‘Major’ walked into the clinic and our vet team was stupified. Every staff member that was cruising past me kept saying:
‘Have you seen that dog with the stick injury?’.
I was starting to get edgy because I was still finishing up a procedure and was now dieing to see what the whole fuss was about. Suddenly I was equally captivated and silenced by the image of this placid German Shepherd with a decent sized stick hanging out of his eyeball while he was placed in a cage in front of me.
For those of you who can’t stomach any real gory images then I recommend you refrain from reading the rest of this blog as it is full of such images.
Ian, my vet colleague, immediately gave ‘Major’ a sedative/premed without examining the severity of the stick wound. There was no reason to poke and prod the patient until he was under full general anaesthetic.
Ian, however, had to explain to Major’s owners that based on his quick assessment, ‘Major’ was most likely going to require an eye enucleation.
This is ‘Major’ when he was first admitted and given his sedation.
I happened to be loitering around and actually had some free time to closely observe the whole procedure. They put Major under full general anaesthetic shortly after he was sedated.
Major had just been induced with IV alfaxalone (induction agent) at this stage and was going to be intubated next.
Finally the moment of truth, Major was intubated and anaesthetized. It was time to fully assess his horrific stick injury!
Close up of the STICK IN EYE!
Don’t ask me how but Ian did a terrific job and managed to pull the stick out carefully and without any major complications.
The stick had miraculously not punctured Major’s eye globe but instead managed to wedge itself between the eye globe and socket!!!
This image was taken after the stick had been removed and illustrates how much of the stick had been lodged within Major’s eye socket.
Ian then vigorously flushed the involved site and even infused antibiotics into it to prevent the formation of an abscess. The whole eye was severely swollen and had a constricted non-responsive pupil.
At this stage, the viability of the eye was in serious question but it was worth trying to save it.
Ian then performed a 3rd eyelid flap to protect Major’s eye.
Major the day after his procedure with his 3rd eyelid flap.
While Major has made an excellent recovery, the outcome of his injured eye is still unknown.
This week, we will be reversing the 3rd eyelid flap and fully assessing the functionality and viability of his eye.
In this picture, you can see Major is such a softie; shaking hands in the hope of getting a liver treat.
Major is one of the sweetest German Shepherd we have ever met. Let us keep our fingers and toes crossed for a really good outcome.
Those kind of accidents get you thinking, don’t they? Would you play fetch a stick with your dog after reading about this case?
Personally, I prefer my dogs chasing a bouncing ball over a stick.
However, it is important that we all remain reasonable and realize accidents do happen and so we don’t want to get overly paranoid.
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