Distichia
Extra eyelashes also known as distichia, are hair follicles that develop along the inner margin of the eyelids,
eyelashes grow
in these abnormal hair follicles and rub the eye and can cause all sorts of problems.
Symptoms can include eye discharge, redness of the eye, excessive tearing or excessive blinking.
Sometimes the lashes
rub the eye and cause an ulcer on the surface of the eye. Ulcers can be quite painful,
and ulcers caused by the eyelashes
are very hard to heal, because of the chronic rubbing from the lashes.
Certain breeds of dogs are more commonly affected and English Bulldogs are among those breeds.
Diagnosing distichia is pretty simple, your veterinarian will do an eye exam, and he can see the lashes,
they will also check
for corneal scarring ( white areas on the cornea of the eye ) excess blood vessels across
the surface of the eye, and
hyperpigmentation ( dark areas on the cornea )
Treatment depends on how many hairs are growing on the lid, if your dog has mild symptoms, many can be
managed conservatively with eye lubricants to protect the cornea. Some dogs will let you pluck the hairs out with tweezers
(they will grow back, but it will give your dog some relief ) The treatment of choice is cryosurgery ( freezing the lashes
and killing the hair follicles so the lashes don’t come back, there is one drawback to freezing, one treatment is usually
not enough to kill all the hair follicles, so it usually takes two treatments to get them all. ) It is not a good idea to freeze
the lashes more than twice, the eyelids can become scarred and create a whole new set of problems. After freezing
the eyelids will lose pigment ( the black color ) that is around the eye, but it will come back after about 6 months or so.