[bucksmom]

I have a beautiful purebred golden retriever. He is my first golden, so I have nothing besides my other dog (rescued border collieXhusky) to compare to. His eye's have always teared (we've had him from puppyhood). This winter one eye in particular was tearing, I thought he had an eye infection and took him to the vet's.

My vet said no infection, but an irritation that had caused mild swelling of the eye lids, which caused the eyelids to turn in slightly, causing eyelashes to rub on the eye ball, causing further irritation and swelling. Thankfully we caught this before it caused ulcerations of the eyeball. So, we treated for 7 days with vetropolycin and noticed an improvement. When I took him back to the vet's however, she said that she thought his eye opening was a little small and this was probably the underlying cause for the initial irritation and that Buck should probably have some surgery to remove a little skin under his eye and enlarge the eye opening.

Buck is due for his shots in March so I opted to wait until then so we could see if the problem improves/worsens. (& save moneylol)
It was a week ago that we were at the vet's for the follow up visit. His eye's are back to normal (have to be wiped once a day)

Has anyone out there had a similar problem with a golden? My vet said this is very common in shar pei's (sp?). Do you have experience with this kind of surgery with any kind of dog? What was the outcome? Recovery?

I have a feeling he is going to end up with the surgery. I can't imagine going through life with something constantly scratching my eyeballs.

Thanks in advance
Tara