My dog has dry eye. Does it affect one eye, or can it affect both?

Hello, and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Dry eye is a condition where the tear glands are not adequately producing enough tears to lubricate and protect the eye. This is completely unrelated to the diet that Chloe eats, so feel free to keep her on her current food unless your vet has another reason to change her diet! Your vet will diagnose dry eye using a "Schirmer tear test", which is a special strip of paper that allows us to measure how much tear production is present. Once confirmed, dry eye is treatable with a prescription eye ointment. Hope this helps.

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Red or inflamed eyes and discharge can be indicative or irritation or infection, or a condition called dry eye. Shih Tzu's are unfortunately prone to many eye problems, just based on the conformation of their faces. Chloe may have an aberrant eyelash that could be irritating the cornea, or she could have a bacterial or viral infection affecting her eye. Dry eye is a condition characterized by inadequate tear production, so the eyes dry out and excessive mucoid discharge is produced to try to lubricate the eyes. If her clinical signs do not resolve in 24 hours, I recommend having Chloe seen by a veterinarian. They can perform an ocular exam to look closely for evidence of distichia (abnormal eyelashes), a cornea scratch or ulcer, infection, or decreased tear production. I hope this is helpful!

Any scarring on the cornea will cause changes to the vision. Pets with this condition can also get pigmentation of the cornea which will also cause blind spots. KCS is generally a chronic and requires daily treatment with an immune suppressant eye drop like cyclosporin and an artificial tear. Here is a helpful link: https://www.petcoach.co/article/keratoconjunctivitis-sicca-or-dry-eye-in-dogs/ If that was an injury to the cornea, make sure to have it rechecked by the veterinarian to make sure it is fully healed. Pets with KCS will be more prone to infections and will have a harder time healing injuries. Any ongoing infection or untreated injuries can lead to blindness and pain. I hope this helps.

Dry eye can result in the discharge in the picture you posted and can require more than just Artificial Tears to treat. (That would be more common than an allergy problem especially since only one eye is affected.) I am attaching a handout with more information about dry eye below. https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=4951823 I would recommend contacting your veterinarian to let them know that the discharge has not resolved with the antibiotic and steroid ointment and ask them if they think a cyclosporin eye medication would be appropriate to try. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

Hi and thanks for posting on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I would recommend Diamond get a skin scraping and fungal culture from her veterinarian to rule out demodex mites as a cause and a fungal infection such as ringworm. Both can be treated with medications when diagnosed. Of course, it could be due to another cause such as allergies, but I would start with a skin scrape and culture first. I hope this helps and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This could be due to an eye injury or conditions such as a corneal laceration, corneal ulcer, conjunctivitis, dry eye (also known as KCS), among many other conditions. I highly recommend that you have Shadow evaluated by your veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. Further therapy would be based on the findings. Good luck and best wishes!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This could be due to an eye injury or conditions such as a corneal laceration, corneal ulcer, conjunctivitis, dry eye (also known as KCS), among many other conditions. I highly recommend that you have Cheehe evaluated by your veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. Further therapy would be based on the findings. Good luck and best wishes!