Corneal Ulcer - Updated

[MillicentWight]

Any advice please?
Willow is our two and a half year old blue roan and she has been having eye problems for a couple of months now.
Both eyes are red most of the time with her third eyelids showing and one eye is always full of tears and often only half open.
The vet diagnosed conjunctivitis and prescribed Cloramphenicol which didn’t help, then  Isathal, and finally Maxitrol and Viscotears, but nothing has really helped at all.
He has also put green dye into her eyes to examine them on two occasions but found nothing wrong so he gave us some more drops and told us to come back in four weeks time.
Today Willow’s eyes were so bad that we decided to take her back to the vet again but this time we saw a young lady vet at the same practice. After examining her eyes again with the green dye she informed us that Willow has a corneal ulcer forming in one eye and she has now been booked in on Tuesday morning for a more thorough examination under anaesthetic to try and find the cause of the red and weeping eyes. The vet thinks the two most likely causes could be dry eye or ingrowing eyelashes.
Does anybody know how serious the ulcer is likely to be or what is likely to have caused it? We shudder to think how bad it may have become if we had waited the four weeks before taking her back again.
Also when we spoke to the first vet about Willow's red eyes I asked if he thought it could be hayfever but he told me that most vets don't accept that dogs suffer from allergies. I cannot believe this to be true?
Thanks for reading.

[pam1]

We had exactly this problem with our blue roan,Poppy, when she was 2. We kept going back to the vets and had different drops and then she had a general when they carried out a 'debride' and had to wear a contact lens.  However this still didn't solve the problem and we were referred to a specialist at The Willows, where they have super duper equipment.  The eye specialist there quickly diagnosed an in growing eye lash inside her eye lid, they removed it and scraped the inner eyelids (yuk) to prevent future reoccurrence.  Fingers crossed she has had no problems since, touch wood, that was about 3 years ago.
Apparently this problem is more common in blue roans.  If I was in your shoes I would ask for a referral and get a more specialist opinion.  ❤️

[MillicentWight]

Thanks for the reply.
We will see what happens after Tuesday. Living where we do on the Isle of Wight makes travelling very difficult.

[MIN]

fingers crossed  that you get good news on Tuesday
 

[Pearly]

Coral's eyes were quite weepy in the sun - she had mild entroprion in both lower lids which were affecting the ability of the tear duct to drain properly. She's now 3 weeks on from minor surgery (at the same time as spaying so only one general anaesthetic) and already seems a lot better.  Thankfully the condition was very mild so she's had no lasting damage to her eyes.

The Vet game me some lubrithral for her when she first came home to help protect the eye - it might be worth exploring what you can do to prevent further damage until,you have a reason why the ulcer is forming.

Hope Willow recovers quickly

Jayne
X

[Blueberry]

Hoping for good news for you, and following this with interest, being the owner of a blue roan pup with what seem to me to be weepy eyes.

[MillicentWight]

Thanks your replies.
Willow has been prescibed eye drops called Remend Cornea Repair Gel and some more drops called Exocin and she is also on Metacam.
I have read that eye problems are very common with cocker spaniels, but having been told by the first vet we saw that the cause is often difficult to find and that there is the possibility of  blindness or losing an eye, we are really  worried.
Seems to be very little information specifically about corneal ulcers, and as there would seem to be no one on here with experience of them I am guessing they are not so common.
Poor Willow, looking at her one would think she is completey blind as much of the time all you can see is the whites of her eyes - which are red! She has to wear a blow up collar to try and stop her from scratching her eyes as they are so itchy, but night time we have to remove it as she  sleeps in her crate with the door open  and she couldn’t get through the door with it on.
Just hope they can find the  reason for her eye problems on Tuesday and then they can start to get better.

