Mystery Eye Irritation

[MyPemCharlie]

Well Charlie and I just got back from the vet.

Yesterday morning he woke me up sounding like he needed to go potty. I got up took him outside, then went back in to put on my coffee (reverse order from our normal schedule). In less than 5 minutes I went out and he had his right eye completely closed. Don't know...sigh. Poked himself with the stick he chews on, bug bite, cornered a squirrel??? We'll never know.

Anyway, I flushed his eye with sterile saline solution. After about two hours, he had his eye half-way open but still squinting. By mid-afternoon he was looking better still and by bedtime he looked almost fully alert. I was flushing his eye every couple hours, and aside from the squinting, he was not tearing or having any other discharge. This morning he looked fully back to normal.

Took him for a walk this afternoon, and he started squinting again, so off to the vet we went. They put a dye in his eye to check for scratches. Could not find anything in his eye or any sign of a scratch. The vet looked under his inner eye lid with some little scary looking tool and didn't see anything.

He ended up diagnosing him with a "marginal entropy". My understanding is that whatever irritated Charlie's eye caused a slight swelling/squinting that rolled his eyelid in so the eyelashes were touching the eye and keeping him from improving after whatever irritated the eye was gone.

I'm a little confused whether this is going to be an ongoing problem requiring surgery, or just something to watch for if he develops an allergy or gets an irritant in his eye. I asked, and think my answer was "yes...or maybe"...not very clear. I can't imagine he would be fine all his life so far, then develop a permanent entropion in five minutes while I made coffee. Anyway, I guess we'll see. Right now I'm putting antibiotic eye drops in 3x a day for the next week.

[KJohnson]

My friends rottweiler puppy had that when they got him (really bad, actually, he had weird eyes for about a month, I'll see if I have any pictures) it went away after a cycle of the antibiotic eye drops and a few weeks. Generally, I think it fixes itself (if it is what Gary had) but good luck and keep us posted!

[MyPemCharlie]

I did a little research on entropian when I got in from the vets. Rottweilers are one of several breeds prone to it...Corgis are not generally predisposed. From what I read, it is an inherited genetic problem requiring surgery. The vet also drew me a diagram of the surgical procedure they do to fix it. I'm just thinking there is no way that Charlie got something in his eye yesterday and today has a genetic defect requiring surgery, with no previous eye problems. I don't know.

Anyway thanks for the pics of the little rottie pup. I am happy to hear that he was cured with eye drops, not surgery!

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by MyPemCharlie

I did a little research on entropian when I got in from the vets. Rottweilers are one of several breeds prone to it...Corgis are not generally predisposed. From what I read, it is an inherited genetic problem requiring surgery. The vet also drew me a diagram of the surgical procedure they do to fix it. I'm just thinking there is no way that Charlie got something in his eye yesterday and today has a genetic defect requiring surgery, with no previous eye problems. I don't know.

It can happen in any breed, but I would think it would show up before now. Maybe a second opinion? Is there an eye specialist in your area?

Peggy

[MyPemCharlie]

We're certainly not doing any surgery without a second opinion. I've seen dogs while working at the shelter with entropia and it's pretty obvious like the rottweiler puppy in the photos that Kelsey posted.

I can look at Charlie's eyes and don't see any eyelashes or fur touching his eye. It's possible that the vet didn't understand my question, or I didn't understand his answer. He went into too much detail about the surgery to correct entropia, when I was asking if the minor swelling from Charlie's irritation and squinting would cause his lids to roll (temporarily until the puffiness went away). He made it sound like a permanent condition. Charlie's eyes just don't look entropic to me at all.

The good news is that Charlie slept an hour or two after we got home, and when he woke up his eye was totally open again. No more squinting today. When I pull his lid back, I can see a little bloodshot coloring. I think the next week of the antibiotic drops to clear any possible bacterial infection will take care of us. Hope so, anyway.