. And in most cases, the sooner you get it done, the happier your dog will be.

Take note that you may be offered a variety of options. These include:

• Enucleation. The entire eye is removed and the eyelid is sewn shut.

• Enucleation with prosthesis. The entire eye is removed, a silicone ball is planted in the eye socket, and then the eyelid is sewn shut. The prosthesis keeps the eye socket from sinking in. This is purely for cosmetic reasons for the humans, as the dog doesn’t care what he looks like.

• Evisceration. Most of the eye is removed, but muscles and the outer “shell” are retained so that the dog can have a prosthetic eye that moves normally. This too is purely for cosmetic reasons for the humans, as the dog gains no advantage of having a prosthetic (and indeed, the dog may even walk into something since the “eye” is blind, which could seriously hurt the cornea).

You can discuss these options with your vet. I don’t have any experiences with evisceration, so I can’t offer any info about it.

 

What to Expect Before and After Your Dog’s Enucleation

Your vet will give you instructions regarding food, water and medicines. Usually there is a cut-off time the night before surgery when your dog cannot have any more food. In most cases water is okay right up until that morning, but please follow your vet’s instructions as they may be different than Sashi’s experiences.

Your dog’s enucleation surgery is generally an out-patient surgery, meaning you’ll probably drop her off in the morning and be able to pick her up later in the day.

Yes, you’ll probably worry a bit while you sit around with your phone in your hand, waiting for the vet’s office to call you and tell you the surgery went well. You’ll get that first bit of relief right after you get off the phone.

Whew, all is well.

Now you have several hours to kill until you get to go pick your sweet baby up from the vet. This is when your mind starts to turn to what your dog will look like without an eye (or eyes).

Tell you what – you’ll prepare yourself, but you still might be a little surprised when you walk into the vet’s office. When they bring your dog upfront, you’ll get that first glance of what your dog looks like minus an eye. Even if you’ve looked at endless photos of one-eyed or eyeless dogs, it may still feel a little weird because this is YOUR dog without an eye.

Some vets shave a large area around the eye for this surgery, while others clip just a tiny bit around the eye. Sashi’s eye specialist shaved the minimal amount, as it was hardly noticeable. Be prepared that your vet may shave more, so your dog’s face may look a bit “bald” for a month or two.

The second thing that may surprise you is how lively and happy your dog is to see you. If she’s anything like my Sashi, she’s going to be really excited! Whoosh, another wave of relief rolls over you.

(Warning: the photos with blood are coming up.)

Now here’s the first heads up… 

When your dog gets really excited, her blood pressure goes up. This can cause the fresh surgical area to bleed a little. Seeping is okay, “flowing” blood or a wound that won’t stop bleeding is not okay.

The vet tech dabbed a bit of blood from Sashi’s surgical area while we were still in the vet’s office.The vet tech didn’t seem concerned, so that eased my mind that it was normal.

We hopped in the car and drove in bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic in Minneapolis on the way back to the hotel room. Sashi was happy and seemingly not in pain (good pain killers and her own natural pain-killing adrenaline), but the surgical area was still seeping for the drive, and I couldn’t do anything about it in the heavy traffic.

Time for some pics. (Hint: You can click on any photo to enlarge it. Then click your “back” button to return to this page.)

So here’s the photo when we got back to the hotel room:

See how happy she is to see me? She’s smiling! But you can also see the surgical area had bled.

It looks worse in these photos than it actually was, as it looks like it’s streaming. But it most definitely was not streaming, and you certainly wouldn’t want that.

Note: While the blood was still in her fur at this point, the actual bleeding itself had stopped.  If it hadn’t stopped at this point, I would have turned right back around and went back to the vet, probably in a huge panic. If it had started bleeding again like that at some point later, I would have rushed back. But fortunately it had stopped.

A word of caution to you: if you feel like anything is out of the norm after your dog’s surgery, call your vet immediately. Don’t worry about looking like an over-protective pet parent. It’s your job to protect your pup, so when in doubt call the vet.

So back to the story…

At this point a drop of blood had dripped onto Sashi’s leg. Then stupid me, I tried to wipe it up with a wet paper towel. That was a mistake.

Spoiler for those who have to mop up blood out of white fur: it just smears around and makes a mess if you don’t have any soap on hand. Even a couple drops will tinge the fur red or pink.

So now I had a dog with blood around her eye AND blood smeared into her fur. I was afraid she might scare small children at the hotel. Sashi looked like she had just gotten out of her first bar fight.

