Cherry Eye?

Well the weekend got of to a bit of a scary start with Beckham. Melissa called me at work freaking out Friday evening saying that B had a very large lump on his eyeball. Immediately we made an emergency phone call to his vet (whom provided us with his personal after hours number for situations like this). Well, he was off duty.

Our next move was to call friends for some advice and they suggested we look up a 24 hour animal hospital in our area (I had no idea these existed). After calling around, Melissa got an appointment and I raced home from work and we shuttled him over to the Royal York Animal Hospital (http://www.ryah.ca). From the very start they were fantastic.

Once the doctor looked at him he confirmed that Beckham had CHERRY EYE and it wasn't really that big of a deal.

The medical term for 'cherry eye' is nictitans gland prolapse, or prolapse of the gland of the third eyelid. Unlike people, dogs have a 'third eyelid' that contains a tear gland and is located in the corner of each eye. Under normal circumstances, this gland is not visible and aids in the production of tears. For some reason, which is not completely understood, the gland of the third eyelid prolapses or comes out of its normal position and swells creating the condition known as cherry eye.

Very quickly he corrected the problem and explained the condition to us. Needless to say, we were extremely relieved. We were very happy with the treatment we all received and will likely be using them in the future for his regular vet visits.

Whew! Thanks Deb, LA & Darrin for all the help!!