Help with a corneal ulcer
Submitted by Acoya on August 25, 2010 - 2:57pmHi,
This is my first post here and i need some help. My almost 11 year old bulldog, Acoya, developed what the vet says is a corneal ulcer. About 3.5 weeks ago she was outside and came back onto the porch rubbing her eye, i assumed she had been stung or something irritated it and watched her. The next day her eye was tearing badly and she was still rubbing it and it had become quite inflamed. I took her to the vet and they did a stain and the vet saw no objects or scratches on the cornea so she gave me an antibiotic ointment to put in the eye for 2 weeks and sent me home. I applied it as instructed and things seemed to be progressing well for about a week with the inflamation steadily improving. Then things kind of levelled off and while not getting any worse, didnt seem to be entirely non inflamed. Then about a week ago she developed an awful lookign ulcer in her eye, a large pink kind of raised speck on her eyeball. Back tot eh vet this time for 3 different antibiotics, ointments and drops. I have applied those as directed for the past week, and today is our follow up visit and she has shown almost no improvement. I am concerned about continuing treatment if its not making things better.
Everything i read says ulcers are painful, but since the initial irritation she has shown absolutely no discomfort with her eye (aside from when i have to apply the ointment/drops). The only indication that somethign is wrong is the pinkish ulcerated area in the eyeball itself. Other than that everything is entirely normal. She has never had eye issues of any sort before and im wondering if this diagnosis progression makes sense to bulldog folks. My vet isnt supremely experienced with bulldogs but being in a very rural area my options are very limited. Does anybody out there have any thoughts on this? Is there another possible diagnosis besides corneal ulcer? again, shes showing 0 pain, not rubbing it or worrying at the eye at all, it doesnt even seem to have any abnormal discharge.
Thanks for any input
Joe and Acoya
Our girl had a corneal ulcer years ago and...
it took about 2 months to heal up. We used to take her in every couple of days and they would debride it so it would heal over. I've heard of some dogs having their third eyelid sewn over the ulcer to help it heal. You have to be careful not to use any eye meds with steroids in them, it will make the ulcer worse. I'm guessing you don't have any canine eye specialists in your area?
keep going
keep putting the meds in the eye...but you are going to have to find eye doctor and that may mean drvivng a couple of hrs...believe me we have all done that....the eye is now at a point where surgery is needed...the eye needs to be scrapped to help with healing...eyes are tough and it sounds like your vet did the right thing but some times no matter what you still end up doing surgery....keep up the meds but find a eye doctor......
Ozzy
Had to have surgery for a corneal ulcer last summer. We were also told it is very painful, but Ozzy was acting normal, playing, eating etc. Follow all the vets instructions.
Hi, Quick update, i just got
Hi,
Quick update, i just got back from teh vet who said that corneal ulcers can take a long time to heal in certain breeds, bull breeds being one of them. Its not significantly better but also not worse. She recommended continuing with the current antibiotic regimen for another 2 weeks and seeing how the healing goes. She did not recommend scraping it at this time but said eventually it may be necessary. My main concern at that point would be anesthesia in an 11 year old bulldog.
Joe
My girl
has an ulcer and applied the ointment faithfully 2 times a day for 2 months. It is almost non visible. This seems to be very common in bulldogs. Yuck. One more thing to worry about.
Ulcer
My girl had one. They scraped it using a numbing ointment to the eye. She didn't even flinch...a month and a half now and it is gone. I used poly bac faithfully for the whole time 2 x's a day. Good luck with your girl.