Had to take the dog to the vet

[klmno]

I don't know what's up with everyone having issues with their dogs lately, but our male had a red, draining eye and he was twitching it like it hurt. I took him to the vet and she said that he'd scraped his cornea. I had the option of letting them suture the corner "eyelid" over it or trying a strict regimen of 2 ointments. I picked the ointment treatment, but the down-side is that she said his eyeball could still rupture this route and if it did, he'd have to have it removed. She said if it was going to rupture, it would probably happen within the next day or two. Does anyone know what I should look for so I could detect that early?

he has a habit of rubbing his face against furniture and the corners of walls to scratch his face, so I'm worried that he won't leave this alone enough to heal.

 

[witzend]

I don't know about the cornea or rupturing, but you should probably go down to petsmart or petco and get an Elizabethan Collar for him. That's the cone that they wear to keep from bothering their face. They're relatively inexpensive.

Sorry about your fuzzbutt. It hurts when they hurt...

 

[donna723]

They should have given him a cone ("lamp shade") to wear while it was healing! I'm very surprised that they didn't! He wouldn't like it one bit but it would keep him from bumping in to things or rubbing it. Could you still go back and get one? Honestly, if it was one of mine and if having the sutures instead of the ointment would reduce the chance of his eye rupturing, I would have to go with that. I would also try to keep him quiet and restrained somewhat while it heals. Does he have a crate?

If there was one in your area and you could afford it, there are veterinary opthomologists - that would be your best bet.

 

[house of cards]

How deep is the scrap? I don't have experience with dogs but I had 2 kids with eye injuries...1 had a piece of plywood drop as he rode a bigwheel by it and it scratched his cornea (he wasn't even a difficult child) We called his pediatrician and was told to just put eye ointment (we had on hand), he was fine but we were dumb and I don't think the doctor realized we were talking about inside his eye!!

The next eye injury was a fine piece of metal flew into my ds's eye when he was banging on a cinderblock. It weeped. We took him to the pediatrician (different one). She sent us to an eye doctor the next day although she didn't see anything obvious. The eye doctor sent us directly to Wills Eye hospital for emergency surgery, said if it had gone any further it would have cost him the eye. The main worry after the surgery was infection. We had daily doctor visits and lots of eye drops, scary time. He was only bandaged for a day or two if I remember right...it was 11 years ago.

Hope everything stays clean and heals quickly. Sometimes animals heal much quicker then people.

 

[Star*]

klmno -

TAKE HIM BACK AND HAVE THE 3rd eyelid sutured over......and let it heal. You will STILL need to do ointment, and like others said get the E collar.

Also - I know it sounds odd - but do you have any of those blue gel ice packs? Can you get him to sit on your couch across your lap and hold that on his head above the eye or on the jaw? It helps. Casper got raked by a blackberry bush in Spring and I paid Dude $100 bucks to rid my yard of EVERY rogue black berry bush after that. We only had to do ointment and drops....but my poor baby - and he would sit lovingly to be comfortably numb with ice packs.

Poor baby - that has GOT to be miserable. But I grew up in a kennel home and showing dogs and all - and that surgery is relatively cheap compared to a ruptured eye.

Small woofs from the ranch.....

 

[klmno]

You guys are really scaring me- the weeping from his eye looked like mucus- almost like bad allergy drainage. i asked the vet what she recommended after she said the options and she said she thought the ointment treatment would do the trick. One of his ointments is or includes an antibiotic. She said they both would help with pain. He's been sleeping since he got them (2 dosages now) and the drainage and redness has already cleared up so I was just going to see how it looks tomorrow. If they suture the eyelid, does that mean it's sutured over his eyeball forever? If I don't see even more improvement in the morning, I will take him back.