Tips for Maintaining Your Dog's Eye Health : Causes, Signs, & Care

Understand Your Dog’s Eye Health

Eye is one of the sense organs of any living beings and just like humans Pets also possess risk of infection or irritation in eyes because of multiple factors. So, in order to keep your dog cent percent, fit and healthy, eye examination becomes one of the most essential routine exercises for owners and has to be performed time to time in order to keep their eyes healthy and free from infection. Ignorance of this might lead to serious eye illness which can be threatening to them. 

Eye Health: The Warning Signs:

Its very important to regularly examine the eyes and look for the warning signs for any future implication. If the signs are identified earlier, it can be treated better. Dogs can have varied range of eye problems just like in humans like Dry eyes, cataracts, conjunctivitis, cherry eye, glaucoma etc. There are many warning signs that can indicate that something is wrong with the dog’s eyes. It is not necessarily the final diagnosis but these signs can tell a lot about eye health. If owner finds any of these warning sign than they should contact a veterinarian for confirmatory diagnosis. 

The most common warning signs re as follows:

• Tearing
• Redness
• Frequent Blinking or squinting
• Any kind of discharge from eye (usually Yellow or Green)
• Cloudiness (It may be quite common in old dogs)
• Sensitivity to light
• Swelling near the eyes
• Decreased vision- can be indicated by poor balance or confusion
• Rubbing or pawing of the face around eyes

Tips for Eye Care:

• Trim any kind of hair growth near or over the eye. Cut the hair parallel to the eyelid and always use blunt nosed scissors. This is really important because of skin folds near the eyes in certain breeds like Lhasa apso, Pekingese etc. Note: Do not point the scissors towards the dog as it may be the cause of any injury.
• Clean the area around the eyes on daily basis with the help of cotton wipes or using eye wipes. Cleaning the eyes on regular basis keeps it away from mucus. While cleaning with eye keep the wipe or tip of eyewash away from cornea to prevent any kind of injury.
• While giving bath to the dog always remember to rinse the shampoo as soon as it is applied as it may cause irritation and redness to the eyes. Tearless shampoo also can act as irritant for dog eyes.
• Some breeds tend to develop tear stains with time. Timely cleaning of tear stain is very important. It should be done once in week with cotton using eyewash or using eye wipes.
• If the dog is going on a car ride make sure his head is inside car while cruising as it might be cause of injury due to some foreign particle. Observe the eye after every outdoor tour for any dirt or foreign particle and also for any of the above-mentioned warning signs.
• If your dog is old than there are chances that the eye becomes cloudy due to age. Its normal but a routine veterinary examination can rule out any serious condition.
• Even though proper care is taken, a routine veterinary examination is important to diagnose any kind of serious illness. It can be done during regular grooming visit.