*****Updated Feb 14 2008****
Rather than start a new post in the proper Health Section, I thought I would just update this one. Cole had his eye surgery yesterday. The cyst that was found in his left eye had gotten slightly larger and I was not comfortable waiting any longer. The amazing thing is that when I took him in yesterday, the vet found a SECOND CYST in his right eye! This one was quite small and clearly had developed recently. So it was a good thing to have waited or I'd have been right back in the doctor's office paying full price for another surgery - this one was a two-fer!
The entire surgery took about 30 minutes. The treatment for the removal of an uveal cyst is basically to just stick a small needle through the cornea and suck the cyst out. It's done under a microscope. Total cost of the surgery was $1600. Steep, but I can look into Cole's beautiful burnt sugar brown eyes again without seeing any obstructions. He's doing just fine! He has to have Pred Acetate eye drops 2x a day for a week and then 1x a day for another week, and he is on Rimadyl twice a day for 2 weeks for pain and inflammation. He's a champ!
I wanted to update this in case anyone else has had to deal with uveal cysts. Apparently they are most common in Labs and Goldens, but I have been involved with dogs for years, mostly in the Lab community and no one I know has ever encountered this or even heard of it before. The eye surgeons say they probably remove a dozen of these a year, and that's from the whole surrounding suburban Chicago area. So I would say it is pretty rare - and nearly unheard of that Cole would have bilateral cysts, not to mention having more than one in the course of a lifetime. The odds are like a million to one. I should play the lottery!
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So Cole and I went to the canine opthalmologist on Saturday morning to check on his iris cyst. I've posted about this here before, but if you need a refresher Wikipedia actually had the best information on iris cysts in dogs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_cyst
Good news is, it's confirmed to be an iris cyst and not melanoma. They recommend surgery to remove it. The plus side is that iris cysts are usually one per customer, they don't regrow and there's no sign of any more in either eye. Apparently they form in the vitreous humor inside the eye and float out of the pupil, floating around in between the iris and the cornea as they grow. Bad news is, it will eventually burst if not removed and that can cause issues. It's very darkly pigmented, so when it bursts all the junk inside is going to spew over his eye. If it bursts at the bottom of his iris, no big deal, but if it bursts over his pupil it can cause a vision obstruction. Plus there is a risk of an infection from it. Surgery is a relatively quick procedure that requires about 20-30 minutes of general anesthesia and the cyst is needle aspirated and deflated.
What stinks is, the surgery costs a bloody $1300-$1500! That's almost as much as I paid for a TPLO repair for another dog. Since there aren't many canine opthalmologists in the world, this place is the only game in town. The nearest teaching vet-med hospital is at University of Illinois Champain-Urbana, about 4 hours drive. The nice thing about the place I took Cole to is they are close by, it would be easy to drop him in the morning and come pick him up after work. If I take him to a teaching hospital it's going to be a long drive - probably two round trips since I'm sure they won't do surgery the day they see him - and I'm sure that will eat up any money I'd save by taking him to a university.
I don't think anyone else here has any experience with iris cyst removals but if you do, could you please comment? I paid $180 on Saturday for a 30 minute vet visit. Seriously it cost me $90 to have them put paper strips in Cole's eyes to check tear production ( a 20 second thing) and then bounce some stuff off his eye to check glaucoma (another 5 seconds). (Tear production was normal and eye pressure was low at 10, normal is 12-15). It just seems wrong that they charge so much because they can.
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I guess what I'm really looking for here is What Would You Do? Would you do the surgery or just wait and see what happens and fix it if it becomes a problem??? I don't want to put my dog at risk, but I'm not sure I really am if I wait and see what happens.