Not Making Tears

[Hubcitypam]

Two months ago it looked like Poodle had conjunctivitis and was treated with antibiotic drops. After we finished the bottle his eye was still all gooky. My main vet was out of town and backup vet tried another bottle of drops. It was all gone and the eye was still gooky.

 

Dr. Josh thought it might be an ulcer upon looking closer and did a Flourescein stain (which was cool to watch) but no ulcer. Then he did whatever test for tear production where you hold the test strip to the deadened eye which was not near as much fun. He said it should have read at least 30 and it was less than 5...almost no tears at all.

Now he's on Dexamethasone drops and artificial tears. He said maybe the tear duct was just blocked so and maybe we could see something in three weeks or so. The world won't end if has to be on drops forever, just wondering if anyone has experience.

[greysmom]

One of our Danes had this problem. We tried a month on hot compresses twice a day and several types of drops with no results. We ended up giving her, I think, a steroid-type drop for the rest of her life. It worked fine and didn't bother her.

[tbhounds]

Sounds like he has KCS. He'll need daily medication like cyclosporine drops for life. Not really a biggie so long as he will let you instill the drops.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?A=1326

[Hubcitypam]

I just hope it narrows down to one set of drops twice a day. Right now we're doing two different drops twice a day, plus antibiotics twice a day for an infection...plus his insulin twice a day. Poor guy. It seems like all I'm doing is poking him, shoving something down his throat or putting something in his eyes.