Doggy Eyelid Surgery for Dolly

Dolly after eyelid surgery

Our 14 year old Weimaraner, Dolly has experienced a number of growths on her as she has aged. She has quite a few fatty lumps, but a skin tag developed and grew from her left eyelid. She would paw at it and make it bleed into her eye and we knew that it needed to be removed. After various vet visits, we took her to an eye specialist who removed most of it and froze the rest of it, while Dolly remained awake.

Tyler and Dolly at the eye vet

    Of course, because she's bonded to her brother Tyler the Dachshund, he had to come to offer her support and keep her calm.  During the 20 minute waiting period in the office after we saw the vet tech (and before the outpatient surgery), Dolly and Tyler were getting nervous, so I did some training in the room. I put a chair in the middle of the room and had them go around it several times. Then we practiced sit, stay and come. Fortunately, I brought a lot of treats. It distracted them from the wait, and put them at ease.

Dolly before surgery- note the mass on her left eyelid

   When they took Dolly in the surgery room for 30 minutes, we took Tyler for a drive. He was obviously worried and anxious. He insisted on riding in Tom's lap and kept looking over at me
as I was driving.
      Dolly is the most patient Weimaraner you'll ever know, which is why the doctor was able to do the surgery. Because she has air pockets in her lungs she can't be anesthetized. Fortunately, we found one eye doctor at Eye Care for Animals, who administered a local numbing agent to her eye and did the procedure. Dolly was awake the entire time!  Although we weren't allowed in room during the 30 minute procedure it was a success.

   Last night Dolly's  eyelid was swollen and it bled a bit, so I had to keep cleaning it off. She's on pain medication and we have a medication to put in her eye every 8 hours. The eye will be swollen for a couple of days as it heals. 
She is such a trooper.
   BTW, this was a great example of why it's
important to have pet insurance. The cost was about $1,100.00. Pet insurance will reimburse some of that, and every bit helps. (The cost of pet insurance is about $500 annually, so it's well worth it, and it also covers vaccines, heartworm and flea preventative -we've already made our money back).