Hi

My old girl, the GR, has woken up with a poorly eye this morning.  It looks like her third eyelid hasn't closed properly and looks red.  She's not in any pain or off her food and has been playing this morning.  i was booking her into the vets but decided to see if it went down during the morning, it hasn't, so the vets are booked 6pm.

So far i've treated her with Coliodial silver and am about to get her some gloden eye to see if it helps.  Does anyone esle know any hopeopathic remideies that i could try on her.  My freind suggested not taking her today unless it worsens until the morning, which i think is sensible advice but unsure.  What do you think?  i didn't take her this morning as these things can go as come.  Going to the vet will be an effort for her getting in and out of the car so if it can be avoided, it would be better for her.

Thanks

She's never had an eye problem before, i think she got near a draft in the night if that helps.

I would be very cautious about using Golden Eye unless you have a firm diagnosis. It's an antibiotic ointment and could cause great discomfort at best and serious consequences at worst if used wrongly, for example, on an ulcerated eye.

I do use this ointment but only once my dog has been seen by the vet and they have confirmed conjunctivitis and have agreed Chloramphenicol (active ingredient of Golden Eye) as an appropriate treatment.

The only intervention I would carry out until I had seen a vet would be a sweeping motion across the eye with cotton wool soaked in cooled boiled water - discard and, if needed, repeat. This would only be to remove any debris that was visible.

I'm afraid it would be a fairly prompt visit to the vet for my dogs - it can be very painful for the dog and eyesight is not worth hesitating over for me.

Hope your dog improves soon :)

Hi

Thanks for the reply.

Took her to the vet, eye had already started to improve, he said to continue with what i was doing and was happy with her (thank god).  I was asked a series of questions this morning and sent a pic to make sure it was safe to give the golden eye.  They double checked for an ulcer before said for me to use it.

A lot of the redness has gone now but the eyelid still hasn't retracted.  I hope she will be ok over night and it not set back.

What causes this sort of thing?

Happy to say, drop of iontment this morning has done the trick, eye looks good as new.

I'll still treat her for a few days to be on the safe side

Just interested in your signature - can you please tell me what a Shidie is? I have never come across that word before :-)

I think perhaps it's meant to be Shiddie; the affectionate name for the Shih Tzu?

I don't really like giving medical advice but this works for my animals and I have done this with both cats and dogs.  Make some tea with a teabag until you have a cup of tea (no milk of course).  When it has cooled down, soak a pad with the tea and gently closed eye (dog will automatically close it) so that some of the tea seeps in.  On Christmas day(!) Maisie was squinting and feeling sorry for herself and her third lid had come up.  We treated the eye with tea on the hour.  When she woke up in the morning her eye was fine so we did not have to take a visit to the emergency vet on boxing day morning!

Glad to hear it's better. At my old dog club we were advised to wipe with weak salt water. One tsp salt to a pint of water for eyes, or one tsp salt to a cup of water for minor cuts on feet etc. And of course take to vet if it doesn't improve in a couple of days. So far it's worked very well and we've only had to go the vet route twice over the years.

I forgot anbout using tea to bathe the eye.  Think i panicked as her eyelid was up. 

She's still doing ok so might drop the treatment off tomorrow.

My vet recommended bathing Daisy's eyes with tea bags, as he thought she was suffering from Hayfever! She's recently had a facelift as subsequent vets diagnosed entropia, but the teabag is good advice.