Membrane covering eyeball

I just pulled a new foster and he has an eye problem. The third eyelid membrane is somehow attached under the upper lid above the eye and is stuck over his eyeball. It looks rather unsightly and pitiful, but causes him no problems.

I took him into our special case rescue vet yesterday. He seems to think the cornea is ok under there. The membrane is not attached to the eyeball or the front of the cornea. He was able to move the membrane around, which I might add was EXTREMELY GROSS!!!! Rowland purred the entire time.

He took pics and sent them to an opthomo-however you spell it, to see if he would take the case pro-bono. No go joe. He will do 50% off his normally outrageous prices. Our vet has offered to try and I think he is pumped to do it. He will do it for his cost on materials and such so it wouldn't be too expensive and the rescue could probably afford to do it, but there is a catch.......

We may open a can of worms. As the eye is now, everything is fine. If we do the surgery he may have trouble healing, infections and possibly even lose the eye in the future.

So what to do. Do we leave it alone? Take the chance, do the surgery and hope he would be able to see out of that eye? He gets around fine right now. Plays kitty ball like a professional.

Anyone ever seen or dealt with something like this? Did you do the surgery?

I'm afraid I can't help you on this one.

I would however work closely with the vet. The vet sounds like an excellent one in that they are offering to do it at cost.

With either decision that you choose, you will have to watch the eye closely for infections and such like.

I'm sorry I'm not much help here.

I'd do it. You may be able to increase his chances of getting adopted if the problem is fixed. As it is now if it looks gross he probably wount be adopted. He can still function well with one eye even if it dosen't work out.