Here’s another photo of her after I botched the clean-up job on her leg (hadn’t touched the actual surgical area yet).  You can see the red tinge to the fur on her leg. Sorry, Sweetie, mom kinda sucks at this:

Side Note: You’ll notice Sashi doesn’t have any sort of cone on – the vet didn’t give her one, and she never seemed to need it as she didn’t touch the surgical area. Your vet may require your dog to have a cone. Please follow your vet’s instructions.

So after all that initial excitement, the surgical area didn’t bleed any more that evening, and we didn’t have any more problems with it for the duration of her recovery. (Save for a little seepage, but that was normal.) I purposely stayed at the hotel near the vet for the evening just in case there were complications, as I live about three hours from the eye specialist. All went well, thank goodness.

Sashi ate a bit and drank a little water within a few hours after arriving at the hotel. Then she spent the rest of the afternoon/evening just resting. Since we were in an unfamiliar hotel room, I brought along some big fans to drown out all other noise so that she could just rest. I also brought along her kennel and bedding, so that she had a familiar place to sleep.

I should also note that I had Eddie (my mini poodle) along with me too. Naturally, he wanted to give Sashi a good sniffing over, but after that he could tell she wanted to be left alone.

Meanwhile, she seemed comforted by the fact that he was there – many dogs like having their pack with them. Other dogs may prefer to be completely alone and away from other dogs at this point. Either way, it’s a good idea to give your dog a quiet place she can retreat to if she wants to be alone.

 

The Next Morning… and Beyond

The next morning all went well. She did her business, she ate, she drank. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, other than Sashi was a bit quieter than normal.

One thing about Sashi is that she was already blind in the eye that was removed, so she didn’t have to adjust to being blind on one side. Chances are, if your dog is having one eye removed, then she too is blind on that side and won’t have much in the way of adjustment.

If the eye wasn’t completely blind before surgery, then you may see your dog bump into things on her blind side or misjudge distances. In many cases blindness on one side poses no problem whatsoever, and you can’t even tell the dog has a blind side.

One thing, however: When you’re out walking your dog in unfamiliar places, just be sure to be her “eyes” on her blind side so she doesn’t run into something like a branch, step into something, etc.

If this is a double enucleation and your dog wasn’t completely blind before surgery, then of course there will be a bigger adjustment. (We’ll talk about that elsewhere on this site.)

Back to the story…

I gave Sashi the pain killers prescribed by the eye specialist. She was already on a round of antibiotics for something else, but if that hadn’t been the case then she probably would have started on antibiotics as well. Some vets prescribe them as sort of a preventative measure to avoid infection at the surgical site.

The goal for the next few days was to keep Sashi calm so that she wouldn’t start bleeding again. She did have a slight bit of blood show up right where the stitches were, but it was such a small amount that dabbing it  with a wet tissue took care of it. She never again had that problem as shown in those photos from that first afternoon. (Whew.)

Some dog owners also report a bit of blood coming out of the nose on the same side as the surgery. If you see any of this with your dog — either from the surgical site or nose — please don’t hesitate to call your dog’s vet to make sure it’s normal. Better safe than sorry if you’re in any doubt.

Here is how Sashi looked over the next week after her enucleation surgery. Yep, she looked like she was in a bar fight with all that bruising (hey, you should have seen the other dog!). You’ll notice that the area swelled a few days after surgery.

Again, remember that you can click on any photo to enlarge it, and then click the “back” button on your browser to return to this page.

Here’s one day after her surgery:

Here’s the second day after surgery:

Day four after surgery:

Here’s another shot of day 4, which shows the swelling a bit better:

She felt really good by Day 4… she probably would have liked to go back to full activity, but I kept her quiet so she could heal properly. I gave her quiet, low-key things to do like chew on toys, eat chewies, etc.

Day 5 after surgery:

Day 6 after surgery:

One week after enucleation:

And 11 days after surgery — looking good! (Though she was pretty tired of me taking her picture… ha.)

As you can see, by Day 11 she was pretty much all healed up.  She had a follow up with her ophthalmologist who confirmed everything was healing just fine. She didn’t need to have any stitches removed as hers dissolved, but your dog may need stitches removed about a week and a half later.

One thing many dog owners don’t realize is that their dog’s face will still be super expressive, even after double enucleation. That’s because the muscles are still intact, so your dog’s eyebrows will move. I was amused to see that whenever Sashi blinked her good eye, her other “eye” blinked too. It was very cute.

One more pic…

There she is a year after surgery, just as happy as can be and living pain-free.