Mason's eye removal (enucleation) and teeth extraction surgery: One month

 

After one month, his fur is almost all the way grown back.  His "scar" skin has gone from pink to black.  I think he's feeling pretty good. His removed teeth stitches haven't dissolved yet and are still there.  I'm still feeding him his kibble soaked in water to soften it.

Mason's eye removal (enucleation) and teeth extraction surgery: Days 8 - 14 (two weeks) post op

 Everything's been pretty much the same. The eye wound continues to look better each day.  Around day 7 I noticed he started doing normal full yawns again.  Before that he was only half-opening his mouth. His fur is really starting to fill in, too.  Around day 10 I suspect most of the swelling went down enough for him to begin to get the caved-in look (you can see where his skull's eye socket ends and the void begins), but the "lips" of the wound are still sticking out, so the overall look is pretty weird.  On day 12 Mason got his stitches removed!  Read more about that below.

Day 8:

 

Day 9:

 

Day 10:

We were supposed to be going on "short leash potty walks" according to the vet instructions, but instead we went on an overnight canoe camping trip! His eye wound started to get the caved-in look, but right around the incision site it was still coned out, so it's looking pretty weird right now.

 Mason found his sacred orb in the van.

Day 11: We returned from our canoe camping trip and I forgot to take photos of his eye, but here is a photo of him between two canoes.

 

Day 12: Stitches got removed today so that means no more cone! There are some photos of before the stitches came out and after photos.  Mason had 4 external stitches and a couple of layers of stitches under his skin.  The stitches came out easily and quickly and I don't think Mason even felt it.  The vet also said the stitches in his mouth are healing well (those will dissolve).  She even gave him permission to eat his hard kibble again and she said I could start brushing his teeth in a week.  For an hour or so after the stitches came out I could actually see the hole that the stitches left (it was very small, the exact gauge of the thread that was used) and then later in the day I noticed some reddish clear liquid in the hole, and then even later there were small scabs there.  He has one scab near the center of his eye that I probably didn't notice before because a stitch was covering it.

 Mason hates the vet (even more so now!) so this is my special technique to keep him calm while we are waiting at the vet.

 After the stitches came out:

 

 13 days post op:

His fur is mostly growing back but there is still a weird bald patch right above. You can also see the scab in the center.

You can see stitches where his little loose tooth was pulled on the top.

Mason's teeth after they were cleaned and six were pulled. 

14 days (two weeks) post op:

Everything is pretty much same as usual.  Last night he had a small amount of bleeding as if he had rubbed off a scab.   

Mason's eye removal (enucleation) and teeth extraction surgery: some bad news

I got the histopathology ("the microscopic examination of biological tissues to observe the appearance of diseased cells and tissues in very fine detail") results of Mason's removed eye today.  The vet said it looked like he had primary glaucoma, and his ophthalmologist confirmed it.  His ophthalmologist suspected he had secondary glaucoma caused by the mature cataract in that eye, so she was surprised to hear it was primary.  She told me to use the left over Dorzolamide eye drops from his other eye on his one remaining eye twice a day to help delay the inevitable (my wording, not hers).

The ophthalmologist mentioned Endolaser surgery being an option in his remaining eye (...for $8,000).  It has an 85% chance of saving whatever vision he has left and a 95% chance of keeping his eye pressure low.  She doesn't perform it until after a spike in pressure because the other 15% is the chance that she accidentally blinds him, which is less horrible when you already know he's definitely going to go blind from glaucoma.  She also said that when his pressure spikes it is very important for him to see an ophthalmologist in 1-2 hours.  They could then add drops to his routine or use a needle to remove some of the fluid in the eye to relieve the pressure and hopefully save his vision.