Corneal Scars in Dogs: The Story of Blind Maximus. What Would You Do If It Was Your Dog?

The most common cause of corneal ulceration is trauma. Because of their protruding eyes, Chihuahuas are one of the breeds particularly prone to eye issues and injuries.

Maximus is a five-year-old Chihuahua. Because of the anatomy of his skull, his eyes were vulnerable to problems. He already lost sight in one eye, when his mom noticed a strange spot in the other.

Corneal Scars in Dogs: The Story of Blind Maximus. What Would You Do If It Was Your Dog?

Maximus lost his left eye at a young age from an infected cat scratch.

Maximus’ eye gets scratched by a cat again

When he was five years old, his right eye got scratched by a different cat. That is as dangerous to an eye as it gets. Not only there is a physical trauma but the claws can carry all sorts of germs. Scratches are not as bad as bites but bad enough.

For all of those reasons, Maximus’ mom took him to a veterinarian right away. She was concerned that Maximus could use his only good eye.

The determining factor is the severity of the scratch and whether it got the cornea directly. It is possible that the claw can miss the actual eye and strike an eyelid, third eyelid, or the membranes around the eye. The odds of serious complications are not as high. Even though if the third eyelid is injured, it can lead to cherry eye.

Source: dogster

Was Maximus that lucky? Given the strange dot on the eye, the concern was real.

Veterinary exam

The vet who saw Maximus assured his mom that the little white dot in his only good eye was just a corneal scar and it was nothing to worry about. Maximus was sent home after getting a steroid shot.

His mom was skeptical but wanted to believe that the problem wasn’t all that serious.

That was supposed to solve it but the dot in Maximus’ eye got bigger instead of smaller. Maximus got another shot but his eye kept getting worse.

What do you think was happening to Maximus’ eye? Would you be satisfied with his treatment? What would you do if it was your dog?

Read Maximus’ story to learn what happened.

Further reading:
Corneal Ulcers in Dogs

Categories: Blindness • Conditions • Eye diseases • Real-life Stories

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Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer, dog health advocate, writer, and author. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Countless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care in my own hands. I learned the hard way that merely seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to get a diagnosis. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people how to recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to save others the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way as I did. That is the mission behind my blog and behind my writing. That is why I wrote Symptoms to Watch for in Your Dog, which has turned out being an award-winning guide to dog owners. What I'm trying to share encompasses 20 years of experience.

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