Draco's Eye Enucleation
Draco has suffered from chronic eye issues since his arrival. We'd been relentlessly treating corneal ulceration, reoccurring bacterial eye infections, and conjunctivitis.
We've previously written about his eye issues in a blog post:
We've previously written about his eye issues in a blog post:
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Medicinal Intervention:
Draco developed a bacterial eye infection and conjunctivitis again in his problematic right-eye.
He was introduced to Isathal eye drops QID for a minimum of 2 weeks, and eye baths QID with boiled water to clean any discharge.
Topical Isathal antibiotic eye drops resolved his bacterial eye infection, but he had ongoing symptoms that could be attributed to corneal ulceration. Given his lengthy medical history involving superficial corneal ulcers, we decided it was appropriate to stain his eyes with fluorescein sodium 1%. Once illuminated, several superficial corneal ulcers were revealed.
As Draco had corneal ulceration, the vet amended his medicinal treatment. The vet introduced Draco to Chloramphenicol 0.5% topical antibiotic eye drops BID for a minimum of two weeks. The vet also introduced to Remend corneal repair gel BID. We were to restain his eye in a fortnight.
Upon illumination, the second staining showed improvements, but there was still some abnormalities. There was some scarring which could've been attributed to distichiasis. Distichiasis is a rare disease that can be either congenital (present from birth) or acquired (not inherited or present at birth), it's defined by the abnormal growth of eyelashes on the orifices of the meibomian glands on the posterior lamella of the tarsal plate. In simple terms, the disease causes the abnormal growth of eyelashes, there may be only a few abnormal eyelashes or an entire row. The eyelashes often grow towards the eye causing varying symptoms such as:
- Irritation
- Corneal ulceration
- Corneal scarring
- Changes to vision
- Eye-watering
- Redness
- Painful eyes
- Chemosis (edema/swelling of the conjunctiva and non-specific eye irritation)
- Thinning of cornea
- Secondary infections
The prognosis for directly treating distichiasis is often promising for larger animals. In a degu, the prognosis isn't as good. The only viable treatment would be eye enucleation - removal of the eye. Before opting for major surgery, we decided to persist with our current treatment plan for another week, and then stain the eye again.
The third eye stain was much clearer, and we were happy to discontinue all medication. We decided against surgical intervention at this point.
Enucleation Surgery:
Within a matter of weeks, Draco started having issues with his eye again. After a discussion with our veterinarian, we decided it was kinder for Draco to have his eye surgically removed.
The surgery went smoothly, and Draco handled the anesthesia well. We found Draco managed the post-surgical pain better the pain from his chronic eye issue.
Draco's recovery was aided with Metacam/Meloxicam (NSAID) BID.
Draco has been substantially happier since his enucleation surgery. He is less stressed without having numerous eye drops a day, and he has adapted well.
Since his surgery, he has been introduced to Meloxicam 1mg:1kg BID for splayed hips and suspected osteoarthritic changes to his hips and hind limbs. He's responded well to medicinal management and appears to be in less pain with his joints.
We are glad to see Draco so happy in his old age.
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