Bulldogs World

we had an ulcer, eye sewn shut and bottom lid entropian both eyes. as far as we can tell now, it was succsessful- stiches came out on saturday.  james is totally happy and spunky, but his eyes look funny to me, kinda basset houndish.   I am far from an expert, but if I can give you any info, lemme know.  I used the yucky old ecollar.  there was this cool soft collar with velcro at petco, and i bought it but it didnt fit.

james is not mellow, he was dying to rub his eyes at first.  honestly, even if hazel is mellow, she could roll around in her sleep or rub against the wall-- it is not worth messing up the surgery and adding more recovery time.  the last couple days before the stiches came out we let him out of the collar when we were home, but it was hard because our other dog thought that meant it was playtime. but he did get some time out once the stiches were "healed", and once they came out he never went to swipe his eye. 

 i would keep her in the collar....esp if you have to leave the house and when she sleeps.  i dont know about the inflatable collar, they didnt have james' size.  but i do think the ecollar is harderon us than them, he got used to it after a while (although now that he's out i can tell how limited he was with it on).  how long till the stiches come out?

is that you give her the antibiotic in case of infection!  you wont have as many meds as we did because of the ulcer, but follow your doc's med schedule to a T...esp in this heat bacteria can breed.  and if you ask me, those ecollars are a breeding ground for filth-- we had to clean jame's twice a day (but he is a massive drooler).  she may not want you near her face for a few days so get her ears as clean as possible going in.

I would also ask you vet to clean her rope and folds while she is under.  It will be hard to do it when she is still stiched, I was nervous.

good luck.  i am sort of a wierdo when it comes to my dogs and child, but i cried all day. i read so many horror stories about bullies and anesthesia... in the end, it was very routine.  and the cost was not so bad for the surgery, but the anethsesia and monitoring is expensive.  i could have put that $$ toward my own eye lift or at least some botox!

Beatrix just had entropian surgery on Thursday -- I would definitely go with the standard e-collar. The inflatable ones look like they'd work for a surgery where the main concern is them licking the incision, but I don't think it will help much against them itching their eyes. Even if she can't reach with her paws, she'll rub her face on furniture and carpets and such.

I also looked at the soft foam cones at PetCo when we got Beatrix's new one (her old collar was destroyed by her running into stuff with it and held together with duct tape by Sunday), but I didn't think it would help, for the same reason. With the hard cone, she keeps pushing it against furniture trying to get her eyes down to the fabric -- with a soft collar, it would just bend out of the way so she could do that. Or even bend in and hit the eye itself.  

The standard e-collar is a pain, and I know Beatrix hates it. But I really think it's the best protection for her eyes right now.