Dog Corneal Ulcer? Help Please!
Baxter is 2 years and 4 months. I noticed today that he's somewhat squinting with his left eye; he's been doing this off and on today. I was gone for a few days, and my mother was helping take care of him. She noted the "squinting" behavior started about two days ago but said that it wasn't there yesterday.
I looked and saw a small speck of what appears to be some debris in his eye. However, it hasn't moved at all in the last few hours. I would assume that tears would help flush it out of his eye. In addition to the squinting, he demonstrates episodes of pawing at his face (saw this once or twice tonight), mild increase in discharge to the left eye, and what appears to be the beginnings of clouding of the eye surface.
His vet office is closed tomorrow, and I'm planning on dropping in Monday morning when they open to get him checked out. Is it ok to wait until Monday? Should I be doing anything in the meanwhile? Is this a mild case of corneal ulceration due to the debris that can be easily treated?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Natalie, Lance &Tucker on
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http://mycorgi.com/forum/topics/superficial-corneal-ulcer?commentId...
http://mycorgi.com/forum/topics/my-corgi-developed-cloudy-blue
I found these, hope this helps you some. Hope it heals ok.
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Permalink Reply by Geri & Sidney on
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How about using sterile saline and flushing his eye, in case it is debris? Sidney had something in his eye a couple of months ago and it freaked me out. It was all red and weepy and squinty. Of course it happened on a Saturday. I took him to Rally class on Sunday, and luckily his trainer is also a vet tech. She flushed his eye and put a little antibiotic ointment on it, and the next morning it was fine. But it sure was scary so I know where you are coming from. If it is much worse on Sunday, you might want to find an emergency vet.
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Permalink Reply by Baxter on
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Woke up and checked his eye, and that little debris is still there. He's not any worse this morning, but we're getting an E-collar and some saline solution. :Crosses fingers: Thank you for your recommendations.
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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The eye is a delicate structure and vitally important to the dog's functioning. The situation is likely to resolve easily as in Geri and Sydney's case, but I would not feel comfortable with taking chances with the eye.... Something could actually be imbedded, rather than on the surface of the cornea and fooling around with it yourself could make it worse, especially since you do not know what happened and a few days have elapsed since the onset. I once had a similar problem with my eye and, when I went to the ophthalmologist, it turned out I had a tiny sliver of metal imbedded in my cornea. God knows how that happened, probably just windy conditions caused it. They easily took care of it. Play it safe and good luck.
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It's been pretty windy outside the last few days, and we believe it might have been due to that. Going to the vet hospital today to get it checked out.
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Good decision, hopefully it's minor, please update with news when you know.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Do you have an emergency vet? Honestly I would not wait.
Our cat scratched Jack in the eye at 11pm one evening. We called the emergency vet. They said if it was only on the white part of the eye it was ok to wait to see the regular vet the next morning (a 9 hour wait), but if it was the cornea it was NOT safe to wait.
We took him in, he had a scratch. First, it's quite painful. Second, not to alarm you but he could lose the eye. We had an owner with a dog here that had a corneal ulceration and things went south and the eye was lost.I would find a vet that is open and take him in, honestly. Saline is not enough. If it is a corneal scratch, he needs antibiotic/anti-inflammatory drops and more rarely surgery to relieve pressure.
Good luck! Please don't wait.
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We looked at it this morning, and it looks as if he has an indentation in the area where the debris was. Not sure if the debris had come off or worse, if it's become imbedded. It's on the actual cornea and not on the white part of the eye. We're going to an emergency vet clinic later this afternoon, since we are on our way back from visiting my parents (roughly 5 hour drive).
I'm taking him in as soon as we get into town. There hasn't been a progression in his symptoms compared to the night before, so I'm hoping that this is a mild case. Thank you for your support.
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Baxter Update: Thank you everyone for all your recommendations. I took Baxter to the animal hospital as soon as we got into town. The vet took a look, and she saw the the debris was in fact embedded in his left eye. >_< She tried to wash it out with saline and used a moistened q-tip, but it would not budge. Next, they ran blood tests to ensure everything was okay prior to putting him under general anesthesia to try to dislodge the debris using an eye kit aka some form of tweezers. It was a success! Yay! He has a 2mm x 1mm superficial ulcer and was discharged with: Tramadol for pain and eye drops (Neomycin and Polymxin B Sulfates and Gramicidin Opthalmic Solution) for every 2 hours today, every 6 hours tomorrow, and every 8 hours for another 6 days.
She didn't send him home with anti-inflammatory medication (Rimadyl) because he has slightly elevated ALT (liver enzyme) at 153 U/I, with typical ranges being between 0-120 U/I. We're going to the vet in a week to get this checked out. He hates the E-collar and we're having some difficulties with they eye drops, but I'm hoping that he'll just continue to recover from here on out. The vet said he will have some corneal scarring but that vision should be okay. We will have a follow up with his regular vet in 2 days. We were told that the squinting behavior should lessen within 24 hours and that pain will get better. :crosses fingers:
Thank you all for your help and recommendations! Crossing our fingers that he's on his way to getting better. Baxter sends his love. <3
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Glad you decided to go in, I know how expensive Emergency Clinics can be.... I just wanted to mention that usually, when you have any kind of eye injury, even minor, you also have much greater sensitivity to light, so he may be more comfortable in a darker environment ( like shades down, or curtains drawn ) until the discomfort subsides and also he may be calmer that way.
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