Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for your well wishes, positive thoughts, and prayers. Maximo and I deeply appreciate your support.
I carried Max on his usual walking route this morning and I think the fresh air did some good. He was happy to get outside, even if it meant "riding in the boat" (folded up in his bed), wearing his party hat for everyone to see.
This started yesterday with Max winking a bit, but his eye looked fine. I went ahead and scheduled a vet appointment that would have been this morning. Within half an hour, Max was holding his eye shut and I could see the beginning of the ulcer: a small round spot in the cornea was starting to wrinkle in exactly the same place as the last ulcer. We went in to see the doctor right away.
I was asked why the doctor thinks the ulcer may heal properly this time and why he doesn't want to go ahead and do the keratotomy right now. With indolent (non-healing or improperly healing) ulcers, one of the procedures that is done involves taking a q-tip and swabbing (debriding) the loose or poorly formed cornea away so that the cells have a chance to fill in the gap properly and attach correctly to the layer underneath. Only a doctor should perform this procedure. During the staining of Max's eye to assess the ulcer, the doctor manipulated the eyelid to clear away loose or poorly formed material, in effect, doing something similar to debridement.