Recurring Cloudy Eye With Discharge in a 7-Year-Old Dog
The first time this happened I brought my dog to a after hours dog care. The doctor did a few test mostly just visual and another with drops and a special light. I'm assuming to look for damage to the lens? He said that he believed that my dogs lower eye lids were rolled in and his eye lashes were scaring his eyes? He recommended surgery, were they would cut a small piece of his eye lid out and then sew it back together, correcting the rolled in bottom eye lid? He also gave me antibiotics in a pill form and a antibiotic ointment to put in his eye. Which cleared up the problem in a few days. I just have a hard time believing this is the cause to my dogs eye problem? My dog is seven years old and has only had this problem for the last year? He has had the discharge problem for most of his life. Which I was told was due to allergies? If this was the problem why didn't this happen sooner in life? I don't have any pictures of my dogs eye, but it looks a lot like the dog on this page with canine cataracts. Although; my dog has a hard time holding his eye that wide open and there is more swelling around the eye? If you have any insight to my dogs eye problem I would really appreciate you advice!
What the vet described is entropion, an eyelid that rolls inward so hair or lashes rub the eye. It can develop later in life, for example when skin loosens or after squinting from pain, and it causes ulcers, cloudiness, discharge and swelling. Fixing the eyelid is often what prevents ulcers coming back.
A cloudy white cornea with squinting also needs a stain test for an ulcer each time it happens. Because pain alone can make the lid roll in, ask the vet to check the eyelid after numbing drops and to measure the eye pressure, since glaucoma also causes a cloudy, painful eye. If you'd like more certainty before surgery, ask for a referral to a veterinary ophthalmologist, and mention his lifelong discharge, which could also point to dry eye or allergies.
See corneal ulcers in dogs and dog eye discharge.
This is general information, not a diagnosis. Please follow your own vet's advice.
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