Dry Eye (now With Pictures - See Last Post)

[BittyMooPeeb]

We've got a foster just arrived who has one eye closed up and the other eye has had dry eye which has not been treated in the past so he has lost a lot of sight in it .

Apparently the vet said that medication he will need for his eye costs $80 per month

Does anyone know what he might be referring to, and why it cost so much?

He also mentioned 'natural' alternatives may be available to treat dry-eye. Does anyone know about these?

We have no idea what has happened with his other eye - I cant find a scar - it is just closed over as if he never had an eyelid. His eyeball is in there though. An eye specialist comes down to Canberra once a month, so we may have to book him in too see if there is a way of finding out if his closed up eye is functional, and if so, whether eyelids can be created. For now though we just need to make sure he doesn't lose the last bit of sight in his open eye.

He's a 3yr old purebred Lhasa Apso (with papers). We traced the breeder but she is deceased.

Edited June 29, 2007 by BittyMooPeeb

[ellz]

Do not muck around with eyes. Dry eye in particular is potentially blinding. The constant rubbing can cause damage to the cornea and corneal ulceration which WILL ultimately cause the dog to go blind and is very painful at the same time. Imagine how you would feel with sand in your eyes all of the time!!!

The other thing that can happen is that pigmentation will grow over the eye, also ultimately blinding. Neither are pleasant and both are preventable.

Definitely see the eye specialist and pursue whatever natural options are suggested.

Poor dog, if I were in a better position, I'd take him off your hands!

[Dogsfevr]

If it was me i would be going by the specialists advice dry eye is more than a simple problem but after treatment alternatives can be used & we have used alternatives but the dogs have always been treated & monitored by the specialist first

One of the best products we have used is an eye gel from the chemist super stuff but as i said this was strictly used after consult with a specialist

[BittyMooPeeb]

If he sees the specialist it will be for the other eye (not the one with dry eye).

Of course he will get ongoing medication for his dry-eye . My question was about why the medication is so expensive, and what natural alternatives there are.

Edited to add: Just to clarify, his dry eye has been seen and is being treated by a vet. It is the vet who suggested looking for an alternative to the expensive prescription medication.

Edited June 27, 2007 by BittyMooPeeb

[ellz]

The medication is expensive because it is expensive to create. If it is the one I have used myself (Cyclosporin or something like that) it is a steroidal based thing. I'd be having the specialist look at both eyes. There is no guarantee that the other eye isn't like it is due to the same problem, but further progressed.

[carabelle]

I had this problem with one of my dogs last year, the tube cost $45 and corrected the dry eye really quickly, did not have to use the whole tube. Good luck.

[peigirl]

For eye lubrication I have used Lacri-lube (for humans) from the chemist. Cost is $18.00 for two small tubes. My boy had entropion and I needed to reduce irritation of lashes rubbing on eye ball pre surgery.

[Chocolate]

I think this link may be helpful to you:-

http://www.naturalpaws.com.au/dry-eye-usef...-120-false.html

[Toohey]

My boy has dry eye and he is on Cyclosporin drops. They are $50 a bottle. He was originally on two drops a day but has now dropped to one drop a day as his eyes have improved heaps. The bottle I have currently has lasted a few months. He also is supposed to have naturale tears drops as frequently as possible, ideally every hour, or whenever I think of it.

I use the lacrilube at night as well sometimes.

[Poodle wrangler]

The human stuff from the chemist came to my mind, too, but I'd only use it on vet advice. Yikes $80. My understanding was that dry eye is often an ongoing problem. Sorry, not much help.

[westielover]

Hi BMP

My Winston has dry eye and has that expensive medication. It's called 'Optimmune' and the active constituent is 'cyclosporin'. It's about $80 per 35g tube but it seems to work.

Winston had a 'tear test' as follows:

A strip of special paper is inserted just inside the lower eyelid in the outer corner of the eye for 60 seconds. The moisture of the eye will wet the paper. At the end of the 60 second period, the height of the moistened area is measured. A height of 15mm or more is normal. A height 11-14mm is a borderline result. A height of less than 10mm is dry. A height less than 5mm is severely dry.

