No anti-aging serums, botox or strange rituals to get rid of wrinkles necessary here. That's right, a wrinkly Shar Pei named Roland actually got reconstructive surgery to remove some of his face wrinkles. He now has a whole new face. The dog facelift wasn't done for vanity reasons though, it was done because Roland was in danger of going blind and therefore had barriers to a normal life.
Shar Pei's are a dog breed known for their voluptuous wrinkles, but sometimes the wrinkles can cause the eyelashes to rub against the eyeball and cause pain and damage...blindness (the condition is called entropion). It isn't uncommon in the breed, but Roland's case is special.
See, Roland is an abandoned dog, living in a shelter in Australia. If Roland were to go blind, his chances of adoption decreased massively. The full facelift and double eye lift surgery was done by a chief veterinarian for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and was probably done pro-bono (it was clear that adoptive parents would not have to foot the bill). He looks like a totally different dog, so youthful without his big wrinkles.
It's pretty neat to hear that a shelter would do this for a dog in order to make it possible for him to live a normal life and be adopted. When I looked to see if he was still available for adoption, I couldn't find him on the shelter's site, so I'm assuming with all the press coverage, he was adopted to a loving home in Australia.
This is Roland before (small inset) and after the dog facelift (the above photo is not Roland).
If your dog was in danger of going blind, but it wasn't a given, would you pay for reconstructive surgery?
