Hey guys when I got home from christmas shopping I let Koda out of her crate which she was in for probably 3 hours and was shocked. Her eyes were swollen considerably and she could hardly open her left eye more than halfway. I took her to the vet and after all the check ups the vet decided it was conjunctivitis (also her inner ears were slightly red the vet said). They sent us home with ointment to put in her eyes twice a day and benadryl for five days to get the swelling down. I'm slight;y relived but am struggling to figure out what happened as she was perfectly fine this morning and before she went in her crate. The only things we did today that are slightly unusual was swimming in the river (maybe dirty water got in her eye), eating a little bit of plastic cheese wrapper before I could wrestle it away from her, and having a semi new treat as in she has had the same brand before and the same treat but not in the past 2 months or so. Do you think any of those things contributed to it possibly? The vet said its impossible to guess but obviously I would like to try and figure out if we did something different if that could have caused it because I'm not entirely convinced it wasn't some sort of allergic reaction. I realize no one can be certain but any guesses or thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Swimming in the river would get my vote. But as the vet says you might never know... I hope you start to see improvement pretty quickly. Must have been a shock to see her face swollen up when you got home. Glad it does not seem to be anything too serious.
Swimming in the river would get my vote - but you'll probably never know. It happened to Belle once (without the swelling). We all went to bed as usual - she was fine. Got up next morning, and she stood on the end of the bed, both eyes stuck together, barely able to open them. Straight to the vets, she got ointment for conjunctivitis. Cleared up, never happened again. All I could think of was she'd been rummaging in a fern in the garden, but she did that many times after too.
My late dog Sam would sometimes get ear infections after swimming in a local river , our Vet told us that this was very common indeed .
Thanks everyone, I tend to think the river probably had something to do with it too. I'm going to keep her out of it for a few weeks just to be safe now. The ointment/benadryl has helped almost get rid of the swelling and redness in her eyes but she is still itching at them like crazy so she has to wear the cone of shame and her appetite for kibble is completely gone, although she seems to suddenly discover her appetite when the treats come out . Hopefully she will be back to her usual self soon.
You don’t think she got stung by a bee or bitten by a spider? Snowie woke me at 2am once with swollen ears and face, also scratching a lot. Vet was certain it was an insect or spider bite. Not that we will ever know either.
My first thought was also a bite or sting. Might be worth talking to the vet about something more for the itching? The benedryl is an antihistamine but not all antihistamines work in all dogs. Might need to consider a bigger gun (aka steroids)? My dog Obi has the cone on at the moment too (chewed a hole in his backside...sort of) so he sends his best sympathies to Koda.
