Swollen tearing eye with third eye/membrane slight covering

[cpovse]

My 1 yo lab/pointer cross ("Guinness") who has a slightly swollen red eye with discharge. It is now a small portion covered by his third eye / membrane.

I have had four visits three different medications with the vet and they are at a loss as to what is affecting my dog. The first two visits with a junior vet came up with possible inverted eyelid or something caught in his eye. We requested the more senior vet who found an absess with the dye test. He still doesn't know for sure if it is something under the membrane or what is causing the absess (the last visit showed the absess still there).

The next step is anesthsia (sp?) to do a full search of the eye and maybe a slight scraping of the eye to alleviate the absess.

Does this sound familiar. He is otherwise fine, energy, appetite and general health. He did suffered from Puppy Strangles from Dec - Jan and wonder if this could be a result of it?

Help I want to avoid surgery.

Thank you.

Carol

[Prin]

Sorry, but what are "puppy strangles"?

I wonder if a consult with an eye specialist would be cheaper than a surgery...

[dustybird]

This is wayyyy out in left field but you never know. There was a kitten that came into the clinic with cronic eye problems. Swollen/puffy, red, weepy, half closed(sort of sounds similar to what you describe his eye looking). After many meds they figured out he had a strain of herpes and was then given steroid drops. Now it was in both eyes so I don't know if can only affect one eye. His appetite etc... was fine to.

Cherry eye is common and I think looks a little different and most vets pick up on that right away.

I like the idea of an eye specialist to, they may have seen something similar and should hopefully know by looking at him if anaesthesia is needed to correct it. Not that your vet is farting around but with a specialist they may be able just to get right down to it, and may cost less in the long run.

Good luck and I hope you find out what it is soon and that it is easily treatable.

[Kyra]

I don't know much about what exactly your dog is experiencing, what the eye looks like, etc...

Here is a decent vet website that has a bunch of eye related stuff:
http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dogeye.html

And here's further info on Juvenile Cellulitis or Puppy Strangles:
http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dstrangles.html

Although my understanding from reading is that the PS condition affects puppies from about 3 weeks of age to 16 weeks of age. You did say 1 year old? Unless you meant December 2005? Maybe you got a wrong diagnosis in December?

You might want to try a new vet's office, if that is the case.

[cpovse]

Well thank you everyone for your help so far.

Guinness is our dog who is 1 yo lab/pointer mix rescue but could also have some beagle as he is a real beagle size.

He did get sedated last week (Apr 11) and thoroughly looked at by the vet who said there was no foreign object or flipped eyelid, there is an ulcer on his eye that was not healing (they did 4 dye tests) so they did a scratching on the ulcer it to stimulate the cell growth to heal. That was all they could do for now.

It has been over a week and it looks worse! Help anyone can think of what it might be.

Yes Guinness had puppy strangles at 7 months, odd I hear but not unheard of. It took about 3 months to clear up, it is all gone except a little scaring.

[cpovse]

I think it is a sensitivity to the antiobiotic eye drops. In January he has some tearing and they prescribed these drops for a couple of days, as we put them in it seem to get worse but once we stopped it healed. It didn't dawn on me it could be the drops at that time, until now.

Can you believe it I stopped the drops on Sunday to see if it is the drops and his eye looks perfect???? He has a vet appoint (follow up from surgery) on Thursday hoping the ulcer on his eye is healed and I will let the vet know about these drops.