Cherry Eye In The Dog. Prolapse Of The Third Eyelid.

Cherry Eye In The Dog

Cherry Eye is a fairly common problem seen in dog’s eyes, it is more properly called prolapse of the gland of the third eyelid or nictitating membrane. The owner will see this as a sudden appearance of a small red lump about the size of a pea in the inside corner of their dog’s eye. Either one eye or both eyes can be affected. I found that the owners were very concerned about this disease thinking something major had gone wrong but in almost all cases it is easily resolved.

The cause of Cherry Eye is not fully understood, but thought to be a weakness in the tissue  that surrounds the eye ball. Some breeds, such as Cocker Spaniels, Beagles and some terrier and toy breeds have predisposition to Cherry Eye.

This condition is not usually painful to the dog but it is unsightly to the owner and in a small minority of cases it may damage the eye ball through irritation. All small animal vets will be able to diagnose this condition on appearance alone.

So how is this disease treated? In days gone by the gland was surgically removed which instantly improved the appearance of the eye, however this is rarely carried out these days as in a small number of cases dry eye or keratoconjunctivitis sicca was a complication.

These days it is more preferable to replace the gland and tack it back into position, there are a couple of methods described for this procedure and they are fairly easy to carry out. The problem with this method is that sometimes the prolapsed gland will pop back out again requiring further surgery and the stitches have been known to irritate the eye in a small number of cases. However these complications are usually very minor and easily corrected when compared to keratoconjunctivitis sicca.

Unfortunately there are no home remedies as far as this condition is concerned so if you suspect your dog has developed it your only option is to get your dog to the vet as soon as possible.

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This entry was posted on April 22, 2011 at 11:50 am and is filed under Dog Diseases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.