This five month old Neopolitan Mastiff presents with this appearance of the nicitating membrane in both eyes. What is happening and what should be done to correct it?
The T-shaped cartilage of the nictitating membrane is scrolled, as can be seen a bit more clearly in this view immediately before surgery. The kinked or scrolled portion needs to be excised through an incision through the conunctiva of the inside face of the nictitating membrane. Here the conjunctiva is less tightly adhered to the cartilage making the first separation easier. The only side effect that warn owners about is that this destablisation of the nictitating membrane may lead to a prolapse of the nictitans gland. In some Mastiffs the third eyelid is just too long and needs to be shortened but not in this case.