Eye Removal Problems

[cowanbree]

Sorry for the off topic but am a bit concerned about my cat Kerriem and was wondering if what is happening to her is normal. She had to have her eye removed on Wednesday and has had a tough time recovering from the anesthetic so has spent the last 2 days at the vet on a drip. I picked her up tonight and noticed that she has a very slight bloody discharge from where the gauze they have packed the eye socket with is poking out (It is removed on Monday) I mentioned it to the vet and he just wiped her face.

I am a bit concerned about this, is this normal? It is bright red blood which I don’t think it should be considering she had the operation on Wednesday. It is very slight but definitely new blood

[Poodle wrangler]

Sorry, I don't know if it's normal, but if it continues over more than a day (bright red) or increased amount, I'd call the vet. If it's very slight, it's unlikely to require intervention, but I'm not sure.

[jemappelle]

I had a cat that had her eye removed and it wasn't packed. Did your vet say why he did that? Mine came home on pain relief with a nice clean wound and continued on as normal

[cowanbree]

It is still weeping slightly, just enough to color her face between me wiping it every couple of hours. He didn’t seem to be alarmed and she will be going back Monday morning so I suppose I just have to trust him – he is a good vet.

He packed the eye as he said in his experience a lot of times the eye sockets fills up with fluid requiring another operation to drain it. This way they just pull the gauze out on Monday and she should be good to go. Have to say she has had a really rough time with this and is only eating the odd mouthful so I am hoping she comes right. She suffers from PKD which has affected her kidneys so it was a big decision to do this operation – I wanted to do what was best for her and it hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped

[Golden Rules]

What you describe may just be blood stained serous fluid from the eye socket and unless it's thick blood, I wouldn't be too concerned.

However, if she is only eating a little, I would wonder how much pain she is in.......did the vet give you pain relief meds to take home?

Poor wee kiwi kitty.

[Cavandra]

I have had an eye removed on a tiny baby puppy, and she had no discharge after a day & a half roughly.

[cowanbree]

It is a week down the track and Keriem has had the gauze removed from her eye socket, in fact she is due to have the stitches out on Monday. She is eating well and seems quite happy but I am still a bit concerned about the discharge. It has very much decreased but she still has a very slight discharge that seems to be coming from her nose occasionally – perhaps only a few drops 2-3 times a day. It is bright red blood. Anyone had that?

[sumosmum]

Hi Cowenbree, my whippetx just turned 16yo and she had her eye removed last April. She didnt have any gauze packing in the socket. Her eyelids were just stitched together. Thinking back, she did have a small amount of blood discharge from her nose for some time after the op. I often noticed it as droplets on the elizabethan collar. I think that it went on for a while, probably longer than a week, on and off. My poor girl picked up kennel cough while she was at the vets for her operation, so I thought the bleeding was due to the poor thing coughing at first. She had to stay at the vet for quite a few days before the operation could be done. I hope your dog is doing well and makes a full recovery. My girl is old but I must say she has been so happy since her eye was removed. She previously had glaucoma, went blind in that eye,and damaged it. Good luck, please let us know how she is progressing.

[sumosmum]

And yes, it was bright red. I think it must drain for quite a while and has to come out somewhere, or maybe absorb into the body. The eye socket on my dog has changed over the months since the op. At first it was just smooth without a dent where the eye had been. As the time has passed, it is now quite a dent, so I think it probably drains and adjusts for quite a while. It doesn't look bad, and the hair grew back very quickly. Hope this will put your mind at rest a bit.