Georgina is now 9 months old and from being a few weeks old she's had entropion. Entropion is fairly common in Shar-Pei and is due to the heavy wrinkles on the forehead pressing on the eyelids causing them to roll inwards which irritates the cornea which in turn causes tearing, squinting and difficulty in opening the eys properly. Very often the condition can be cured by a simple surgical procedure called "tacking" which involves removing a small portion of skin from the brow to lift the weight off the eyelids. Unfortunately Georgie's entropion is so severe she's needed several tackings, the first being at 7 weeks old. She then seemed fine until until one night when she was 16 weeks old, I woke to hear her crying and found her in the living room with her nose pushed up against the wall and her eyes tightly shut. I immediately took her to the vet who asked the resident opthalmic specialist to examine her. Georgie had painful scratches on both cornea and could hardly open her eyes. She had her eyes tacked the following day and I was given antibiotic eye drops to heal the scratches. I was warned that this second tacking might not be entirely successful and the chances were she'd need at least one more operation. Sure enough 9 weeks later she was back in the operating theatre for a third tacking. By the third op both Georgie and I were nervous wrecks. Because her sight was impaired most of the time she had lost all confidence and had become scared of virtually everything. Getting her into and travelling in the car was a nightmare. Walking along the road became impossible as she was terrified of both stationary and moving vehicles and would panic and try to bolt. A strange noise on the TV would agitate her and start her off whining and pacing the house. I felt totaly inadequate to deal with her problems and none of the training manuals were of any help at coping with a young partially sighted dog. After a lot of thought I decided to follow my instinct and tackle each problem one by one. I also made a concerted effort to find a trainer to aid me and in that I was really lucky to find Kinga who although she's young has a deep understanding of dogs. Last Monday, Georgie had her fourth tacking and this time Dr Lengyel used a slightly different technique and wonder of wonder for the first time in five months MY GIRL CAN SEE PROPERLY!. Yesterday instead of being reluctant to climb in the car, she hopped in without being asked. Her tail is permanently wagging, she's so happy with her newly found sight! All she wants to do is stay in the garden watching the world go by. I'm so proud of my little girl! Some photos of Georgie taken yesterday! Guarding mum against the marauding hordes!
Oh bless her Georgie has such a lovely face . I understand entropion is really uncomfortable and it must be such a relief for her to have it sorted out.
Awesome. I have heard that poor breeding usually causes this condition in Shar Pei's, especially in severe cases... which kind of unnerves me but so glad she is doing well
Moyra ... to respond to your comment ..... Shar-Pei are only 1 of 14 breeds that suffer from hereditary entropion .... Mastiffs, Rotties, Viszla, Toy Poddles, Lab Retrievers, St Bernards and Bassett Hounds to name a few. Whilst in the past it was possibly due to poor breeding because it's caused by polygenetic inheritance, which in simple terms means there's more than one gene involved, makes it difficult to eradicate. Fortunately, entropion can be treated by surgery and as I have no intention of breeding Georgina the genes that caused her entropion won't be passed on. QUOTE="Azz, post: 178639, member: 1"]How is she getting on Barbara?[/QUOTE] Azz .. Georgina's doing so well I can hardly recognise her as the same dog. She's lost most of her nervousness and no longer whines or paces as before, or wakes up in the night when she hears a strange noise ..... at long last I'm catching up on my beauty sleep! The biggest difference in her is that now she looks at me and at everything around her whereas before she kept her head down and sniffed her way around Her training is coming along splendidly! Kinga's so pleased with the progress she's made since she's had her "new" eyes she says Georgie's now ready to join her group training class where she'll meet other dogs. The vet is also pleased with this last tacking and I don't have to take Georgie back for a check up for another three weeks, (which takes a lot of pressure off me as its a 90 mile round trip). Whether she'll need another op depends on how much larger her skull grows......... strange mum aren't I hoping my girl will be "big head" !
Hello, thank you for the reply. It was very enlightening. BTW, my name is Myra (with no "o"). Glad your girl is doing so well and good for you to get her the surgery she needs Nice to see a devoted dog owner!
