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Gash On Eyelid


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Holly was being uncharacteristically puppy like tonite and decided to let loose and zoomy around the yard. We just had a deck put in so the landscape had changed quite a bit. I think she was feeling a little frisky with all that change. I had moved a lawn ornament (old farm equipment charmingly fashioned into a 4 ft sunflower thing) to under the big tree. We had a torrential downpour the other night and the heavy lawn ornament had tipped over. She went racing thru the yard around that tree twice before she got too close and tangled up with it. Down she went with the greyhound scream of death. We thought she had torn her leg but amazingly couldn't find anything. We only noticed the cut on her eyelid when we brought her in for a better look (plus she had enough of that evil back yard).

 

The cut is right on the eyelid which of course is swollen. Its on the outer part of the eye. We cleaned it with the neosporin spray on a qtip, not wanting to get it in her eye, and then I washed the bloody mucus that had accumulated out of her tear duct with a lubricating eyedrop. The cut is not large maybe 5mm if that and is no longer bleeding. Besides wanting to squint she appears to have good muscle control of the eye and no hemorrhaging that I can see.

 

I am wondering if there is something else we should do. Do I need to worry that she has some debris in her eye, do I need to worry that she poked herself with something that is rusty (tetanus?), eye damage, etc? Can I give her an aspirin for the pain (hers as much as mine)?

 

And finally of course, does this merit a visit to the emergency vet tonite?

 

The evil lawn ornament has been banished to outside the fence.

 

Thanks,

Betsey

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I think I would take her to the vet tomorrow to have the eye checked. Bless her heart I hope she feels better! :grouphug

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Guest bigorangedog

Hi Betsey! Poor Holly. She may never go outside again! :blink: It sounds like you did a good job patching her up. If you have any saline solution (like you use for contact lenses), you can flush her eye out with that to make sure there's no debris in there. But if there were, she would probably be more uncomfortable than she sounds, and continually blinking/tearing. I definitely don't think it's e-vet worthy. If it looks worse tomorrow, or like it is headed for an infection, then it might be worth going to the regular vet during the day. Otherwise, it should heal up fine. :) Oh, and yes, you can give her some aspirin.

 

ETA: I may actually have some medicated eye drops from when Apollo did a similar thing. Let me know if you need them. Ciprofloxacin, I think.

Edited by bigorangedog
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Great thanks you guys for the responses. I did call the emergency vet to see what they suggested, and they said to try a cold compress, and see if that took down any of the swelling. They thought it could wait until tomorrow unless it appeared to have damage in the eye or the symptoms got worse.

 

Well Jen you know Holly and you can imagine how long that cold compress lasted! But I did give her an aspirin with her nightly benadryl which will probably help with some of the redness. I am now thinking the cut might have gone thru the eyelid, since that skin is so thin and tender, but she is not blinking and is not bothering it, she just wants to go to bed. So we will see how she is through the night.

 

Unfortunately I think the only saline solution I have is for the nose and since that goes up the nose I wouldn;t be to sure on its sterilness. I'll see what else I might have.

 

I'll call our local vet tomorrow first thing then and get her in. Ha! She was just there dropping off a stool sample Tuesday cause I found little white rice thingys in Olivers stool, so they both got doses of tape worm medicine that day! Can't figure that one out. Holly is the ground vacuum, not Oliver.

 

Anyway thanks again! I will post an update tomorrow.

 

Betsey

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Guest GreysAndMoreGreys

Terramycin is a great eye ointment to keep on hand. I believe you can order it off Amazon.

Yup, here is the same stuff I have ordered in the past from other locations

It's an antibiotic eye ointment. So for cuts around or close to the eye it's a great ointment to use with no fear of being harmful to the eyes.

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Guest bigorangedog

Neo-Poly-Bac is also something I keep around. Not sure if you need a prescription for that or not.... (I just have a vet who is willing to give me whatever I ask for. :lol ) How does her eye look this AM?

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Quick update on Holly's eye. The vet found a small ulcer and so she put her on antibiotics. Didn't think the cut warranted stitching and the swelling looked to be from a hematoma in the eye membrane. Some buising, but no blood in the eye itself and no other injury besides the ulcer. SHe'll be on oral and topical antibiotics for the next week and she has a follow up appt Monday morning to check the ucler is improving.

 

Thanks again for all the useful suggestions. We now have a triple antibiotic ointment we can use again, and I plan to amend my first aid kit with some saline solution.

 

Betsey

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Sorry Jen, didn't pick up your post when I hit the refresh button this morning. The eye was looking better than it did last night, swelling was down but I could see some little cloud in her eye, and I had already decided to take her in just to be sure. She is sleeping off her vet ordeal now and feeling very sorry for herself.

 

But the good news is is that she did go back outside this morning! What a champ.

 

Betsey

 

 

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