Re: Eye removal surgery
Originally Posted by
Cmiddl3
My 11 year old squirrel is having her left eye removed tomorrow. That is the plan anyways. She started last week very lethargic. Not really interested in eating and had a huge swollen neck on the left side. Per my vet we started on Clavamox twice daily for 10 days and meloxicam for 3 days. The swelling started to go down after a few days but she still didn't have much appetite. I was syringe feeding critical care and I had to do SQ fluids. After a week I brought her back because she had a horrible ulcer on her eye. I had been putting neo poly bac on it twice to three times daily with no improvement. We added another antibiotic drop to see if that helped as well as switching to TMS and stopping the clavamox. Unfortunately it has not so we came to the conclusion she needed the eye removed. My vet has never done this on a squirrel so I'm a little nervous. I'm not sure the exact plan yet. We did discuss doing and x Ray prior to try and rule out a tumor but even if it is a tumor the eye still needs to come out. I would love to hear if anyone has had a similar situation and what was done to treat. They haven't really been able to check her teeth out either which I'm sure will be done once she is sedated tomorrow. What sedation is normally used for surgery? Her appetite has come back some but she is still only interested in soft foods. I'm hoping her body can handle the anesthesia. The photos are a progression of the swelling in the neck going down and the eye ulcer getting worse.
This sounds more like the possibility of an odontoma which is a tumor of odontogenic origin. I would definitely take a hard look at her teeth.
An odontoma is a tumor which may become aggressive in the involved area. A spreading untreated infection from a dental abscess can involve
tissue near the jaws, around the sinuses and most often the eyes.
Most vets will use isofluorane gas to anesthetize small animals such as a squirrel.
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