enucleation (removal of eye)

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carolynandlatte

carolynandlatte

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I know this is not FD related, but you are all some of the most knowledgeable kitty beans on the planet. Im hoping to get some information on the enucleation process...things to ask the vet prior to, how do I know they will do it properly, care afterwards, etc.

Tippie is my foster kitty. She is probably just pushing 1yr old. The shelter vet declared she was blind in one eye. It took a long time for them to recommend a specialist and then get it. His immediate response upon a brief exam was that she experienced some trauma, likely a claw to the cornea. Her other eye has the herpes virus which drips too much to treat w/ eye drops. We are going to try a pill with the slimmest of slimmest hopes it may wipe it out completely. Otherwise she will sadly have to just live with it. I have been an advocate of removing her blind eye since day one, for many reasons. The specialist, though presented an option of leaving it be and likely not presenting too many problems, agreed with me as well. It looks like the rescue is in and the procedure will get done once we compare some estimates, raise some funds, and get an appt set. Im hoping it will be done in the next few months.

I would love to hear from others who have gone through this with their cats. Were there things you wish had been done differently? Things you were not informed or given choices about? Complications? Care afterwards? Tips? She is going to need to wear a collar isnt she??? Goodness help us!

We are going to be just fine once she is done with this. And I have no doubts she will get adopted. Such a unique kitty...young, pure black, polydactyl, 1.5 ears (TNR), AND soon to be one eyed. And thats only a fraction of it...she is the CUTEST, most loveable, loyal kitty ever. If I could only commit to another cat for their entire life, she would be with me in a heartbeat.

Thanks for any tips or advice!
 
Like all surgeries, there can be complications like infection. Normal care usually consists of antibiotics and maybe flushing and drops in the eye. An e-collar is recommended to prevent scratching the eye area. I wold not hesitate doing it on one of mine if necessary.
 
(((Carolyn))), it sounds like such a drastic surgery doesn't it? It's not nearly as bad as it sounds.

My old street fighter civvie B had the surgery in January 2010 and has done beautifully. He had glaucoma caused by toxoplasmosis that he got at some point during his years on the street. The toxo caused uveiyis that became glaucoma that rapidly worsened.

He did have an e-collar that he had to wear and didn't like much but tolerated. He was on bup for several days which Tippie will no doubt get as well. Hopefully the bup for Tippie will help keep her somewhat calm about the e-collar. I asked for the injectible because although I can pill Bo I didn't want to be jarring his head to get it down him. As I am sure you know the oral bup isn't a pill but needs to go on the gums which can be difficult. They can just leave the needles on the syringes they draw it into because the oral formula is the same stuff.

The only thing that I can possibly save you a shock on is that the morning after the surgery he bled a bit and I panicked (even though I know the vet had warned me). I called the emergency number in a panic because I needed to go to work. They were very kind and told me to put him in a room where he wouldn't get blood on everything. I didn't do that but the bleeding was stopping by the time I left for work. It wasn't "running" but big drops were coming from the stitched shut eyelid.

Bo's recovery was otherwise easy. I agreed with the vet not putting a prosthesis behind the eyelids to hold the shape. She told me they do that under some circumstances for the aesthetic comfort of owners. She didn't advise it considering Bo's unknown history as well as that we knew about from tests.

Carolyn, Tippie will be a lot better off without that nasty eye. I do know the fear and shock at the thought of enucleation but I also know it's not what it sounds like. It's also a fast surgery. Bo's only took about 20 minutes according to my vet who went to watch the surgery.

Tippie will thank you once she gets rid of the dang collar :)
 
carolynandlatte said:
Her other eye has the herpes virus which drips too much to treat w/ eye drops. We are going to try a pill with the slimmest of slimmest hopes it may wipe it out completely. Otherwise she will sadly have to just live with it.
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I can't help with any information about the surgery. But I was wondering if Tippie's other eye (the runny one with herpes) has been treated with antiviral drops or ointment. The problem I see is that the untreated runny eye could wind up with corneal scarring, damaging her vision in her remaining eye.

Emme came to us with a terribly infected eye (her mother had her eye removed because of damaged due to herpes). Antibiotics didn't help at all. The only thing that worked was the antiviral idoxuridine which was expensive and had to be administrated five times daily. Her eye still weeps, but there isn't any infection present. We also add L-Lysine to her food to boost her immune system to try to ward off a relapse.

