Dog scratched eye. How a veterinarian will diagnose and treat a scratch cornea.

Hi everyone!

My name is Dan, and I am a veterinarian. I am a veterinarian in Nebraska. I see a lot of dogs with eye issues. The most common eye problem I see is a scratched eye. Your vet will call a scratched eye a corneal ulcer.

The cornea is the clear part of the eye that a dog looks through to see the world around them. The cornea is very sensitive, so if it get scratched this can be painful for a dog.

A scratched eye causing a corneal ulcer will cause a few different symptoms. The dog may have some eye or ocular discharge. The eye discharge may be so excessive that the dog has a hard time keep their eye open. The dog may paw at the eye, because it hurts. The sclera or the whites of the eye may become red and inflamed. The cornea may become cloudy around the ulcer too as inflammatory cells move into the cornea to help with healing.

You should take your dog to the veterinarian ASAP to get examined for a corneal ulcer or scratched eye. Eyes will get better quick and worse quickly. The vet will do a complete exam and they will stain your dog's eye will a stain call fluorescein. If this stain is taken up by the eye, this means your dog has a corneal ulcer.

Depending on how bad the corneal ulcer is, your veterinarian will recommended a couple different options. For the superficial corneal ulcers your veterinarian may just recommended some eye drops. If the ulcer is really bad, the veterinarian may send you to see a veterinary eye doctor to treat with a contact lens or conjunctival graft.

Disclaimer: As always this content is only for education and entreatment. This video does NOT replace veterinary care. Always go see your veterinarian if your dog is sick.

[bethb]

Had to deal with this on one of my horses and one of my dogs. I had to sew a patch on my horses fly mask bc the eye drops made her eye very sensitive to light.
Your getting great info out into the work doc😊

[audreyskateinfinite]

Thanks for the information. A scratch just happened today for my dachshund. I managed to get an appointment tomorrow.

[wabisabihuskies]

Hi Doc Dan. Thank you thank you thank you so much for the video.🙏🙏 I just got into the situation that my dog was scratched in the eye 😭😭Have a great day!

[hammudyalabbuda]

Thank so much, Doctor. I have benefited from all the videos that you explain to us. Thank you. Happy Christmas. I wish you a beautiful year full of success.

[davidgeorge]

"don't stress about it". I'm not bro. I am the extra bill though....

[Zrunawaybride]

I've taken my dogs twice to the vet in the past two weeks and he has a small scratch on his cornea. The vet tested his eye and said he also has dry eye. He tested the other eye for dry eye but it was okay. So this time he gave me a different antibiotic and I still have some thing to put in his eye for the dry eye. The vet said something about epidermis growing on top of the scratch in order to heal it. My dog has absolutely no discharge coming out of his eye. I hope that you read this and can comment on it. Thank you

[lovepeace]

In my country it's recommended for pets to have health check up and teeth cleaning every year (teeth cleaning more often if you don't brush them). Pet eye specialist visits veterinary clinics once or twice a year and does eye check ups there. Should I have my dog's eyes checked by specialist even veterinarians have checked them every year and haven't seen any problems. Vets always say his eyes look fine to them but add that they aren't eye specialists.

My dog's other eye has slightly bigger cornea and they stretch a lot when he looks to the sides but they look normal otherwise. He haven't had any other eye symptoms except sometimes dry eyes in winter ( I had them then too) which I have fixed by increasing air humidity and with eye drops.

[splatolotl]

My dog scratch her eye but I can't take her to the vet it's to expensive waht do I do am so scared I don't it's bad she was scratch hee face and missed. Think for any help

[davidb]

What is the brown stick like flesh with the pink tip in my GSD’s eye after a cat fight ?

[kristirothwell]

I called my vet and they can’t see my dog until Wednesday next week. I see a very small scratch on his eye, the white part is a little red, he’s getting more teary than usual, and the squinting. Some of the time his eye seems fine but others not at all. I just noticed it not even a week ago, so it worries me it could get worse before he can even be treated. There is an emergency clinic 30 minutes away if you think I should take him now, or other local clinics I could reach out to (if they’ll even take new patients). I just don’t want him to be in pain.

[pilarsalazar]

Very helpful thank you so much for sharing this info🙏🏽

[RatCityprincess]

I live in the middle of nowhere. Closest vet is 2 hours away and they are booked for two months. I pulled a splinter out of my dogs eye. The eye looks completely normal now, but it's causing her pain. Is there numbing drops over the counter?

[juanpuga]

So I took my 3 year old dog in to the vet . My dog has like a white stain something like that. On both of his eyes . They don’t cover the whole eye . It’s just a mark on both eyes . Vet looked into his eyes and said their wasn’t a concern for vision loss . Said his eyes looked fine .. but he thinks my dog had ulcers and became scars. Something like that. I noticed those stains on my dogs eyes out of no where . I don’t recall him having anything in his eyes before I noticed those marks . They gave me eye drops to put every 6 hours and every 12 hours …….. I kinda wanna get a second opinion just cause I love my boy so much . He doesn’t seem to have vision loss or anything . He’s still the same old playful dog . But it bothers me that I see those marks in his eyes …. Vet told me they were scars. He wasn’t sure what caused it but is that possible? He thinks it was ulcers that just scarred up . He’s not a outside dog either . He’s a inside dog so I know nothing scratched him . Like an animal or anything . Although I have seen my dog in the past rub his eyes with his paws, possibly his nails scratched his eyes? But I’m not sure .Is there any way those “scars can go away”?

[drseanpatrick]

Can colloidal silver drops work? My vet wants me to use their stuff of course $$$ but they lost me at “he need a complete balanced diet so we recommend Hillary’s blend supplements” after I said my dog eats ground beef, eggs, steak and we share a package of beef liver once/ week. Sales sales sales!

[menarussell]

You failed to mention that not all regular vets do these things. An Animal Ophthalmologist is likely the best one to see.

[lilllss]

idk if this comment will get read but my 6 month old puppy is having a cornea that is not healing normal its blue and cloudy now so much so they cant even see if there is a scratch thats healed any advice?

[mialooez]

hi, my dog has been like scratching his eyes like a lot and they even started bleeding i don’t know how to help him and he also seems kinda like down like sad but i’m not sure what it is i’m just worried.

[hammudyalabbuda]

Thank you so much, Doctor. I have benefited from all the videos that you explain to us. Thank you. Happy Christmas. I wish you a beautiful year full of success.