uveitis and other eye issues

Question
Hi  I believe K.S. may have contacted you about Prince Romeo in the past.  His white cloudy eye that had and ulcer, and the one he had a grid surgery on was doing better but now he has blood veins under his eye (circle lines).  Tufts wants to remove the eye and possibly both, and will just sew his eyes shut!!!  I am so scared and haven't slept.  They want to do the surgery tomorrow, and I am so not sure what to do.  He is 8 years old and a Mini Rex.  He does seem like he's in pain, but i guess I am wondering if I should just treat him with meds rather than have eye removal (s).  Due to time sensitivity please tell me your thoughts as soon as you can.  His papers say he has inflammation and Uveitis.  His "better" eye has white cloud and is getting worse.  :(  help!!

Answer
Dear Kim,

I apologize for the delay.  Unexpectedly, a middle school ecology outreach program I was running went crazy at the end, and I'm just now getting my life back.  So sorry!  But I'm back now.

You did not say in your subject line that this was urgent or an emergency, as I instructed in my introduction.  Although I've been checking my questions every day for emergencies and answering them immediately, I was forced to leave the non-urgent questions for later.  If you have an urgent question in the future, please be sure to put that in the subject line so you'll get a fast response.

Unfortunately, if Romeo had chronic uveitis and was in constant pain from that, then the best and most humane treatment, if all else has failed, is to remove the eye and close the skin over the socket.  This may sound drastic and awful, but it's not as bad as it sounds.  I have known many "one-eyed jacks" and they all do just fine.

Was Romeo ever seen by a veterinary ophthalmologist?  Was he showing clear signs of pain (squinting, favoring that eye, etc.)?  If so, then I'm sure the right thing was done, and he's recovering well by now.

Vascularization around the iris can happen in response to inflammation, but it also can be a sign that a corneal ulcer is in the healing process, and sometimes the entire eye becomes covered with superficial vascularization until the ulcer is healed.  At this point, a scar forms, the blood vessels degenerate, and some degree of vision is usually still there.  I couldn't see Romeo's eye to know whether this was what was going on.   But I hope all is fine now.

Take care,

Dana