When Midge, a 9-year-old bulldog, developed an ulcer on her cornea, her treatment led to surgery.

At age 9, Midge the bulldog already knows the aches and pains from arthritis. Her medication was keeping her pain controlled, but when a new condition arose in her eye, it was time for a visit to Dr. Michelle McDonough at Greendale Village Vet.

“Midge is a very sweet bulldog, so I always love seeing her,” said McDonough. “When she came in, though, her right eye was red, and she was squinting. Clearly this wasn’t going to be one of her wiggle-waggle happy visits. The first test I did was a fluorescein dye test, in which a special dye is used in conjunction with a blue light to see if there’s a problem with the cornea.”

Dr. Michelle McDonough uses a surgical technique called grid keratotomy to scratch grid lines on the cornea with a needle. The successful surgery led to Midge’s cornea healing one grid at a time.

The cornea is the clear surface of the eye, and it is susceptible to being scratched or damaged from rough contact with plants, animals or even from the pet scratching an itch. “There can also be damage from chemicals like shampoo during a bath or even from something like a bit of plant getting stuck under an eyelid. Some ulcers can also develop spontaneously when there is a defect in the first layer of the cornea,” said McDonough. “Midge’s test showed she definitely had a corneal ulcer.”

The first line of treatment for Midge was antibiotic eye drops that her family gave her three times a day. She also wore an e-collar so she couldn’t scratch her face or get anything in her eye. Ordinarily, a pet would also get pain medication as part of the first line of treatment, too, but Midge was already receiving that for her arthritis. A week later she was back at the clinic for a recheck, but the ulcer had not healed, so McDonough scheduled her for surgery.

“Some corneal ulcers are called indolent, which means there is a small lip on them that gets in the way of the healing process,” said McDonough. “The surgical procedure I chose to do is called a grid keratotomy, where I used a needle to scratch grid lines on the cornea. When the procedure is successful, the cornea starts healing one grid at a time.” A week after surgery, though, McDonough wasn’t satisfied with Midge’s progress, so she referred her to a veterinarian who specializes in ophthalmology.

“The ophthalmologist said Midge was actually healing well but changed the eye drop medication to one that also had steroids in it,” said McDonough. “The steroids helped reduced inflammation and the granulation tissue on her eye.”

The good news, said McDonough, is her little bulldog patient is now completely healed and will not have any long-term complications from her ordeal. “Midge is back to being her adorable wiggle-waggle self,” said McDonough.

For more information, visit greendalevillagevet.com. To make an appointment, call 414-421-1800.

Midge, healed completely from her corneal ulcer, is her happy self again.