Anyone Deal With Corneal Ulcers?

[Guest Capslock]

My Otis has had one twice. They think it's from getting whapped with a tail or something. Anyway, the cornea gets a little pit in it, but for whatever reason, it doesn't heal itself, and is painful and irritating. I guess it's common in older dogs, and Otis is 12. Anyway, the treatment (graphic description warning) is to basically take a blade and scrape they eye all around the ulcer. This stimulates blood flow and promotes healing of the original ulcer. Last time he had it this treatment was successful in just a few days. This time he's had to go in for a second scraping, and we'll see. It looks better today, but I was wondering if anyone else had dealt with this.

 

Oh by the way, the eye doctor went on and on about how she loved working on greyhounds because they are so cooperative. He just had a topical drop in his eye to dull the pain and nothing else, and took it like a trooper, wagged his tail and hopped into the truck. He's got "scary eye" right now though.

[greyhead]

I haven't dealt with it in a dog but I have it myself. It used to be quite severe. This was back in the early '80s and there wasn't much to do for it. Drops and ointments didn't help much if at all. One day the opthalmologist asked if I took vitamins, to which I replied "Sometimes." That got me thinking, and I started taking 350 mg/day of panthothenic acid, aka B5. The incidents got progressively less frequent and less severe. I lowered the dose to 250/day. Finally I got to where I didn't need to take it at all. B5 is a precursor to a healing substance that the body uses it to make for itself. I doubt it could hurt to try, in addition to the corneal scraping or instead of it.

 

BTW, I later asked the ophthalmologist if he had known something about vitamins affecting corneal ulcers when he asked me if I took them. He said yes, that there was research then underway using B5, C, and A. He hadn't said more earlier because there was no "hard data" yet. The thing about hard data is that sometimes there is an effect or benefit for a subset of the population, but the effect doesn't show up if that population isn't analyzed separately from the rest of the people/critters. So I don't know how the research turned out, but it gave me my life back. (I was unable to work for five years because of it.) And there is no known toxic dose of B5 in humans. Don't know about dogs.

 

Wishing you and your grey the very best of luck, whatever course you take!

[HopeForHounds]

Jake had a corneal abrasion at the end of January.

 

It took 4 visits and 2 corneal scratching to get it to heal. Our vet always freezes the eye with at least 2 sets of drops 15 min apart.

The hatching helps the cornea heal evenly and tack down. If it doesn't tack down, it irritates when they blink. Before Jake had his first hatching done, there were no blood vessels showing, a week later they were there.

 

I also started him on Euphrasia (eyebrite) an herbal suppliment that is in all the vitamin mixes for eyes (human) I don't know if it made a difference or not, but it was worth giving it a try. I also kept his dew claw taped since that is how we ended up going in for a second hatching. The original scratch was healed and then he scratched it again. I thought it would never heal.

 

Jake's eye saga

 

finally healing

[packmom]

Jake had trouble with one all summer once. It did finally heal just short of having to do the scratching. Then he got a scratch on the other eye from having a growth removed from his eylid and the stitches touching the cornea!

[rascalsmom]

Buddy has had a corneal ulcer twice. I don't know what caused it the first time, but I know for sure it was an injury the second time; we were walking, and he stuck his head into a bush and instantly jerked it back...the eye was injured.

 

He, too, had the "keratotomy" both times, and both times it eventually healed. After the latest incident, though, he developed pannus in that eye; so now he gets ointment daily for that. And we stay away from bushes when we walk!