any other working cockers get irritated eyes after being out in dense cover?

[*jean*]

Pepper my sprocker really suffers with her eyes.. its always after walks where she is in heather or thick cover. the beach doesnt bother her. Ive taken her to the vet zillions of times and been given different creams over the years. what I think happens is that as shes so keen she whizzes at top speed working her way through stuff thats full of dust pollen earth muck with her nose glued to the ground and stuff irritates her eyes. so she ends up by night squinting and blinking and the 3rd eyelid comes over. she hates creams etc going into her eyes and fights me off but I can usually get some in so by morning her eyes are usually looking better.
 rolo luckily must be more careful as hes ( touchwood) avoided it so far. Liath occaisionally gets the blinky squinty look, she gets a dod of the cream and shes right as rain next day unless shes actually poked her eye with a stick ( shes prone to that!)
all my lot have really tight rims no haw showing , so its not that causing problems. I dont like seeing red eyes as im a bit squeamish around eyes..I like tight rims in a dogs eyes.
 I was asking rolos breeder and she told me that when her dogs were out working grouse etc in thick heather they used to get sore eyes too, so perhaps I just have to accept it. peppers eyes dont get nearly so bad when Im walking by water as the water will probably help flush stuff out of her eyes. Maybe thats what I should start doing give her eyes a flush at the end of walks with some water?. that wont be easy either. shes a scallywag and hates all medical interventions.
 anyone on here have any experience of this? what do you do?

[Cazzie]

Sweepie's eyes after one shoot last season were bad  But that was a pretty tough going rough shoot and the thick cover is over thousands of acres so no getting away from it really. I used optrex and it seemed to soothe them, the vets said that I would need to bring her in if they got worse. Its not something she has had from  the other 3 shoots we go on as the cover isnt as hard going and tbh I let the mental springers get in there 1st to save wee sweepie 

Belle gets sore eyes too as she goes into thick cover and now has 3 or 4 scars around her eyes, but those are really from getting nicked by sharp broken wee branches running at high speed,  I tend to hold the dogs back in certain bits so as to avoid injury when hunting.    I dont get any of them (touch wood) damaging their eyes when out and about any other time of the year as the cover is totally different here 

Give Pepper a cuddle from the furries here 

[Helen]

I think sadly it's just the dense cover - Jarv does suffer a little with sore eyes, but not often.

His right eye is always a bit more watery as he got a nasty grass seed stuck in his tear duct when he was about 6 months old and it stretched/tore the duct a little so I do check his eyes a lot.

why don't you use cold tea on Pepper's eyes after her walks?  That's really soothing and is not like a horrid cream 

[*jean*]

I think sadly it's just the dense cover - Jarv does suffer a little with sore eyes, but not often.

His right eye is always a bit more watery as he got a nasty grass seed stuck in his tear duct when he was about 6 months old and it stretched/tore the duct a little so I do check his eyes a lot.

why don't you use cold tea on Pepper's eyes after her walks?  That's really soothing and is not like a horrid cream 

 yes ive tried tea she jamms her eyes tight shut so I struggle to get it near the irritated bit. the doc at work told me to use boiled cooled water with a drip of baby shampoo in it. ( the no more tears one) thats what they are prescribing now for people with irritated eyes ie conjunctivitis . and it really does seem to work on patients. however I thinlk it would be like the tea. the surrounding skin of her eyes is fine unless she has cut herself ( she has loads of old scars.. shes just careless with herself I think) Also pepper doesnt help herself at all she just fights you off when you try to help her and she can fairly wiggle when she wants. I end up back ing her into a corner wedging her in and prying her eyes open to get her cream in . its all over in a flash then and she bounces about happy as ever taill wagging and letting me know she doesnt hold a grudge but she still zooms off behind the couch when she sees the tube coming out or indeed what ever she perceives to be medicine! liaths so attention seeking that she will let you do anything to her, she will come and stand beside me when Im doing peppers eyedrops hoping she can have some! strange little girl!
 Ive even left a cup of cold tea sitting out with some cotton wool balls at hand so that when pepper comes up for a cuddle and relaxes I can pet her and sneak a tea soaked ball over her eyes...I ended up with the tea over me as she leapt off the couch! she is a paradox.. brave as a lion when working through cover doesnt care when she injures herself and carries on with bits hanging off as if all is normal, yet she is scared of so many other things. she thinks the hoover is the beast from hell and is very wary of so much, she is definately a bit loopy but I love her.

[*jean*]

Its not something she has had from  the other 3 shoots we go on as the cover isnt as hard going and tbh I let the mental springers get in there 1st to save wee sweepie   

so thats where pepper gets it from!  shes half spring a ding dog!

[Nicola]

Alfie's eyes were quite bad sometimes after a few shoots last year, he's got a scar now at the outside corner of his left eye where he caught himself on something one day. He came back to me with a retrieve and his eye was bleeding but Alfie being Alfie when I tried to look at it he literally shook me off as if to say 'gerrof me woman I've a job to do'    He has tight eye rims too but they are still quite runny now sometimes so I think he did give them quite a hard time over the season. I had them checked by the vet when he was in in January for all the other stuff and there's no major issues, he's just not the most careful or considered dog when out so he gives himself a bit of a battering. I used saline solution to rinse his eyes out after every shoot and still do it every so often now, he's a bit impatient with it but tough luck Alfie!

[*jean*]

Alfie's eyes were quite bad sometimes after a few shoots last year, he's got a scar now at the outside corner of his left eye where he caught himself on something one day. He came back to me with a retrieve and his eye was bleeding but Alfie being Alfie when I tried to look at it he literally shook me off as if to say 'gerrof me woman I've a job to do'    He has tight eye rims too but they are still quite runny now sometimes so I think he did give them quite a hard time over the season. I had them checked by the vet when he was in in January for all the other stuff and there's no major issues, he's just not the most careful or considered dog when out so he gives himself a bit of a battering. I used saline solution to rinse his eyes out after every shoot and still do it every so often now, he's a bit impatient with it but tough luck Alfie!

I was thinking of using bottled water after a day in heather gorse etc.? Ive usually got some in the car ,peppers eyes are still a bit red tonight but she hasnt got the 3rd eylid in view now. and she absolutely loves gorse. she will forage about in there all day shoving her way into the thickest bits.. aided and abetted by the 2 sidekicks!
cockers are tough dogs arent they? ( apart from liath ) alfie sounds just like pepper.. its just tooo important to stop for 1st aid. theyd make great rugby players,..    liath is more of a footballer..

[Nicola]

alfie sounds just like pepper.. its just tooo important to stop for 1st aid. theyd make great rugby players,..    liath is more of a footballer..

That just about sums them up! Alfie really can't be bothered with any of that namby pamby stuff, he gives me a look of such disgust and shakes me off, he's not quite so bad when he's at home but he's still not one for too much fussing. Bottled water would be fine for giving their eyes a quick flush out at the end of a walk, I used saline solution as I already had a couple of bottles of it in the house and the vet said it would be fine to use but it would all do the same job. I think it did help Alfie, it got all the gritty bits out and seemed to ease the redness a bit.