Hi Everyone, I am after some advice and thoughts really, Ozzie is a chocolate lab who is nearly 11 months old and has been to the vets today with very gunky eye (see picture, its not a great one, but is the best I could get off him - had just bathed it too, to get it open) and the vet says he has an eye infection which is the 4th time since New years eve, and I'm just wondering if anyone else has this problem and if there is anything we can do to help him stop getting these, so often. He has always had a runny eye but the last few have been really bad and he has been pawing at his eye hence the vet trip today. I have just read a post the internet about something similar and the vet has suggested an operation because it could be due to hairs by his eye rubbing it & she wants to operate on his eye and tighten the skin so the hairs don't catch, is something I should speak to my vet about? as I don't want to be constantly giving him eye drops as he hates them being done and sulks with me for a very long time afterwards & my OH works away a lot so it's always me being the mean one. Any advice would be really appreciated. Gunky Eye - Feb 2015 by katiewalker913, on Flickr
Re: Eye Infection Help & Suggestions Poor love , my Sam used to get messy eyes but grew out of it at around 18 months old . Re the operation , I guess its for entropian /ectropian ? This was also suggested for Sam, but I hung fire after reading that Labs often have " spare " skin on their faces , the skull takes longer than other bones to grow and so it could be some time before the skin is pulled tighter by the bony structure . This was certainly the case for my lad , so maybe have a chat with your Vet about waiting for a few more months until he is fully grown ?
Re: Eye Infection Help & Suggestions My 13 week old puppy Maisie, has entropion (where the eyelid folds inwards so that the hairs rub on the eyeball), after 3 visits to my own vet she was then referred to an eye specialist who she saw last night and maisie is having corrective surgery for it on thursday. She also has an ulcer on her eye from the rubbing. Has your vet checked for entropion? As it is something that needs to be sorted quckly because can cause bad damage to the eye.
Re: Eye Infection Help & Suggestions Poor boy ;( sorry, I have no experience of eye infections so can't help, just wanted to say I hope you get it sorted x
Re: Eye Infection Help & Suggestions Do you often go to the beach or other water? Sand or water in the eye can often aggravate the situation. The yellow gunk definitely means an infection, so he has to put up with the drops or ointment, but you can make that a more positive experience by giving him high value treats (eg roast chicken) for allowing you to put them in.
Re: Eye Infection Help & Suggestions He has been given some drops for the infection. I assume the vet has checked for all of these things but I am not 100% sure, I will check with them next week, as we are going back for a check up. He doesn't spend much time at the beach this is the first time since September time, as we haven't had chance to get there.
Re: Eye Infection Help & Suggestions Chepi gets slightly runny eyes now and then, my vet advised to just wipe with cotton wool dipped in cooled boiled water. I am interested to see what others say.
