I have found that they are no more expensive that a regular Vet. I took Bella to the Opthamalogist a few days ago and paid $156 and that included 3 different meds.

when I posted up questions about Oliver eyes years ago before we pinned down a solid treatment.

VERY expensive and time consuming but Oliver is my pet and therefore my responsibility to keep healthy.

Mason was born with dry eyes. You can't really tell on puppies, its tough but the vet doese the smear test and you can find out right away. Gunk in the eye is really the only sign you will see unless you really look. Mason is now 10 months old and had eye surgery at 8 months. It's still not healed but he can see.

What are you seeing in your dog?

My guy would wake up every morning with yellow goo in his eye. At firstI thought it was an infection, but then vet did a smear test (using test strips in each eye to measure tear production). Turns out one eye was very low, so now he is on optimmune ointment for the rest of his life. This happened when he turned 9 years old.

ust a few additional notes: there are several structures in the eye that produce tears, but the corner gland (what we commonly refer to as the Cherry Eye Duct) produces the greatest amount, about 40% I've been told, so that is reason enough IMHO not to remove it unless it is declared "nonfunctional" by an ophthalmologist. Hopefully when the "gunk" is found with frequency (several times a week, or certainly if daily) your vet has been contacted and an evaluation is made. Cyclosporin is the most commonly used drug/stimulant to encourage more tear production (ointment form is sold as Optimune), supplemented with some artificial tears or eye lubricant a few times as needed. If the cyclosporin isn't working, some vets change to Tacrolimus. I read here that Connie's vet has her using both!

There is one very specialized surgery that an ophthalmic specialist can perform, taking a saliva duct from the inside cheek, delicately threading it up under the skin of the face, and suturing it into the frame of the eye, which will produce natural body moisture (like a saline/tear)but TMK its only offered when the eye is very dry and medication has not helped...sort of as a last resort...and of course its very expensive.

...and I'll be darned if I can find the web site again. But here's what I remember:

The official medical name for dry eye is shortened to KCS (don't ask me to remember what the long version is).

There are many possible causes of dry eye from genetics to distemper to removal of the third eyelid gland (MAYBE).

Tears flush debris from the eye and also provide the eye with oxygen and sugar. A lack of tears causes the eye to become irritated and show symptoms such as:

- The conjunctival (sp?) tissue surrounding the eye gets red/inflamed.
- There will be a thick gooey yellowish discharge.
- Eventually the cornea itself will become darker as the eye tries to protect itself.
- Can lead to blindness.

That's about all I can remember from reading. Never had experience with it myself. I am sure you can find lots more info on the web.

Good luck!











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It is obvious when you look at him, his eyes are dry looking, he will get thick gunk in his eyes if you do not keep them moist with Refresh drops, they are prone to ulcers because of the lack of lubrication, redness and irritation.

Oliver is on cyclosporine, neo-polydex solution, tracrilomis (sp?)twice per day and then of course refresh drops throughout the day. He has to see an opthamologist twice a year as well.

He is now 6 years old, we noticed the symptoms when he was roughly 2 years of age (we got him at 16 months). Some dogs who have had issues with tear staining a clue that they may have problems would be an unexplaned disappearance of the tear stains.

last time he was squinting we took him to the vet and ran all test under the sun,he got some ointment which helps, now it is back, I called vet to see if i can treat it with same ointment but i made an appointment to check on it anyway and I suspect, my gut feeling, is that it may be something like dry eye...this eye is funky, Chester is our rescue so we have no history as to what happened to his eye, but it is all black, perhaps some injury or else....I worry about my little man

http://advancedanimaleyecare.com/images/10000/6000/340AD/user/KCS.pdf