Anyone experienced with cherry eye surgery?

Stackie · Jul 4, 2011

Some of you know that my recently adopted pup has cherry eye. She will be having the corrective surgery done the same time she gets spayed. I was wondering if anyone else has had a dog go through the corrective surgery and what their experience was?

I have been reading online and have encountered tons of different opinions on the various ways of correcting the cherry eye.

Removal- no chance of relapse, but I have read contradicting info on the downfall of the surgery. Many places say it's not a good idea due to risk of removing the tear gland, resulting in chronic dry eye. Other sources have said that dry eye is an uncommon complication.

Stitching- less invasive but high chance of the cherry eye developing again.

Pocket technique- same as above.

Anyone have any thoughts/opinions/suggestions? The vet mentioned something about removing the gland, but if it really will result in dry eye and having to medicate her constantly for it, I would rather opt for one of the other corrective techniques.

dayofhope · Jul 4, 2011

I had a foster dog who had this surgery. We only had her for a few days after she had it, but she was adopted a few months later so I assume she is fine. I'm pretty sure it was the removal. If I remember correctly, we had to give her eye drops afterward. Other than that, as far as I know the surgery went well.

Good luck to your dog

Brittany · Jul 4, 2011

No experience with cherry eye, however when I was a kid our cocker spaniel stopped producing tears in one eye. Every morning she would wake up with thick globs of gunk that had glued her eye shut. It was time consuming, and painful for her, we had to soften the gunk with warm water and slowly remove it from the eyelids. We had to give her drops several times a day and it didn't help much. If Shelby's dry eye could be that bad I'd say avoid it at all costs.

Sycamore Chins · Jul 4, 2011

We had our cocker spaniel's cherry eye tucked. It didn't reoccur for the couple years we had her afterwards, I'm not sure if it did after we gave her away. I would opt for a tuck and if it reoccurs then consider having it removed.

RDZCRanch · Jul 4, 2011

The vet I worked for used the pocket technique because he'd seen a few dogs suffer from dry eye from the complete removal. Five years later, none of the dogs we did the pocket technique on had re-occurrences of cherry eye. The pocketing technique works well when done properly.