[Dailydrool] dry eye, eye cyst, surgery, howling

[Donna Lindy]

I thought Pauline had a lot of eye drops with her glaucoma,
but in the end it was Elmo that had even more kinds of eye
drops.  He had corneal ulcers (mean, painful things that
made my sweet, smooshy boy really feel bad) and
developed dry eye in his old age. For the dry eye we used
the cyclosporin which we got from our animal ophthalmologist
and also prednisolone acetate, neopolydex, Muro 128 and
Genteal gel eye drops. The last 4 we got at Walmart; the last
2 are over the counter medications.  He also got Gentamicin
but that may have been for the corneal ulcer - I can't remember
any more. This is not to say every dog will need all those drops
for dry eye, but Elmo did. A dog on eye drops 3 or 4 times a day
is a real commitment but you get into a routine and it's just part
of life.  We did multiple eye drops here for over 8 years.  If the
dog's dry eye is not severe, you may only have to do one or two
drops a couple of times a day. You do have to diligent with dry
eye as it can lead to other complications if not attended to.

As for the eye cyst, our Bosley has one on his left eye.
At first my vet thought it was a melanoma but a trip to
the eye vet relieved us of the worry for that.  She said
it will eventually just go away. It's on his iris and not
really noticeable unless  you know it's there. It
changes size sometimes which is normal.  We are
to watch for his eye tearing but otherwise no worries.
So, Ursula, I would have a concern about the bleeding
in Daisy's eye and would have an eye specialist look
at it for a second opinion.  Your vet may do those kind
of surgeries, but I don't think mine would do a cyst removal
that was on the eye itself.   Or maybe I'm misunderstanding
and it's not on the eyeball???

We use baby gates to isolate a basset after surgery.  It's
worked really well since the patient is generally pretty tired
the day of and the day after surgery. After the initial greeting
upon return from the vet, my gang generally isn't interested
in the basset that doesn't smell the same anyway. But our
basset room can be gated off from the rest of the room and
we have 2 other gates that are attached to the wall that swivel
so we can easily separate hounds when we need to.  Best thing
we ever did!

When we had 16 paws, Miss Pauline was our bell hound.
She led everyone in a morning serenade every single day
until her last few days with us.  After she went to the Bridge,
no more howling except every now and then, always started
by Bosley.  And then Elmo left us and we got Sunny.  She's
been here for 7 months now and after a few months of only
occasional howling by the group, the daily howling is back.
Sunny is our bell hound now and she starts in at the same
time Pauline did - somewhere around 5:30 a.m. and yes,
that's weekends, too!

Donna, drool fueler for Gracie, Bosley and Sunny