Dilated Eye

[Jay Betancourt]

I am curious to see if anyone else had dealt with this type of issue or has any feedback.

On June 11th (15 days ago), I came home and discovered that Blizzard was squinting his left eye and it seemed to be bothering him. I also noticed some discharge from the eye and some tearing. I immediately rushed him to the vet and the doctor performed an eye stain. The doctor said that no evidence of corneal scratching was present. The doctor prescribed Neo Poly Dex for the weekend (this visit was on Friday) and we started the treatment. The condition seemed to improve a bit for the weekend, but then seemed to stop improving. I returned to the vet on Tuesday (3 days after starting the drops) and we saw another doctor. She tried to do another eye stain to make sure that nothing had changed, but Blizzard was still squinting and was in discomfort. On a side note, he is comfortable going to the vet and always seems happy. He is not fearful of the vet. She used some drops to numb the eye and he almost immediately opened it up. He let us perform the eye stain and no corneal scratching.

Since we were concerned and Blizzard wouldn't let the doctor look at the eye, she provided some options. We decided to sedate him and she had a chance to look at eye. She did the Schrimmer Tear Test while he was sedated and measured tear production in both eyes. The problem eye (left) had significantly little to no tear production. After he woke up, she said that it looks like he might have dry eye. She prescribed 5 Novox tablets (1/2 a tablet every 12 hours) for pain/inflammation, Tobramyacin, and Optimmune. I started the medications and he has been taking them since June 15th (11 days).

Within a few days, his condition improved significantly. No longer was his eye shut. On Thursday of this past week, I brought Blizzard in for a follow up. The doctor said she saw a significant difference in the shininess of the eye. However, the pupil in the eye was dilated. She said to continue the medicine since we don't want to change anything since it appears to be helping. However, in his eye, the dilated pupil takes up most of his eye. She said that he doesn't appear to have lost any vision in that eye, but was hoping that the pupil would return to it's normal size.

I started doing some research and started reading about glaucoma and that he might have suffered some type of brain injury since the pupil is dilated. There is a lot of information on the Internet and now I'm starting to be concerned. I have taking a very proactive approach to treating this issue and have stayed on top of his medications. Blizzard seems himself, he's happy and playful. Eating and drinking okay. However, I am just extremely concerned with the fact that the pupil is dilated. I am not sure if it takes a few weeks to see improvement with the medication that was prescribed. I also failed to mention that I have also been giving putting in artificial tears with no preservatives in his eyes. When we were there last week for his follow up, she did another tear test and both eyes were well within normal range. We were very excited about this. However, again I'm extremely concerned about his dilated pupil. On a side note, the cloudiness that we saw in the blue part of his reduced as well when we started the medication. I spoke with another vet and they asked if the doctor used Atropine, which would dilate the pupil for up to two weeks. But I couldn't find it in my notes or invoices.

Name: Blizzard

Age: 1.75 years old

Sex: Male

Favorite Toy: Squeaky Red Football

Any feedback, answers, comments, would be greatly appreciated.

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

i havent got a clue so sorry someone wil b able 2 help tho hope hes better soon poor boy - keep us posted - blizzard is gorgeous - welcome to the pack x

[valkyries]

As above sorry i've not had this with any of mine, hope all's well soon bless him xxxx

[Sarah]

I've not come across this problem before, sounds like you're doing all the right things though - maybe in another week or so the pupil will settle down and go back to normal?

When are you due back at the vets?

Oh and welcome to the pack Jay

[Jay Betancourt]

Thanks for the welcome. The vet said that she was going to present the case to some board certified opthamologists to get some feedback. Unfortunately, there aren't any that are close to where we live so it's a 5-6 hour drive each way. But still, I need to get this diagnosed or hope that it disappears this week.

Prayers are appreciated.

[HuskyCouture]

i have not a clue :/ hope blizzard gets better

[Val (Zebedee)]

Hi, Jay, welcome to the pack, Blizzard is stunning.

It's a big worry when something like this happens, my grey sibe, Myshka, has been having problems with the skin around the eye & has been seeing a dermatologist vet who, during 1 of the consultations, noticed Myshka's pupils were different sizes, but it wasn't significant & it did correct itself over a 3 week period, between appointments. It has never returned & we never discovered the reason for it, although the problem with the skin was finally diagnosed as zinc deficiency, a common husky ailment.