Good luck with Tippie's surgery and follow-up treatment.
 
and Carolyn, if you need any prices to compare, I believe that the specialist here in Chicago charged me approximately $1200.00 for Bo's surgery. I don't know how that compares to Minneapolis vet charges but that's what I paid.

The rescue might get a better price too if the vets consider that it is a rescue kitty when providing the estimates.
 
Carolyn,
I can't realy answer much in the way of your questions. I just wanted to say that I had a sweet kitty named Winkie for about 11 or 12 years. When he was born (feral) he and his littermates were brought to a vet clinic where my wife was working at the time. Momma kitty was gone, and all four of the babies had infections in their eyes. One ended up having to be put down. Two had one eye each removed and were eventually given homes. Poor Winkie had one eye removed, and the other eye was so damaged that he was blind. The eyeball eventually was covered in scar tissue and he was basically blind from birth. Winkie was kept at the clinic for about 5 weeks until one night my wife brought him home. Nobody wanted a kitty with no eyesight, so we took him in.
The "good thing" in Winkie's case - oh by the way, I wanted to call him Cyclops, but my wife didn't see the humor, go figure - was that he didn't know any better. His eyes had never opened, so he had no idea that he was blind. Blind was his "normal".
Winkie was one of the most dear and precious kitties we ever had. He would run around and play with the other cats, and once he learned his way around the house, you couldn't tell he couldn't see where he was going. The only mishap I ever saw, short of running into our legs, was one time when we were doing spring cleaning and we had pulled the sofa away from the wall. The back of the sofa was Winkie's "spot", so he jumped where the sofa should have been, and flew right over the back of it and landed on the floor. As long as we didn't rearrange the furniture, Winkie had no problems navigating.
The only sad part of his tale is that he ended up developing some sort of tumor in the empty eye socket 11 or 12 years later. What's bad is that we didn't notice, until that side of his face began to swell rapidly. By the time the vet figured out what was going on, the tumor was inoperable and we ended up losing him. But he did lead a "normal" life without sight. His other senses, mostly hearing, seemed heightened, and you'd see him "follow" a fly or other flying insect around the room like he had some sort of radar built in. His one non-functioning eye did "leak" his whole life, but the vet told us that it was just his tear duct continuing to function as if it had an eyeball to keep from drying out. Here's a picture of our dear Winkie:

Carl in SC
 

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Thanks Dyana for checking in on us and the support! :YMHUG:
Im really ok with this at the moment. Removing her eye is not taking away her sight (its already gone). Its removing something that is not yummy to look at AND could cause problems for her in the future. As to the care I may need to give her...remember I said NO SPECIAL NEEDS KITTIES...Im going to be a basket case the day or so before until its all healed. I would like to pretend otherwise and even try to be calm. Its going to be what its going to be. In the end, I know its in her best interest.

Susie- Thank you so much for the 'heads up'. I really liked the idea of using bup for pain because it really could calm her down. I really hope I have a choice in pain meds. I would certainly pay the difference in price if it meant using the right thing vs the cheap one. The only way I have used bupe is injectable. I had a pretty trusting relationship with Latte's vet. My guess is *most* vets will not just dish it out in this manner. Its worth a discussion.

I will ask the vet about the prosthesis and pros/cons. I think there is someone in LL with a kitty who had this procedure and they do have a prosthesis. Thats a really good thing to bring up with whomever does the procedure AND go back to ask the specialist for their thoughts.

Blood?!?! Ack! I think the e collar is going to be much more challenging. She has really come around in the last few months with her trust. But there is a small bit of fear that she will attack me if I do something out of the ordinary. The vets have no problem with her. Me...well, she is squirmy wormy, nippy tippie. Its going to be interesting, to say the least.

Yes, I do think she will be even MORE beeeeeeeautiful and special with that eye closed up. Ive said that to the rescue from the beginning. She will have a much stronger chance of being adopted. And I do hope she feels better. They say it doesnt hurt her, but I really do wonder how comfortable it is to constantly have water and goop dripping from your eye.

The quote we got through the specialist was 840-970 + 15% rescue discount. The foster coordinator said it would be MUCH cheaper through the regular vet they use. I prefer the specialist do it, which is why Im hoping to raise funds for her. I will try to get a quote by the end of the week from the other vet.

