About an hour after Steve was outside playing like this on Sun afternoon I noticed he was wincing 1 eye 1/2 shut. I left Sandys and went home and rinsed it with sterile saline solution and also looked at it with a flashlight. Other than sometimes holding it 1/2 shut there was no redness, no tearing and nothing that I saw in his eye. I called his ophthamologists 24 hr # to see if he should have his eye drops but they never returned my call - so we skipped the drops. The next am he had greenish/yellowish gunk (sort of snotty looking. At his Drs apt he had an infection and a small ulcer and began treatment. Today his recheck was great - here is what I learned from his eye Dr. in case something like this happens again in the future after hours. Its safe to start treating with Ofloxacin, NeoPolyDex, Genteel super (OTC) - giving 5 min between each drop and also safe to rinse first with sterile saline (OTC). Even if it isnt the same thing these wont hurt his eyes until he can get into the Docs. He is also on a salve that his Dr. gets compounded - Edetate Disodium 1% in White petroleum ophthalmic solution. I also learned that even when the infection/ulcer is gone he well still have a dimple on his eye where it was for some time - it takes longer for this to go away. While its possible this was caused by how he plays Ill continue to let him play like this in the future (though Im going to try and get him to use his Doggles and get used to them) - things happen but Im not going to reduce his quality of life just to protect him from any possible injury - things happen. I just wanted to pass on the information of the eye meds that would be good to have on hand for the eyes for those times when things happen outside of office hours - that are also safeits. The order he takes the drops/salves is Ofloxacin, NeoPolyDex, Edatate Disodium, Genteel (actually its Targets Up & Up brand of lubricant eye drops with the active ingredient: Carboxymethylcellulose Sodium. 5% since they dont carry Genteel but looked it up to get the same ingredients) - given 5 minutes apart 4X/day. Hes also getting a pain med 2X/day and is wearing a cone so that he cant scratch at his eye. Had he not started treatment quickly or if it had been ineffective Steve may have needed surgery and worse case would be blindness in which case the eye would be removed. Dont put off getting eyes treated at the first sign of a problem and from my experience Id go straight to an eye specialist - evaluation visits are a little more than the regular vet but they can do all the tests necessary and have the meds available to treat. Steve started improving the first day on the meds - FEELING HAPPY!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 02:10:13 +0000