Dog's Eye Surgery Helps Save Another Dog's Vision After 'Stars Aligned' — 'It Was Serendipity'

Susie Q, a 2-year-old morkie poo from Virginia, was diagnosed with cancer after a malignant tumor was found on her eyeball

A dog in Virginia had her eye saved thanks to the help of another furry companion.

Susie Q learned that she had a malignant tumor on her eyeball after a routine veterinary exam at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine's Veterinary Teaching Hospital last month.

"The veterinarian said, ‘I don’t like what I’m seeing,'" recalled Susie Q's owner, Jim DePierro, while recounting the experience for the university's website. “The veterinarians said Susie Q had a malignant tumor, a melanoma, on her eyeball. They’ll probably end up taking the eyeball. I almost fainted.”

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The 2-year-old morkie poo's visit came only hours after another dog visited the vet and had their eyeball removed. This turned out to be the perfect situation for Susie Q, as her tumor had not impacted the inside of her eye yet.

With the consent of the other dog's owner, corneal tissue from the removed eyeball was used to help perform surgery on Susie Q. The surgical team removed the tumor and used a graft from the other dog's lost eye to replace eye tissue around the infected area. This allowed Susie Q to keep her eye.

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“It was serendipity that a dog came the night before that lost its eye,” Daniel Rothschild Ph.D., a resident involved in the surgery, explained. “We try to do the same thing with corneal tissue transplant as we do in people, but in dogs, we don’t have donor tissue. The stars aligned in this case.”

The procedure was led by the hospital's assistant director, Ian Herring M.S. “I've done this surgery a number of times, but I never before used corneal tissue from another dog to do the repair," Herring said.

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Following the surgery, Susie Q is in good health and has had a positive recovery experience.

“They did an amazing job,” DePierro told the university's website. “Virginia Tech has been fabulous. I never thought that anyone would take the time to save the eye.”

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