Adopting a dog with Uveitis: Is treatment costly and will she snap?

I think a full ocular exam would give you more information on whether one or both eyes need to come out. The small eye may be congenital or may have already ruptured and may not be painful any longer. The larger eye could be large just because it looks bigger as compared to the small eye or could have glaucoma. KCS can easily be diagnosed with a vet, but will likely need life-long medications to manage, and these can be expensive depending on the medication and formulation used. Many dogs with severe KCS have their eyes enucleated and become much more comfortable. My impression from reading her file is that she has very painful eyes, and that this is a chronic pain. Bilateral enucleation would easily resolve this pain and may improve her quality of life drastically. The cost for this surgery can vary depending on the vet clinic chosen, you may call around and ask for rough quotes for bilateral enucleation. It could range from $700 to $1500 or more. I would recommend that she have both eyes done at the same time (if the vet performing the ocular exam thinks they are both defective eyes) as this will decrease total time under anesthesia and make Lia only have to recover from a painful procedure once. If both eyes are removed, then she may not need significant medical care or follow-ups (cost-wise) after she is fully recovered. Her file tells me that she may be a great one to rescue if your group can cover the costs of surgery. I admire the work you do and appreciate your compassion more than you will ever know!

It is hard to know without a full physical assessment - some cases may have problems with the position of eyelids and either inturned eyelashes or failure to blink fully, possibly requiring corrective surgery. A full vet report would be recommended prior to adoption

Since Molly is an older dog, I would not wait long to have the eye removed, as anesthesia presents more risk, the older the dog gets. That said, uveitis is painful and this would be the main reason to remove the eye. Of course, once the eye is removed, it cannot hurt anymore. Not knowing how far advanced the disease is, it is hard to give you advice on when to do the surgery. I would say, it is definitely time when her eye hurts. Discuss this with your vet who has all the details of her case and can assess the situation better than we can from far away.

Cataracts are fairly common in dogs. There are some potential complications of cataracts, but if it is only in one eye, it may just be something that needs to be monitored. I have attached a handout below with a lot of information on cataracts including treatment and potential complications. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=659 I hope that was helpful and answered your questions. Thanks for using PetCoach.

Adopting a dog is a big financial responsibility and adopting one with an issue can be even bigger. It depends what medication Sammy is on to determine if the cost of the medication is going to be expensive or not. I would discuss with the person you are considering adopting Sammy from and see if they know what the typical cost of the medications are. Understand that throughout the dog's life you may need to change medications (which may be more expensive), perform routine blood work (once or twice a year) and do more then once or twice yearly examinations. This cost can add up. You can also look into pet insurance, but many companies will not cover pre-existing conditions which this is. It is an amazing thing to take in an animal that has a problem, if financially you are able to take it on. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

My last visit to my dog's ophthalmologist was quite a bit less than surgery would be to remove his eye, so before making any rash decisions, I would find out the cost of seeing the ophthalmologist. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to determine if a mass in the anterior chamber is an iris cyst (which is benign) or a melanoma, but one trick is that an iris cyst may move in the eye. So if Tia is on her back, does the mass move? If so, be sure to give your doctor that information. I wish I had a simple answer for you, but I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

I sympathize with you. Painful eyes are very difficult to deal with. The answer to your question depends on if the reason for the problem is that the antibiotics aren't working because of the type of bacteria or the underlying disease. Unfortunately, it is difficult to know that information. I think your best option would be to see a specialist. Veterinary ophthalmologists have 4 years of specialized training in treating only eyes, so they have a much greater knowledge of eyes than normal vets. I actually took my 15 year old dog to a veterinary ophthalmologist last month because I want to avoid removing one of his eyes. She used medication that I have never used in my practice in 15 years and my dog is doing great now. I have included a link below for you to search for a veterinary ophthalmologist near you. http://member.acvo.org/search_results Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.