Any one here deal with Dry Eye in their husky?
Finn was labeled today with Dry eye, his tear ducts are not making fluid
we are trying prednisone for the next 3 weeks (tapering) and cyclosporine 1% in both his eyes 2x's a day, with a recheck the first week of Oct. from what she said this is a life long thing, and the thought of fighting Finn to put drops in his eyes for 10+ yrs worries me.
It started around early July, i thought it was allergies, there was thick white and green goop coming out of his eyes, i did not think that much about it as Jack also had some yellow green stuff in his eyes. Smoke from the west was hitting CO and figured it was that.
then one weekend Finn barley opened his right eye all weekend, so vet time it was, we got some steroid drops, that cleared up the green goop but it was still white, ran out of those drops, they then gave us new drops, no steroids.
i had Jack in at the vet last week and mentioned it to the doc i really like (she did not see Finn) and told her how he still had thick white stringy goop coming out of his eye. She said i needed to get him in ASAP for a dry eye test, well 2 days later and 4 eye test later he failed them all. she puts these paper strips in the eyes to soak up the water, well Finn had no water. she sent us to a specialist today and had it confirmed.
the drops are really $$$
Surgery does not seem to be the answer based on compilations.
so im just crossing my fingers that maybe it fixes its self, even though it might not.
would love to hear from anyone else that has to deal with this.
thanks,
Jenn

Er, what the current colloquial expression? "That don't look for shit!" I knew what you were asking but had no idea otherwise -

From what I'm reading blockage is often permanent - that sucks - but if it's caused by an infection (the green gooey stuff) it may reverse itself and begin functioning again. Oh, yeh, that's a big help!

Glad it's not me, I value my fingers and I think either of mine would really object to me using eye-drops. Good luck ...

@jbealer where did you end up going? And would you recommend them?

Emily, we went here, denver location.
https://eyespecialistsforanimals.com/

Our Vet said they could see us sooner and was cheaper then the VRCC.  Base visit was $195 so no idea what VRCC charges
they were very busy and have good reviews, i liked the vet that saw him even though i had to correct her when she was calling Finn a she....


Al,
I was hoping someone would tell me their dogs eyes started working again.... or a better way to get drops in the eye (vet makes it look so easy). there is a surgery to implant a sack under the eye lids that feeds fluid but we did not talk to much about that just yet.

jbealer wrote:

Al,
I was hoping someone would tell me their dogs eyes started working again.... or a better way to get drops in the eye (vet makes it look so easy). there is a surgery to implant a sack under the eye lids that feeds fluid but we did not talk to much about that just yet.

If there's a surgery to implant a sack to feed fluids - how do you refill the sack when it's empty?  (( less facetious, I presume it absorbs liquid from the surrounding flesh - my first idiot thought was "refilling via an IV" which just might be a little bit of a problem.  Okay, don't say it, my mind wanders in the oddest directions .... ))

If you haven't read it, there's an interesting post on the eyespecialists site about dry eye It explains that the reason that it's basically incurable is that the infection often destroys both the lacrimal gland and ducts (ouch!) It also offers some alternatives which appear to be more effective.

Don't know anything about dry eye but some folks I know who have dogs that struggle super hard for getting their diabetes shots put their dogs in a sling to minimize the struggle and make them more manageable. A lot less power to move when their feet aren't touching the ground.

I know next to nothing about dry eye in dogs. A bit about humans (I struggle a bit with it, allergies and medications, I think.) Ibdo know about putting drops on dogs eyes and, I'm sorry, I would not wish that on my worst enemy. Archer had to have eye drops briefly while I had him for 2 weeks and...it did not go well. Maybe your vet, or one of her techs, can teach you an effective method?

thanks for the words, Finn does not struggle so much but his eye lid muscles are STRONG! it takes 2 hands to spread them open and also try to drop a drop in with one of the hands holding a lid open, if its just me doing it. the vet showed me and made it look so easy but not for me. i stand over him, hold his head up and do my best to get a grip on it.
the drops seem to be helping, his eyes have more gloss on them but still getting the boogers in the eyes.
in other news he has had 3 head wobble episodes over the weekend that might be brought on with the steroids, they scare me so much.
I am looking into some rex specs for him to hike in so the colder, winder summit pushes do not over dry his eyes while we are out hiking.

Life has been spinning me in a dryer, but i figured i would do a quick update for you all. Finn's right eye has been an issue since day one. just really dry, infected and has been keeping it closed for months really. On Nov. 9th Ken came home to Finn crying and red fluid coming from the right eye. off to the ER where they could not get him to open the eye to see what was going on, he kept rolling it to the back of his head. we got some medicated drops and sent on our way. i called the eye vet on wed and they could not see us till the 18th! fast forward to sun the 14 back to the ER as Finn has stopped eating for 2 days and just looked bad, they still could not see much and told me we had to see an eye doc. I left a voicemail for the eye doc sun. Monday morning i called and got an apt for 8:30that day, they squeezed us in, i told her it was an emergency. the vet took one look at him and gave me the bad news, he eye had ruptured and needed to be removed. i called my vet, they could not get us in, they called around and the ER vet could do it that day for $3500 or my eye vet could do it on Tue for $2200. I chose to wait till Tue to have the pros do it. Our boy lost his eye and now that i can see him feeling better, it was the thing that needed to be done and he will be happier now. the left eye still has dry eye but we have had better luck treating it with the drops then we had with the right. i have looked into stem cells and will talk with the vet at his follow up on Dec 7th. I do not wish this on anyone. ugh.

@jbealer sorry for finns loss. The air this year has been bad for everyone's eyes and lungs. Does your vet think the altitude has anything to do with the eye issues? Or even our constant wildfire cloud?

@jbealer - trauma for both Finn and you.  If I'd have been in Ken's place - coming in to a dog with red ooze from an eye - I don't know what I'd have done.  Well, beside freak out!!!

I'm not sure if you've ever said a cause for the dry eye - since you're looking at stem cell my guess is that it's genetic.  Stem cell therapy - which was unheard of to me as a kid and a "promised dream" just a few years back has done some miraculous things.  I wish you the best of luck there.

I am sorry you have to deal with this. It really sucks. I am shocked at those eye removal numbers. We were quoted $300 to remove the eye of one of our bird dogs a few years back when she tore the retina. He's lucky he has you who are willing to go those extra miles for him.

thanks for all the comments, we have no real cause for the start of the dry eye, it started in July when CO was really bad with wildfire smoke from CA, but with his head tremors we have not ruled out genetics either, autoimmune even. he is healing up well and back to his Finn self! Ken and I are happy with seeing him "normal" again. eye test came back this morning and we are in the clear, it was a giant mess of an eye but no cancer!
he has the cone for 1 more week, he has been using his left eye so much more now that its not squinting in pain from the right.

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