Does anyone know the costs of cataract surgery

[BBH]

My dog has always suffered with dry eyes and now has a cataract in one eye and is currently been treated with optimune and a wait and see type approach. She has told me she wouldn't recommend surgery because it only works in 50% of cases and the aftercare needs to be so 'sterile' normal households can't cope ( dust I assume ). She has said she wouldn't encourage it.

However to me sight is precious and I'd like to explore surgery , does anyone have and positive experiences and what is / was the cost please because if it's only a few thousand id take the risk because at least I would have tried.

 

[Aru]

Its generally a few thousand and done by specialists eye docs.the main issue is the after care which is multiple drops at set intevals throughout the day for quite a long time after.
However I'm actually not sure if a dog with dry eye can have the surgery due to the autoimmune nature of that condition and its treatment being an immunosuppressive med so you really would need to speak to a specialist and find that out before anything else.
The success rates for dog catract surgery are much lower then humans and do sometimes only restore partial sight

 

[BBH]

Thankyou for that, it does sound like it's not really an option then because practicalities aside the success rate seems low.

 

[Umbongo]

When I inquired about a few years ago I was told about 1-2k per eye with a specialist. Cataract surgery in dogs has a much lower success rate than in humans, the aftercare is very difficult for many to manage (and dogs to cope with too) as requires multiple eyes drops very regularly (think every 1-2 hours) for weeks. I decided it wasn't something I would be able to put my dog through as he wouldn't cope with the aftercare and it was something that we might have struggled with too as we weren't with him every hour of the day to administer eye drops.

I would also agree with Aru that a patient with dry eye may not be able to have the surgery, but again something to discuss with a specialist.

 

[Agility dogger]

My Border terrier had extremely succesful cataract surgery nearly 2 years ago, he was only 6. He is back to competing at agility in grade 7 and leads a normal life with eyedrops once a day. I have never heard of a house having to be sterile, mine certainly isn't!. He wore a lampshade for 3 weeks as it's imperative they don't scratch their eyes and he had a few different eyedrops, but even at worst straight after surgery, it was no more than 4 times a day and that soon reduces. I don't know the implications of dry eye and cataracts, but a good opthamologist could advise. The cost was around £3500 for both eyes, but bear in mind possible extras for check ups and if anything goes wrong. In my opinion cataract surgery can be extremely successful and is certainly worth investigating.

 

[blackcob]

I'm not familiar with the aftercare or success rates but I know that the referral centre we use charges around £2600 per eye (probably approaching £3000 including a pre and post op consultation).