Proptosis of the Eye
 
Description of the Disease and Clinical Picture
The most common cause of eye proptosis is trauma, and proptosis can occur in brachycephalic breeds of dogs. Poor prognostic indicators in cases of proptosis include a prolapse that has lasted for an extended period, the presence of a rupture in the eyeball, severe injuries to extraocular muscles, hyphema, and a lack of pupillary reflex. In cases of pronounced proptosis, the vision of the other, healthy eye must also be checked due to the potential for damage to the optic chiasm. Proptosis should be differentiated from exophthalmos or buphthalmos. Exophthalmos is the prominence of the eyeball forward but still within the orbit and may be a consequence of cellulitis, orbital abscesses, retrobulbar neoplasms, masticatory or periorbital myositis, and zygomatic gland adenitis/mucocele. Buphthalmos refers to the enlargement of the eyeball, accompanied by an enlargement of the orbit and eye fissure, typically a result of chronic glaucoma.
 
Therapy
If the eye can be saved, repositioning of the eyeball is performed under general anesthesia, followed by tarsorrhaphy (temporary suturing of the eyelids). An eye that retains a pupillary reflex after repositioning the eyeball has a good prognosis for vision recovery.
 
Please contact our specialty veterinary ophthalmology hospital Animal Eye Consultants
of Iowa (animaleyeiowa@gmail.com) in the USA or Oculus Veterinary Specialty Hospital
(oculusklinika@gmail.com) in Serbia, Europe to schedule an appointment so your pet
can be seen.