Does anyone have any experience of dogs with a grass allergy, causing a slight eye infection?

My BSD bitch has had what we originally thought was conjunctivitis, but despite several courses of eye drops, the problem has only improved and not gone away completely :(

Today the vet took a swab and we will have the results back on Tuesday. She suspects it is an allergy, and as i have exercised her in idyllic meadows a lot for our "everyday" walk I suspect it may be the case.

Since she started her first season recenlty she has had far less walks on meadow and all in the forest, on heather or in woods, and she has been better.

The symptoms are just a very small amount of mostly dried pus in the corner of her eyes each morning; slightly reddened white of eye below the lower eye lid, and occasinally a tiny amount of yellowish discharge in the day....but hardly at all.

The vet did say it may mean steroid drops each summer :(

If anyone has any experiences of this I would be interested to hear about it :)

Lindsay

Yes I've had the same prob. with a GSD only with mine was daffodills, try Piriton and Optrex before using steriods. You do have to watch for ulcers the vet uses a sort of cardboard stick which is laid on the eye and and damaged area shows up with a sort of dye, if there had been any danger of ulcers your vet would have done this. Jackie H

Hi Lindsay

One of mine has had mucky (grey) eyes for months and the vet says it is chronic conjunctivitis. Many different drops have been tried which seem to work for a few weeks and then it flares up again. The swab did not show anything except an increase in my bill!

Christine

My dogs both had conjunctivitis and had two lots of antibiotic eye ointment from the vet which didn't do anything. I bathed them daily with normal saline, and bought 'Brolene' eye ointment from the pharmacy and they were clear within two days and have remained clear for months until just this week. The dogs run through a field where the grass is just up to their head level, and I believe its the pollen affecting them. So I'm about to try the Brolene again. (Its very similar to golden eye ointment).
Lorna

HI Lorna

It does seem to be a wotsit to get rid of, as you have got rid of yours and yet it has come back :(

Clear for months is good, though :)

Thanks for the tip about the Brolene. I may have to try that depending on Banya's results. Hope yours are both OK again after theirs.

Lindsay

HI Christine

Being a bit dim here, not sure what you mean when you mention "grey" eyes.....do you just mean sort of mucky and is this a general expression or one Dobie people use? LOL - it's just that i haven;t heard it before :) .

Banya got her problem the same time as a BC friend got conjunctivitis......not sure if it is related.

It does seem as if yours is definitley conjunctivits then, doesn't it, if the swabs show nothing....I have a feeling this is what may happen with my bitch!!!

HI Jackie

Thanks for the tips, the vet did a test for ulcers on one of our previous visits. I'll remember the Optrex/Piriton :)

Lindsay

Lyndsay

Every Summer my BC bitch has hay fever and a pollen allergy which causes a severe eye infection. Her symptons appear quite rapidly and are very similiar to conjunctivitus. Within hours of the onset, the area around her eyes will either become extremely swollen completely obscuring her eyes, or as happened last week, only the whites of her eyes are visible ( and these were red!!!! )......not a pretty sight :(
My vet gives her an antihistamine injection, antibiotics and Maxitrol eye drops and within a couple of days she is back to normal.
After this initial treatment, Nel has very little discomfort throughout the Summer apart from the occasional sore eye or sneezing bout, despite living on a farm and being surrounded by hay fields.

HI Jude

YOur poor BC has it bad, but it is encouraging to know the vet is able to sort her out and she is back to normal and able to live normally in spite of living so close to fields:).

All the info so far has been really helpful, thanks very much everyone :)

i just have to wait for the results now!

Lindsay

The time of year shouts HAY FEVER not sure of the exact dosage but half a piriton tablet should do it. Try it for 2-3 days if it improves you have found the cause.

Pam

Dogs can have a larger dose of piriton than us (they don't drive) 18 kg dog up to 3 tabs a day, so start with 1 tab and see how it goes. 1 tab is also good if the dog is stung. Jackie H

HI Pamela

Thanks for the tip and for posting, believe Piriton has been mentioned and will keep the name in my head.

HOpe no-one minds me asking, but is Piriton OK and known to be safe for dogs? Obviously severla people do use it but I always worry a bit about druggy stuff.

lindsay

Hi Lindsay,

Re Piriton.

One of my freinds has a Westie that has alerigies to everything. The poor thing is in an awful mess and she finds that pirition is the only think helping just now. I am not that knowledgable on some drugs but she prefered Piriton than any steriod tip drugs. So my answer would be yes in my opinion it would be OK. I have it in my doggy drawer also.

Let us know if it works..

Pam

Thanks for that Pam, it is now one of the things on my list to try....I'll let you all know how we get on.

Thanks again everybody :),

Lindsay

Make sure it is Piriton or an own make with the same ingredients not one of the non drowsy ones like Clarityn. I belive I saved the life of one of my dogs when he had a reaction to a worming tablet, at the time I thought it was a wasp sting, he was in a bad way very swollen and having trouble breathing, gave him a Piriton and he improved within 10 mins. Jackie H

Piriton sounds like quite good stuff then :)

I'll remember to get actual Piriton, thanks.

Lindsay

Be careful to get Piriton NOT Piriteze. Piriteze is a one day high strength formula. Standard piriton should be strong enough.

Don't forget, if you find your dog is drowsy on Piriton tablet they also make Piriton Syrup for children and you can give a smaller dose this way.
Lloyds chemists also make Allergy Syrup which is the same thing but sugar free. :) :)
I used to give this to my old dog who was allergic to everything.
Dill
With severely allergic children.