BJM- Thank you for the info on the herpes virus and tx. I will have to look at it later this week. Im working long hrs at the moment and she is seeking attention by crawling all over my neck, head, and lap as I type this. :D I should know better than to have anyone dismiss a disease as being untreatable before doing my research. There are always options to try, even if its a slim chance. I will start her on the pill he prescribed later this week as well.

Debby- you bring up some good thoughts. The vet did not feel drops would do anything (which was proven the few times we tried), mostly because her eye is watering so much it would come right out in the tears. Ointment is rarely effective because its hard to administer. Now I have a huge list of questions when I call the specialist. It would be heartbreaking to see her lose sight in the other eye, which has been a big worry of mine. :(

Carl- Thank you so much for sharing! There is a blind rescue in NC which Ive followed since taking Tippie in. Ive learned so much by keeping up with their kitties. And, of course by having Tippie with me as well. They really can function just the same as any other cat. Though why should it be surprising? People who are blind function perfectly fine as well! Im sorry to hear about the tumor! That is what the vet had concern over if we did NOT remove her eye. But this happened to the eye Winkie had removed??? Interesting. I wonder what the name of it was? Such a beautiful photo. What a beautiful soul that Winkie was! How lucky of him to have such caring beans!

OK- she is biting as I type. Gotta go. More later! LOL
 
that's a wonderful price! :). Mine was a specialist too so I guess Chgo really IS pricey - lol! I would go with the specialist too if you can. It's not that the other vets couldn't do a good job but it just seems appropriate under the circumstances since Tippie's background isn't known. The only reason I knew how Bo's uveitis/glaucoma started was that as a last resort his vet asked me if she could run a toxo test. I was really "lucky" that it didn't turn out to be a very expensive blood test for nothing 8-). At least we knew.

Bo's vet at the time was a young woman pretty fresh out of U of I vet school. I trusted her a lot and she did not want her first enucleation to be Bo. She also didn't want anyone at her VCA hospital doing it and they didn't want to either given his unknown past history. They all felt it was better left to a specialist to handle it.

Tippie is a lucky girl, Carolyn!
 
Surgery date is 9/29 (2 weeks). nailbite_smile
How does one keep a cone on a very young cat's head?!?! you know, one who wants to play and explore ALL the time.
Add, her nervousness to noises which usually causes her to hide or act out (bite, smack, etc) and I have NOOOOOOOOOO idea how this is going to work.
 
I know several cats- and dogs- who have had this done, and all have done wonderfully after. Most also feel much better afterwards. I wouldn't hesitate to get this done if any of my furries needed it.

Wishing you both good luck!
 
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=46467&hilit=+elizabethan

here's a link to the thread when binks had his e-collar...and there's some good info there on
soft collars ( which i didn't know existed)

someone else posted a pic this last week of a collar that looked like soft foam, i'll look around for it.. think they got it at PetSmart
...and Lisa's Do Lou has lots of experience with soft collars
(i'm sure you know he is blind as well)

you're are truly Tippie's angel...
 
OMG! Thank you so much for the laughs. I can only hope our experience can be seen in the eyes of your humor. For anyone who is lurking and has not clicked on the binks link....DO IT! :lol:

The photo Lisa posted of the inverted(?) collar is interesting, but Im not sure how that keeps a kitty from scratching???

I was inspired to google e collars and videos. Sadly it discouraged me a bit when I heard people talking about kitties pulling out stitches after neuter/spays. Holy Crap! This cat CANNOT take the stitches out of her eye. :shock: It just cant happen. Anyone who thought I was obsessed over Latte's every move better watch out. How am I going to leave for work every day??? ohmygod_smile
Ok, I know...Im getting ahead of myself. Seriously is one more reason to request bupe for pain. It just HAS to knock her out. Can you imagine almost 2 weeks of energy built up in her system. Good gwad! :o The one positive is maybe she wont be able to constantly lick my face, hair, and chew on my ears. That will be a relief! :mrgreen:

You also gave me something to think about regarding food. They say kitties can eat with it, or you can take it off during meals. Just to cover my bases I should probably make sure I have some baby food, rotisserie chicken, and other miscl foods available in case I end up having to hand feed her. I just didnt think that would be an issue. It may not. But it may.

Can I also add, this special care in her recovery could be difficult with memories of caring for Latte. I know its just a short time and everything will be fine afterwards, but still. I think Im going to end up with a lot of flashbacks which will be hard. :sad: Hopefully she will help distract those memories with her magnetic personality.
 
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