My dog has dry eyes. Can oral supplements improve his condition?

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.

Supplements, such as Omega 3 fatty acids (Welactin is one example), can be beneficial to maintain skin health if Daisy has allergies. They are not a magic cure-all, but when used in conjunction with other management strategies for allergy triggers (diet changes, flea presentation, antihistamines, allergy immunotherapy injections, etc.), can be helpful in many dogs. There are no eye drops that will improve cataracts or age-related changes (lenticular sclerosis). Eye cloudiness can also be caused by glaucoma, corneal ulcers, among other inflammatory conditions. Consider having her eyes evaluated by a vet to determine the cause of the cloudiness so that it can be managed.

The best thing to keep the eye lubricated for long periods of time are the lubricating eye ointments such as the one at the link below. https://www.1800petmeds.com/LubriFresh+PM-prod1660.html Your vet should be able to supply you with this, or you can get it at pet stores. Also, dry eye should be treated medically as well. If your vet did not prescribe specific treatment, then I would reccomend calling them and asking if there was meant to be any medication for this. I hope that helps and Spike gets better soon.

This treatment is clearly not effective. That is probably due to the fact that is not the right treatment for this type of dry eye. Dry eye is often an autoimmune disease, that means that requires an immunosuppressive drug (cyclosporine) to treat it. Please have a look at this link to have a comprehensive explanation about it: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2 2092

Poor Stone! You've done exactly the right thing by having him seen by the vet for his corneal infection. Unfortunately, there are no other treatments you can give him to supplement what the vet has already prescribed. The medications given by your vet are the scientifically proven treatments for his corneal infection, and there are no proven supplements that help with an eye infection in a dog. In addition, you can accidentally do harm to Stone by supplementing him with vitamins and herbs. Too many vitamins are detrimental to a dog's health and can cause toxicosis, while certain herbs are toxic to dogs. Having Stone seen by a vet and giving him the drugs as prescribed is the best thing you can do to help his eye heal :-)

The brand I recommend is called Genteal Eye Lubricating Gel. I'm not sure if Jax has had confirmation of dry eye with a Schirmer Tear Test but there are other medications needed to treat this condition. If you are only suspecting dry eye, make an appointment with his vet to have this test to confirm if he needs the medications or not. There are other conditions that can look the same. Thank you for using Pet Coach.

Unfortunately, I do not know of any great meds for a cure. You could see an ophthalmologist to see if they know of any treatment. You could also see an acupuncturist. Sometimes they can slow down progression or strengthen their eyes and they may know of some herbs to try. I hope this helps and I am sorry to hear about his diagnosis.