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Saggy Dog Gets Face Lift So He Can See Again

Saggy Dog Gets Face Lift So He Can See Again

Poor Neopolitan Mastiff Neo was being weighed down by his very droopy skin.

Joanna Freedman

Joanna Freedman

Meet Neo - the giant Mastiff dog who has just been given a face lift.

Poor Neo had so much saggy skin on his face that his owners had to hold it back so that he could eat.

But that wasn't all. The excess skin was giving him so much discomfort that it was causing his face and eyes to hurt under its weight.

Eventually, Mark Hutchins and his family decided to take the 150lb (68kg) Neapolitan Mastiff for treatment at Eastcott Veterinary Referrals in Swindon, Wiltshire.

And it was there that experts carried out a life-changing makeover on Neo, removing one kilogram skin to fix is sagging eyes and eyelids.

The dog couldn't eat because his skin was so heavy (
SWNS)

Eastcott's head of ophthalmology Ida Gilbert headed up the urgent case and worked with specialist soft tissue surgeon Andrew Phillips.

Alongside fellow ophthalmologist Dave Johnson, the team successfully tackled the eye-opening procedure and give Neo a new lease of life.

Speaking about the procedure, Mark, from Chippenham, said: "I know it sounds a bit mad when you talk about a dog having a facelift but it was a very traumatic time for the family.

"Neo was having a lot of problems with his face and eyes because he had so much saggy skin hanging down and he was in a lot of pain and discomfort.

Neo's owners eventually took him to the vet (
SWNS)

"We even had to pull his skin back for him so he could see his meal and eat it properly.

"It was obvious something had to be done, although we were very worried that he wouldn't look the same afterwards, especially my daughter Millie, who was a bit tearful over it all."

Thankfully, the face lift turned out amazingly, and now Neo's life has absolutely transformed.

Veterinary ophthalmologist, Ida Gilbert said: "Neo was clearly struggling, so he was considered to be an urgent case and was prioritised for surgery.

"His vision was poor due to his eyelid conformation and extremely heavy facial folds. He had also developed very sore eyes because of the irritation from his condition.

Neo had over 1kg of excess skin (
SWNS)

"The constant irritation caused him to rub his eyes repeatedly, which worsened the situation, and he'd also become anxious about anyone attempting to handle around his eyes and face, which made the application of eye drops nearly impossible for his owners.

"A full investigation revealed the eyelids and skin folds were causing irritation to the cornea and putting him in a lot of discomfort.

"There was inflammation and damage to the left cornea, he struggled to open his eyes and had a double kink in his left upper eyelid and a single in the right, due to the excessive eyelid lengths."

The heavy skin was affecting Neo's quality of life (
SWNS)

The veterinary practice operated on both eyelids at the same time as his facelift so that he didn't have to be anaesthetised for too long.

During the operation, he had his eyelids surgically corrected and shortened by 15mm, and they also conducted another procedure to stop the eyelids turning inward and outward.

But the most staggering part was the 1,050g of skin that was removed, allowing Neo to live a normal life once more.

Surgeon Andrew reflected: "Everything went well and it has really given him a new lease of life and opened his eyes again to the world around him.

Neo's face lift was a great success (
SWNS)

"He has healed very nicely and his owners report he is a much happier dog as a result of the surgery."

While owner Mark said: "Now it's all over, we can finally see the funny side of it and it's already led to a few chuckles. When people say to me 'Oh isn't he lovely?' I say 'That's because he's just recovering from a facelift'.

"No-one believes me when I say the vets removed more than a kilo of skin, they think I'm joking, but it's absolutely true and Neo's all the better for it."

Featured Image Credit: SWNS

Topics: Dog, Life News, Cute, Real