[bizzylizzy]

Poor Willow. As Humphrey's my first cocker, I've no experience either but reading your account of what the first vet said, I would be more inclined to wait for another opinion before you fret too much about her going blind. First of all, to say that dogs don't suffer allergies is quite a "remarkable"(!) thing to say when we're constantly reading about the rise in food intolerances and allergic reactions to vaccinations etc etc. Humphrey's eyes were very sticky every morning for weeks on end but it it went as suddenly as it came, probably with the pollen. I'm not suggesting that pollen is the cause in Willow's case, but just thinking that dogs probably DO have allergies and I'm pretty sure there are lots of people on here who would agree!
To be honest, I think to frighten you with such a pessimistic prognosis at this stage, when the cause hasn't even been determined is very tactless and a bit mean.
Try not to worry too much until you know more. Fingers crossed that you'll find out the cause on Tuesday and that you can get the problem sorted out soon! 

[zenon_bass]

Thanks your replies.
Willow has been prescibed eye drops called Remend Cornea Repair Gel and some more drops called Exocin and she is also on Metacam.

Trust everything goes well for Willow. Please would you let us know?

Millie has a corneal ulcer at the moment, with the same medication except Previcox instead of Metacam.
Drops are x6 daily atm. 😳 Millie is very good about this as she knows a treat follows! 😀 
I shall be so glad for her if we can sort this out, as she has cataracts and no reflex when tested on the other eye...  So, as I expect you are, I'm being the guide dog atm and choosing our walks very carefully, avoiding head high branches and twigs.  Today she was partly on lead to stop her panicking in the open playing field we passed through..

[MillicentWight]

Sorry to read that poor Millie is going through similar with a corneal ulcer. Do hope it will improve soon.
I will post again as soon as we know more about the cause of Willow's condition.

[PennyB]

Bosley has recently had an eye ulcer but we think its most likely due to injury  its now healed up but has left a tiny scar  (Ruby did the same when she had a thorn pierce her eye but Lady's was due to dry - all cleared up and in Lady's case she's on optimmune now). They can sometimes take a while to heal properly but sometimes you think they still have the ulcer but in reality it may just be the scar you see (by naked eye) as it looks similar

What am surprised at is didn't they test for dry eye - easily done (same as the way they do it in humans) - its the Schirmer's test and doesn't need anaesthesia. Other eye tests sometimes need local/typical anaesthetic to the eyeball and as suggested some need GA/ deep sedation

Have they discussed a referral to see an eye vet at all

[MillicentWight]

Yes in fact they did a Shirmer's tear test and the result was 15mm for the eye with the corneal ulcer, which the vet said was normal, but only 5 mm for the other eye, suggesting dry eye I believe.

No mention has been made of a referral yet and we are hoping it can be resolved locally as we will have a problem travelling any distance. See what the outcome is Tuesday.
Thanks for the advice and nice to know that a corneal ulcer can get better.

[zenon_bass]

Thanks Millicent Wright and PennyB!
Millie's eyes were tested for dry eye, but found to be normal, 15mm for one eye and 21mm for the other. No idea how the injury occurred..
Our vet suggested that if there was no improvement soon, then an extract from Millie's own blood would be needed... I hope I've got that correct. No suggestion yet regarding a referral.
Our next vet visit is tomorrow... I'll post afterwards..
Time for her last drops of the day! ☺️

[MillicentWight]

What does puzzle me a bit with Willow is that her eye with the ulcer is always full of tears when it is open but the vet has only discussed dry eye and ingrowing eyelashes. No mention of blocked tear ducts. Hopefully they will find the answer on Tuesday. Both eyes actually seem so much better since Friday with the new drops we are using but it is probably only temporary.
I hope Millie's visit to the vets goes well tomorrow.

[Emilyoliver]

My cocker has regular corneal ulcers - usually related to him leaping through long grass.  I think his eye surface is a bit 'fragile'.  Eye conditions like dry eye are often related to immune conditions.  He also had a bout of uveitis.  he is prescribed daily optimmune in both eyes and I also put gel tears in daily (as recommended by an eye specialist).  His 'dry eye' isn't particularly bad, but the optimmune and gel seems to have helped, as well as having a supply of Exocin and metacam to administer when I see an issue starting.  hope you get to the bottom of your dog's eye issue, but if not hopefully you can get it under control as I have with Ollie's.  (also, Ollie's ulcers got quite bad at one point and took ages to heal - the ophthalmologist ended up scraping the surface of the eyeball to remove any dead tissue, and this worked well to help heal the ulcers).