Just as in human medicine, your primary care veterinarian may suggest seeing an eye specialist if your pet is having difficulty with vision or experiencing signs of ocular disease or injury.   

The Ophthalmology service at CUVS is led by a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist, giving you and your pet access to exceptional expertise, care, and state-of-the-art instrumentation. We aim to maintain or restore vision and comfort in each of our patients by tailoring treatment plans to the needs of each animal and family.

One of our primary goals is to provide you with complete information and the time to ask questions and make informed decisions. To this end, initial consultations with our ophthalmologist are one hour, compared with the industry standard of 15-30 minutes. After the initial visit, our Ophthalmology team remains available to ensure that you are supported throughout your pet’s course of medical or surgical treatment.

Crucially, our Ophthalmology service is able to draw on the expertise of other specialty departments at CUVS for pets with concurrent systemic illnesses. This seamless, collaborative approach is one the many features that distinguish patient care at CUVS.

The Services We Offer

At CUVS, we offer sophisticated diagnostic resources together with a full range of medical and surgical therapies:

Diagnostic modalities include:

• Complete ophthalmic examination, including slit lamp biomicroscopy and funduscopy
• Gonioscopy
• Tonometry
• Chromatic pupillometry
• Electroretinography
• Ocular ultrasonography, including ultrasound biomicroscopy for anterior segment imaging
• Computed tomography (CT) scan
• Cytology, culture, biopsy of ocular and periocular structures

Treatment capabilities include:

• Cataract removal by phacoemulsification with artificial intraocular lens implantation using a state-of-the-art phacoemulsification system  
• Cosmetic intraocular prosthesis
• Corrective and reconstructive eyelid procedures (such as entropion correction, eyelid mass removal)
• Correction of prolapsed gland of the nictitans (“cherry eye”)  
• Cryosurgery
• Corneal procedures (such as keratectomy and grafting)
• Diamond burr keratotomy procedure for non-healing corneal ulcers
• Enucleation
• Gonioimplantation for surgical treatment of glaucoma
• Laser treatment for glaucoma
• Lens removal via intracapsular lens extraction or phacoemulsification for patients with lens luxation
• Medical management of a wide variety of ophthalmic conditions
• Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) exams (previously known as CERF)
• Surgical management of dry eye
• Tumor removal

The Conditions We See

We see the full spectrum of animal eye diseases, including:

• Cataract
• Corneal ulceration
• Conjunctivitis
• Distichiasis, trichiasis and ectopic cilia
• Entropion
• Eyelid and ocular neoplasia (tumors)
• Facial nerve paralysis
• Feline herpes viral disease
• Glaucoma
• Horner’s syndrome
• Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS; dry eye syndrome)
• Lens luxation
• Nictitans gland prolapse ("Cherry Eye")
• Uveitis
• Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA)
• Retinal detachment
• Retrobulbar abscesses, tumors and cysts
• SARDS

Our Specialist

The CUVS Ophthalmology Service is headed by Rachel Matusow Wynne, MS, DVM, DACVO. She is board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmology.

To make a referral or to schedule a consultation with Dr. Wynne, please call 203.595.2777.