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 Baxter on
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Last night he went to the restroom where the lights were off and didn't want to come out! I've been giving him his eye drops where there's minimal light, and he's only resisting it somewhat. Thank you again!
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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The drops they give to examine usually dilate the pupil so I agree with Anna about keeping him out of light. The good thing is that by staying dilated, the pupil does not contract which can be painful.
Jack hated the drops too. I got the feeling they stung because he would start blinking and backing up when he saw me coming with them. I found that having my husband hold a spoon with peanut butter on it helped, though by the last day or so I was missing with three drops for every one that got in. Do use a damp cloth to wipe up any spilled drops, since they are an antibiotic.
We found that Jack's cone hit the floor when he tried to walk. The clinic said it was big for him but the next size down was too small because of the size of his neck in relation to his height. My husband cut about an inch off the front (it was a plain plastic cone) and made sure there were no rough edges; that helped with both the weight and the problem of its dragging on the floor.
A guy I worked with gave me a great tip that saved the day. We drilled a small hole through the top of the cone and when we went for walks, I tied a string through the hole and used it to hold up the cone so he could walk. It made a HUGE difference in his happiness level to be able to get out; we were very careful to avoid bushes, tall grass, and other dogs of course, and would not have gone out in a wind storm. We got lucky with the weather and it was cloudy most days; when it was sunny we did not stay out long. I did not leave the string on in the house, of course.
We also have done agility so Jack is good with hand signals; many dogs pick them up just around the house. If he wanted to get through narrow spaces like our hallway, he would bark once and wait for me and I'd go and signal for him where to move, to avoid hitting the door. I know they claim dogs get used to it but I'm not sure how true that is; not only did Jack continue to walk into doorways, but Madison would get clocked because she'd see him coming and only move over enough for coneless Jack to fit; she never did learn to allow for the cone either and so she got smacked more than once.
I hope my experience helps you a bit. It was a very long week or ten days or whatever. I was very worried about my dog, had to come home every day at lunch to put in drops, and he was clearly depressed by the lack of activity and having to wear the cone. But he had a complete recovery (he did not need surgery though) and was as good as new after we were done, so hopefully Baxter will have the same good results.
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Permalink Reply by rosemary on
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My daughter had the same exact thing happen from a rusty swing set, they took it out of her eye and her vision is now perfectly normal. However, for a few weeks after, her eye felt scratchy when she blinked so we used artificial tears for a few weeks thereafter. We once had a cat that would claw our dogs right in the eyes esp. the corgi, as they were the same height, so be careful with them. Wishing your dog the best!
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Thank you so much! This has helped a lot since the cone was scraping the ground just as we were being discharged from the hospital. I didn't have string last night, but I was able to use a scarf tied around the cone to help keep it upright.
Unfortunately, it's just Baxter and me at the moment and therefore no extra pair of hands for noms to distract. I've been holding a treat with one hand and the eye drops in the other to try to get him to at least keep that left eye open long enough for me to put in the medication. So far I've been able to get one drop successfully. Not sure how it will go when he's more alert during the day.
We go to his regular vet tomorrow, and I'm hoping that no edema or infection develop. It's somewhat freaky because I can see the indentation the debris had made.
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Permalink Reply by Natalie, Lance &Tucker on
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glad to hear you were able to get him in and he is on the road to recovery!!
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You'll see where they took the debris out, as they actually take a tiny bit of tissue too, as I mentioned my daughter had this done and yes you could see for awhile the spot in her eye if you looked closely. As long as you get some solution in the eye the blinking will take care of the rest! I also wonder if in the drugstore if they have artificial tears in almost a jelly like form, where you just put a dab on the inside edge of the eye, I thought I saw someone like that there once. The eye will be irritated for awhile as it was a foreign body in the eye, it does take a little time. Good luck!
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