Conjunctivitis and/or Eye Allergies

[Rigby]

Is anyone else going through this now?  My guy is 7 and has very clear eyes (thanks to this boards recommendation of bottled water when a bit of yellowing started at 7 months).  Since his eyes are so clear I was able to easily see some staining starting on Tues. May 24 night when I removed what I thought was a sleeper from his eye and saw some staining.  Next morning a bit more so off to the vet we went.  Went through the whole checking of the eye, third eyelid, check for an eyelash etc. and had the eye stain put in.  Conjunctivitis was the diagnosis so we started 21 doses of eye ointment - given 3 times a day.  Yesterday was the recheck and until yesterday a.m. his eye was looking much better.  But check revealed it had spread a bit to both eyes and might be caused by an allergy to something he has picked up.  Nothing on our property, but he is a Hoover and I know that some people spray the boulevards (City property) at night and try as we do to avoid said areas it is getting hard.  So now we have eye drops - 2 times a day for 10 - 14 days with a recheck once finished - or before if it spreads.  Of course since the little devil loves meds - no need to hide pills in food for him - he wipes his eyes and then licks his paws in ectasy.  We did start on day 3 putting the ointment on just before food or a walk to allow it time to settle in - food taking his mind off the joys of meds.  I am hoping this will not be recurrent.  My husband has had 3 eye surgeries so is good at applying drops/ointment - me not so much but then I have done the more horrible things.  Fortunately he has not scratched his eye.  Of course the first night I was concerned about Primary Glaucoma - have been through that with a cat.  I knew it wasn't PRA but I was worried anyway.  I am considering a collar.

[EskieMa]

Eye ointment has a much slower time of being absorbed into the body although the primary med in it is usually in the body within 20 - 30 minutes.

Eye drops on the other hand are into the body witin 30 seconds to a minute. So a collar is not necessary.

[Rigby]

Thanks very much EskieMa.  The little devil does love to clean his eyes though.  My husband uses eye pressure drops every night so now he has to make sure that he doesn't use Elmo's and Elmo his.  I really don't want to put a collar on the little guy - he is a very sensitive and generous dog - when it comes to himself!  I really hope that this clears up and that he does not scratch his eye.  Thanks again.  I am just so thankful that his eyes are so clear that I caught the problem fast.  Linda