Winston had less than 5mm in both eyes. We have been using "Optimmune' for about 3 months now and it is known to 'reverse' dry eye in about 80% of cases. Winston now has 15mm in one eye and almost 20mm in the other - which is a terrific result. I now only use the 'Optimmune' intermittently. For the first month - I was putting the ointment in his eyes twice a day. I took him in for an eye test and htere was an improvement - so then I reduced treatement to once a day for the following 6 weeks and did another eye test with the above results. Now I just pop ointment into his eyes only when there is gunky stuff in is eye - not the dry gunky stuff - but the gooey gunky stuff. (Do you like my medical terminology ).

Here is some good info about dry eye.

Edited June 27, 2007 by westielover

[~Anne~]

westielover, you got in before me and said exactly what I was going to say!

In some cases, dry eye is an immune issue, and the cream Optimmune reverses the conditon in some but not all dogs.

Pugs also frequently suffer from this. If the condition is not treated they will develop keratitis which is where the eye (all of it including the white area) is covered by a brown pigment. It is like the dog having a brown gauze curtain across their eye. They see some movement and shadows (depending on the severity) and that si all. Their night vision is the worst.

As someone above said it would feel like the dog has sand in its eyes all the time and so, even though it is expensive to treat, non-treatment is not an option.

[BittyMooPeeb]

Hi all,

Thanks for everyones responses

I talked to the vet this morning to clear a few things up, and yes it is Optimmune that he is thinking of.

Jackson needs to see an eye specialist for *both* eyes (which is what several DOLers said, but I thought that the dry-eye could be treated by a non-specialist vet. He probably needs to go to the eye specialist becasue of the injury caused by the dry-eye being untreated for so long).

Problem is that there isnt an eye specialist in Canberra . One does down from Sydney for one day a month, but you cant book ahead (they send a card out to all the vets saying which clinic they will be at, then the vet has to ring up all of his/her patients that want to see the specialist, then the patient has to get on the phone and hope to get an appointment - they book out really quickly). I havent been able to get my own cat in yet

So .... now I'm looking at alternatives like taking him to Sydney to see an eye specialist. Does anyone have any recommendations, particularly if they give a discount to rescue? If he needs an ultrasound, and then possibly reconstructive surgery on his left eye it is going to be expensive.

[Eridor]

Honey Jeff will be in Canberra at the Inner South Vet Hospital in Narrabundah on the 25th July or you can PM me and I will give you the number in Sydney and you can try and get an appointment the day I am taking the puppies up 16th July.

[~Archie~]

PM sent

[~Anne~]

So .... now I'm looking at alternatives like taking him to Sydney to see an eye specialist. Does anyone have any recommendations, particularly if they give a discount to rescue? If he needs an ultrasound, and then possibly reconstructive surgery on his left eye it is going to be expensive.

Ultrasound? Reconstructive surgery? For dry eye? Huh????

If it is just dry eye then you don't need a specialist and you don't need any 'reconstructive' surgery. Am I missing something here?

[laffi]

Sorry but what are the symptoms of dry eye? :D

Thanks!

[~Anne~]

Sorry but what are the symptoms of dry eye? ;)

Thanks!

Dry eyes :D

Seriously though you can usually tell by them having 'mucky' eyes. Because there isn't enough mucous coating the eyes the dirt and rubbish is not washed away when they blink. The can also easily become infected.

Edited to add - the will develop a brwon film over the eys as well. It usually starts at the corners on the white part of the eye.

Edited June 28, 2007 by Puggles

[Rappie]

I would think the ultrasound would be for the 'other' eye, not the one with dry eye.

[BittyMooPeeb]

Ultrasound? Reconstructive surgery? For dry eye? Huh????

If it is just dry eye then you don't need a specialist and you don't need any 'reconstructive' surgery. Am I missing something here?

Sorry Puggles but yes you are missing something ;) . The ultrasound would be to see if his other eye (the closed one) is functional, and the reconstructive surgery would be to create eyelids and open the eye up. His right eye has dry eye and is vision impaired (the vet thinks as a result of untreated dry eye) and the right eye is closed, presumably a birth defect.

This is Jackson (aka Jogar Mr Wonderful (desexed by us this week, so not so wonderful any more :wink:)):

Thanks to those who PM'd or rang . I now have insider info on how to get an appointment in Canberra, and have the names of Sydney specialists if we decide to go up there instead.

ETA: the area around his eye is shaved to help clear up the infection he had. It makes him look a bit freaky.

Edited June 29, 2007 by BittyMooPeeb