5 Eye Injuries in Dogs That Require Emergency Treatment

See your provider or go to the ER right away if you’ve been hit in the eye and you notice bleeding. Even though it’s rare, hyphema can cause permanent damage to your eye and vision if it’s not treated right away. Nowadays, the trend has changed to outpatient treatment, because of better cost-effectiveness of the latter, and similar rates of re-bleeding and of other complications.

Talk to your provider or surgeon if you have pain, bleeding or other symptoms after eye surgery. Or blood in the anterior chamber may be an early or late complication of cataract extractions and lensectomies. Hyphema ranges from small focal blood clots in the ventral anterior chamber to an anterior chamber completely filled with blood. This is the presence of blood in the anterior chamber of the eye. It may occur with either a blunt or perforating injury and represents a situation that may threaten vision. In addition, because of its lower likelihood to cause systemic acidosis that promotes sickling, methazolamide rather than acetazolamide should be used to decrease intraocular pressure in these patients.

Deep stromal ulcer with a central descemetocele secondary to corneal malacia and stromal loss; 360° superficial corneal neovascularization is also present. We will take your pet immediately and can help your dog heal and repair any damage done to their eyes. For many eye injuries, a dog makes contact with an object and then injury appears. In rare cases, a foreign object may become lodged into the eye area. Objects could include thorns, sticks, or even a household object like a fork. Despite the discomfort, you should not attempt to pull out the object yourself.

Shrinkage of the connective tissue results in dramatic holes in the iris, and often, displacement of the pupil. Animals lacking a functional sphincter muscle may show increased sensitivity to bright light. Laser ablation of the ciliary body or anterior chamber shunts, such as gonioimplants, used alone or together, offer longer periods of IOP control than medical management alone. Hyphema secondary to anterior uveitis; note diffuse bright red color and clot obscuring the pupil. Proper evaluation of the red eye depends on effective and efficient diagnosis of the underlying ocular disease in order to save the eye’s vision and the eye itself.

An injured cornea will include a lot of discomfort for a dog and could result in a canine scratching at their eye even more. The scratch could lead to more serious issues like a corneal ulcer. With little protection, a dog’s eye can easily become injured and damaged. Learn about the injuries that may occur, what to look for, and when to seek emergency treatment from a vet.

If the intraocular pressure is elevated, topical and systemic pressure-lowering medications are used. If the pressure is not controllable by such measures, then surgical evacuation of the clot may be required to minimize the risk of permanent vision loss. Patients with sickle cell disease or trait are at higher brun juice risk of acute loss of vision secondary to elevated intraocular pressure or optic nerve infarction and may require more aggressive intervention. Individuals with a history of traumatic hyphema have an increased incidence of glaucoma later in life and should be monitored on a regular basis throughout their lives.