Tilly has always had saggy lower eyelids, so she looked like a blood hound or basset. Some of the time they would have quite a bit of discharge. We treated them off and on, but it did not seem to make a big difference, and it did not seem to bother her. Recently she has had mild infection in the skin folds on her lower jaw. We have been treating it with Mupirocin ointment prescribed by the vet, and realized that her eye discharge had stopped. It might be coincidence, but I don't think so.
Charlie's lower eyelids could be a bit tighter - but they are not terribly bad, they do seem a bit looser if he is tired or stressed for some reason. I see much worse on Labradors every day. I do wonder if that is a factor though. The vet said not, and his skin tightness is ok. Anyway, his eyes seem much better. No discharge at all, still a tad red looking at times. Much better once I put the drops in though. The drops are for a bacterial infection, but I don't think it's that - they might contain something else that is acting as an anti-inflammatory etc. I'll ask the vet, as we are going back for a check on Thursday. I'm not at all convinced the Apoquel is doing anything much....
Could be that its just the carrier which is helping as a lubricant? I know that most human eye infections would settle just with lubrication. Even the bacterial ones - our bodies are pretty good at fighting infection if we have normal immune systems. Not that I'm suggesting the treatment is wrong. You know us doctors, have to be on your death bed before you get an antibiotic these days Glad things are improving for Charlie.
Pollution could be an irritant rather than an allergen, couldn't it? "Stuff" in the air that irritates the eyes (says she, scientifically)....?
Brogan would get red and mucky eyes when we were in Spain. The vet there thought it was a combo of the dry air, dust from the the Levante (strong wind coming up out of Africa) and his lower lids drooping with age. Just sticking eyedrops in 3x a day (human ones, no prescription) and keeping his eyes wiped with a soft damp cloth really helped. He had zero problems in Ireland, so I think air quality and humidity played a huge role in his case. Charlie may have it right that frequent trips to the sea are in order... therapeutic purposes only, of course. I never had a dog's leg shaved just to give blood. Brogan would have had perpetually shaved legs if that was the case! However, a very strange quirk of blood tests in Germany was that instead of using a needle to aspirate the blood straight into an attached vial, they would stick a needle in then catch the blood into a little container as it spurted out. It would never fail to get all over the darn floor and they would always seem surprised that Brogan's blood would gush out like a little geyser. Despite me reminding them every time before the jab that it did so. I never saw that technique in any other country we were in. Considering that I spent a LOT of time in German hospitals, I was infinitely grateful that they did not use the same technique on humans.
This is what my OH thinks - he thinks we just need a sort of 'eye cleaner' to go with washing his face after walks. I'll speak to the vet about it.
Well, the results of the blood tests are back, and are showing an indication that there is something in grass, trees, mites or weeds where Charlie could have an allergic reaction. Huh. I'm not entirely sure how helpful this is. It's a bit difficult to avoid grass, trees, weeds...or mites, I suppose. It does make me think we are not so very far off in suspecting the tree pollen in London though. Anyway, for more money I can get a breakdown of those categories to tell me more and whether it's a particular plant. I am a bit doubtful about this but decided to go ahead. I'm doubtful about how accurate this might be, or whether knowing would help. I suppose that if I absolutely knew that Charlie was allergic to the tree pollen I'd consider rearranging my plans to keep him out of London as much as possible during the peak tree pollen season. The vet says that she thinks it would be helpful to know more, because there are some anti-allergy injections that possibly could solve matters. Well, anyway.....so I decided to have them run the next batch of tests. They can use the blood they already have. The good news is so far his eyes look ok, he isn't rubbing them and they aren't red. So that's the main thing.
Thanks for the update - it will be really interesting what comes back. And glad to hear he's doing a bit better!
