Eye, Styes And Infections

[macoduck]

After Gracie's vet visit for a feral cat scratch to her left lower eyelid she was given an antibiotic ointment.

No cornea damage seen.

After one week the initial scratch in the fur of her lower eyelid healed but the wet part of her eyelid is slightly swollen, there are at least 2 styes, a bit of discharge (white) and one stye on the right eyelid.

We begin week 2 with continuing the same antibiotic ointment, plus eye drops and amoxicillin.

Of course since she's on the 3rd day of that course of treatment, and I am hoping to at least see some improvement. Nope.

Because I am a worrier and have now read too much online and am worrying more.

A popular way to deal with styes (sebaceous gland meibomian adenomas) is surgery.

 

Anyone here have experience dealing with eye infections and styes?

How long did it take to see improvement?

If you had to resort to surgery, how well did your grey do with that?

 

Gracie's injured eye

Edited July 14, 2008 by macoduck

[Guest LindsaySF]

I used to get styes as a kid, they hurt!

 

It sounds like they've got it covered on the meds front.

 

Does she scratch her eye at all with her paw? That will make it take a lot longer to heal. I know when I had styes I would constantly scratch at them, which only made them more infected..... Maybe you could put an E-collar on her, or put her paws in socks?

[Guest argolola]

She will be in my prayers.

 

With my own eye, I was rubbing it while asleep, so I put socks on my hands. You might buy some Gerber baby socks, as we have done that for Lola before.

 

Feel better soon, sweet girl.

Edited July 3, 2008 by argolola

[Burpdog]

Is she seeing a specialist?

[macoduck]

Gracie's eyelids still haven't completely healed from the feral cat scratch.

As of today she is halfway through a second round of amoxicillin and a second bottle of Ciprofloxacin drops.

The initial bloody scratch to the lower left eyelid has healed.

The styes are gone but each eyelid remains pink and puffy. However, someone who didn't know her might not notice that there's still some inflamation. Normally she has nice sharp black "eyeliner."

Here's some of the pictures again:

Day one initial injury:

She was only given a triple antibiotic eye ointment with that vet visit.

Within a few days she had styes pop up - 3 on the injured eyelid, 1 on the other eyelid.

Vet then gives a course of eyedrops and amoxicillin.

The styes have gone down but the lids remain pink and puffy:

 

 

Here's a recent photo before the injury:

Gracie's got one more week of amoxicillin and a few more days of drops left to do. She has a followup appointment 7/22 with her regular vet.

The nearest eye specialist is 1.5 hours away and is booked until September. Since her cornea was not affected vet doesn't think it's critical that she see a specialist.

She's been a good girl and doens't paw at her eyes. This hasn't affected her vision as she can still catch a tossed cookie.

 

Is there a different antibiotic that might be better to reduce the inflamed tissue on her eyelids?

Edited July 14, 2008 by macoduck

[Guest LindsaySF]

No idea about a different med, but she looks tons better! Maybe it will just take some time.

[PatricksMom]

Totally guessing here, but I wonder if the area's still just really irritated, and an anti-inflamitory might help?

[feemandvm]

I'd make sure that during the original injury no small piece of claw or anything was left behind. You can probably just ask your vet to verify that they looked for anything like that. If not... the Cipro eye drops are pretty strong especially when combined with the TAB ointment. I don't use a lot of Amoxi as a stand alone antibiotic so I might use something like Clindamycin or Simplicef or Clavamox to see if that controlled things. Since there is improvement I might stay the course for now. You also may want to consider an anti-inflammatory as others have mentioned. You could do an oral one or you could ask your vet if a triple antibiotic with Dexamethasone could be tried if there is no corneal ulceration. I have also seen a few dogs develop conjunctivitis (not infection... just irritation) secondary to various eye medications.

 

Not sure if any of that helps... just some thoughts.