My dog has a red blister on his eye. What is it and what should I do?

That looks like it is quite painful. Your first order of business should be preventing your dog from causing any further harm. Obtain an e-collar or make one at home. You should be able to find a website or video on how to do this. Next step will be applying some antibiotic ointment, preferably one that also contains some steroid to help with inflammation and itchiness. Some lesions like this one may require systemic antibiotics to fight off infection or prevent a worse one from manifesting. If this truly appeared completely overnight, I would qualify this as a rapidly forming lesion that should be seen in person by a vet. The vet will be able to obtain skin samples and cytology in order to get a better idea of what we are truly dealing with. He will be able to offer you more targeted therapy that may ultimately result in a quicker and more effective healing process.

From your description, this could be something called a cherry eye (prolapsed tear gland), or could be a localized infection or injury to the eye or conjunctiva in this area. Since you are also seeing bloody discharge from the eye, I would recommend having Gus seen by a vet as soon as you are able to - he/she can examine the eye to determine the problem. If he has a cherry eye, it will need to be surgically corrected. If he has an injury or an infection, he will need prescription eye drops to treat it.

I am sorry to hear this! His eye does look very irritated- and the area around his eye that has a 'cobblestone' appearance suggests that he has some chronic irritation. I would want to rule out a few things that cause these signs including stray eyelashes that are 'ingrown', eyelid abnormalities, allergies and mites. The good news is that most of these things can be treated successfully! I would bring him in and have a few eye tests done and have them closely examined with magnification (sometimes an ophthalmologist is recommended) and see what kind of treatment plan is needed. Until you can bring him in, over the counter lubricating eye drops may bring some short term relief. I hope this helps!

It seems like your dog has a corneal ulceration, which requires an immediate check up and treatment. The check up is essential to be able to determine the depth of the ulceration and decide appropriate treatment. Eye drops versus surgery are the two treatment options. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. Please find the time to give us a feedback about the consultation as that will be used to improve our service.

Hello, yes you definitely need to take him to your vet to get it checked, it's most likely a corneal ulcer, this can happen due to an injury or eye infection, often it can get worse and even cause blindness in that eye, it needs to be treated with special eye drops

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I suspect the blister is a corneal ulcer. Corneal ulcers are usually caused by a trauma to the eye bulb or from contact with substances (chemicals) that are very irritant to the eye. I don' think it is caused by ticks or fleas. Please, take your dog to your local vets for an appointment right away as untreated corneal lesions (regardless of the cause) can easily turn into an infected ulcer, which can be very difficult to treat.

Hello, poor Cooper that looks painful!!! He has quite a bit of red around his scleral and the conjunctiva of the lower eye lid appears to have a hematoma (bleeding) or chemosis (swelling). I looks as though he may have bumped his eye into something. However, some of these signs can also occur with an eye infection, corneal ulcer, or foreign body. Cooper will likely need at least some pain medications to keep him comfortable while the swelling goes down. He may also need to have his eye stained to check for an ulcer and eye ointments to treat for an eye infection. It would be best to have a veterinarian examine his eye sooner than later. Deep ulcers can progress quite quickly without medical management. Any ulcer or foreign body can be quite painful. If you think however, Cooper is comfortable and isn't showing any signs of pain (squinting, rubbing eye, or being lethargic) then you may monitor the redness at home to see if this gets better. Hope this helps and best of luck.