A VET at a surgery in Solihull has used a pig’s cornea to save a young bulldog from becoming blind.
Three-year-old Marley had already lost his left eye after suffering a deep corneal ulcer which had perforated the eyeball.
When he was diagnosed with an identical problem in the right eye, his owners Michael and Carol Bradley, from Walsall, feared he would completely lose his sight.
However, Alberto Palella Gomez, a clinician in veterinary ophthalmology at the Linnaeus-owned Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral Service had a plan to ensure Marley would keep his vision.
Alberto said: “Marley had previously undergone right-sided corneal surgery but unfortunately that had failed.
“They had also removed his left eye, so Marley came to us at serious risk of another perforation, and was in danger of losing his remaining eye.”
However, the surgery were able to perform corneal grafting from donated tissue.
The tissue comes from deceased pigs’ corneas. These corneas are bio-engineered for use in repairing corneal ulcers such as Marley’s and have been used extensively in veterinary and human medicine.
Alberto added: “We perform corneal surgery here at Willows on a daily basis and corneal grafting is one of these such procedures.
“We successfully performed a right-sided corneal transplant to repair the defect. Marley recovered really well from surgery and not only was he able to keep his remaining eye, he has also regained excellent vision in that eye as the cornea became almost completely transparent.”
Delighted owner Michael said: “We can’t praise Alberto and Willows enough. We’d absolutely recommend them to other pet owners. Marley’s right eye is absolutely fine again now. He’s not on any medication at all and he’s doing really well. We couldn’t be more grateful.”
Visit www.willows.uk.net for more information.