I would just 'keep an eye on it', no pun intended & hope it continues to shrink to the same size as the other, as long as it's not causing discomfort to Blizzard, xx

[Lyn]

If I was you, I would go on the BVA website and find a vet who does BVA eye tests. They are the only ones who can really get to the bottom of eye problems and most other vets can only second-guess at them (our vet admits that and knows full well we're off to Preston for anything to do with eyes). Full test and a gonio will cost you £90.

Where abouts are you? There's bound to be an eye vet at least within a couple of hours from you.

Your invoices might not specifically state atropine drops, but examining an eye usually involves dialating with them, though never heard of the effect lasting 2wks?

[Sarah]

She's in Texas Lyn

[Jay Betancourt]

She's in Texas Lyn

Yup, we live in Lubbock, Texas.

[Jay Betancourt]

Update

Blizzard's eye seems to be doing a little better today. I noticed that the surface of his left eye is really shiny and that is still concerning me. And yes, the pupil is still dilated. We appreciate the prayers and hope this can get resolved soon!

[Lyn]

Sorry, can't see locations on mobile web

BVA not much help then, but would seek out the US equivalent of vets doing the recognised eye testing scheme.

Could I have permission to crosspost? Remember an experienced member on another forum metioning an eye problem that would give a dialated pupil and can occur in young dogs. Might be able to come up with answers/suggestions for you.

[Jay Betancourt]

Sorry, can't see locations on mobile web

BVA not much help then, but would seek out the US equivalent of vets doing the recognised eye testing scheme.

Could I have permission to crosspost? Remember an experienced member on another forum metioning an eye problem that would give a dialated pupil and can occur in young dogs. Might be able to come up with answers/suggestions for you.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Austinville]

While I don't have an answer for you, I would consider at least making a call to another vet - I'm sure someone on here could get you a number to their vet, just so you could ask a few more questions. I'm not saying your vet doesn't know what's going on, but I know it would ease my mind to have a second opinion.

Barring that, if your relationship is good with your vet, ask if they would consider contacting another vet about this.

I was very fortunate that Bo's vet never hesitated to call others if he had any doubts. Most often, he would contact the ISU vet college for an opinion (did this for my cat - didn't cost me any extra though I offered).

Thinking of you and hope everything works itself out.

[badabing82]

Hi,

Terrible news but keep up with the medication and i agree take her to another vet i had a very similar situation and took mine to a 24 hour vet here who hadn't seen anything like it before and was trying to go through a process of elimination.

anyway my saki had a similar issue i took her for a walk bought her home went outside a few hours later and her left eye was winking. I took a quick look and it was red being a sunday i thought i would monitor it and take her to the vet monday morning. Before i went to bed i went back out to check on her and her eye was fully closed 3rd eye lid right across and she could not open it so i took her to the vet she dialated the eye with adrenaline drops took a look and there was no scratching of the eye so she assumed it could be horner's syndrome. So she gave me some drops and told me to take her home. I made an appointment with my other vet and continued to give her the drops so wednesday i got to the other vet and the condition had started to improve but it may have just been caused by the dialation from the drops.

So anyway she confirmed there was no scratching but suspected it was an infection she gave me some medication for that told me to stop using the adrenaline and if things hadn't improved in 2-3 days come back and she would test for horners syndrome. It improved and all is now well.

anyway don't mean to hijack ur thread but hoping to give you some hope in the fact sometimes these things are innocent and it comes down to a process of elimination.

below is link to horners syndrome while it can be really serious often it goes away within 6 weeks by itself. might be worth asking next time at ur vet. according to the first vet it can also cause pupil dilation as well as droopiness and obviously if you have been using drops that cause dilation this can cause pupil dilation aswell.

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2105&aid=2478

anyway good luck getting it diagnosed i'm sure it nothing serious =o)

While I don't have an answer for you, I would consider at least making a call to another vet - I'm sure someone on here could get you a number to their vet, just so you could ask a few more questions. I'm not saying your vet doesn't know what's going on, but I know it would ease my mind to have a second opinion.

Barring that, if your relationship is good with your vet, ask if they would consider contacting another vet about this.

I was very fortunate that Bo's vet never hesitated to call others if he had any doubts. Most often, he would contact the ISU vet college for an opinion (did this for my cat - didn't cost me any extra though I offered).

Thinking of you and hope everything works itself out.