A short educational video by Dr. Lera Clone explaining canine 'cherry eye'—the prolapse of the third eyelid gland. The video describes the gland's function, suspected genetic cause (tissue laxity), diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment options, breed and age patterns, recurrence risks after surgical replacement, and recommendations against gland removal.
Questions this video answers
As young as 9 months old up to 15 years old.
About 64–65%.
Often within about three months after the first eye.
About 41%.
No — there is no predilection for males or females.
Chapters
Hey, guys. Dr. Lara here today. I'm here with Nala. You may notice that Nala is here from previous video or not, actually, because we had technical difficulties now that I'm thinking about it. But the purpose of the video today is to talk about this red thing over here that you guys might have been able to see. It's called, normally called a cherry eye. So if you guys stay tuned, we'll talk about what it is, how we diagnose it, what the potential cause is, and what the different ways to go about treating it. Stay tuned and we'll get into that shortly. Hey, guys. All right, so cherry eye. So what is it? First things first. There's a little gland that, if you guys didn't notice, it typically sits kind of like in this area underneath the tissue. And what happens is that gland is there to produce lubrication and nutrients for the cornea. It's normally held in place by some fibrous tissue or. Yeah, some fibrous tissue that'll keep it in place. And we suspect. We don't know for sure, but we suspect that it's tied to some sort of genetic issue where it causes laxity or looseness in that tissue that keeps the gland in place. And it ends up kind of popping up and seeing what you see in regards to how do we go about treating it. Typically, you'll go ahead and use some drops with steroids to try and get the swelling down and try and get it back into place. Usually that's not going to work long term. I think the term or the phrase that's used is rarely. So what ends up having to happen is we will usually have to do surgery to go ahead and tuck that away. And so usually what ends up happening is the technique that I've seen that works and you're going to want somebody who knows what they're doing. This was something that, honestly, I tried doing when I was earlier in my career and I didn't do it successfully to the point where the gland stayed in place. So now I don't even bother doing those particular procedures just because of the level of care that I try to provide for my own clients. If it was my pet, it's just a procedure where if you don't know what you're doing, it ends up being frustrating for the client. It ends up being frustrating for the patient, it ends up being frustrating for the doctor as well. Just because you don't. You don't want to see those things come back, even though it's. It's not the End of the world, you still have to put the patient back on your anesthesia again. And that's unfortunate, especially if that's what we're trying to avoid anyways. So they'll go ahead, they'll make a cut into the tissue, they'll make a little envelope, they'll tuck the gland in there and then they'll stitch it closed. And then some people will actually put another stitch through that envelope of tissue and anchor it lower beneath people who really know what they're doing. I want to say there's probably like a 90 to 95% chance of them getting it done and over with the first time around that you notice I said 90 to 95%. So that still means that there's about 5 to 10% of the time at least, that even with people who know what they're doing, it can still come back. In regards to what used to be done in the past, some people would just cut out that gland that is a not recommended. Because what will end up happening is you will remove that tissue that is meant to provide lubrication and for nutrients for the cornea, and it ends up being a major problem. You don't just go ahead and put artificial tears in the eyes to go ahead and replace that. There are other things that that gland produces that help to maintain the health of the cornea. In regards to the patients that we see it in, there are a number of different breeds that can be seen in. It can be seen in Newfies, it can be seen in mastiffs, it can be seen in Losa Apsos, it can be seen in bulldogs. There are a number of different breeds. In terms of ages, we can see it in dogs as young as 9 months old or as old as 15 years old. The majority of the time we are seeing it in patients less than two years of age. Typically, I think it's like 64 or 65% of the time. We will see it in patients that are. We'll see it just in one eye if they are going to develop it in the other eye. Normally what we've seen is that it will develop in about three months after the first. It happens with the first eye. I think about 41% of the time the patients will go ahead and develop it in both eyes. And in regards to if there is a predilection for males or females, there is no predilection for this. The last thing I did want to mention is there is nothing that you did or didn't do that caused this to happen or that somebody else did that could have caused this to happen. We don't have any anything that really indicates that to be the case. So it this is just really, as of right now, we suspect to be a genetic issue. And other than just trying to not breed the dogs that are having these issues, there's not much else you can do to prevent this from happening. If you guys found this video helpful, please give us a thumbs up. Subscribe if you know somebody who needs to watch it, please share it with them. Thanks for watching. Have a blessed day and take care.
