Dry Eye is a very common condition in dogs, and is seen more commonly in Cocker Spaniels, Westies, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Lhasos and Shihtzus.

The primary problem in Dry Eye is that your dog’s tear producing glands (lacrimal and nictitans glands) are unable to produce enough of the aqueous portion of the tear, leaving your dog with a dry, unlubricated eye. In the breeds listed above, the most common cause of dry eye will be as a result of their own immune system destroying (immune mediated) the glandular tissue to a point where they no longer produce any tears.

There are other possible causes such as drug reactions, neurological damage in dogs who have facial nerve paralysis, viral causes- the most common being distemper which is one of the viruses your dog will be vaccinated against, and congenital glandular abnormalities which will be a rare cause. However the most common cause is certainly as a result of immune mediated destruction of the glands.

There are a few clinical signs of Dry Eye and your dog may suffer from 1 or many of them: conjunctivitis (pink eye), blinking or rubbing there eye a lot, a pus/mucous discharge from their eye(s), crusting or even gluing together of the eye lids, dull looking cornea, and corneal ulceration.

Diagnosis of Dry Eye by your vet is made by observing the clinical signs, and a Schirmer Tear Test which is a simple test that measures the tear production over 1 minute.

The treatment for Dry eye is usually mangement rather than cure. The treatment of choice is with a medicine called cyclosporin. Cyclosporin comes in a small tube and contains the drug cyclosporine. Cyclosporin is used as a topical eye ointment and tends to have better results in animals who have been diagnosed earlier in the progression of Dry Eye. However even in cases where there is no tear production cyclosporin should be considered on a trial basis of 6-8 weeks. In addition to cyclosporin, tear replacement with a medicine such as Viscotears may be required. The cyclosporin will help combat against immune mediated destruction of the tear glands and Viscotears will help lubricate your dogs eye.

In cases where cyclosporin isn’t providing sufficient results and your dog is continually suffering from Dry Eye, your vet may offer the surgical treatment which involves moving one of your dog’s salivary gland ducts (parotid duct) into their lower eye lid to provide saliva as a substitute for tears. This is often a specialist proceedure and is not without post operative complications so is usually reserved for animals who are not benefiting from the use of cyclosporin.

The long term prognosis for your dog’s eye largely depends on how early their Dry Eye is diagnosed and how well they respond to cyclosporin. In most cases where their Dry Eye has been diagnosed early, and treated with cyclosporin +/- Viscotears at the dose your vet advises, your dog will maintain healthy corneas for life.

I hope this helps and we look forward to your comments.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 11:15 am and is filed under Veterinary articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.