Entropian and tips on giving eye drops

meoklmrk91

So I had some bad news today, I have tears in my eyes as I am writing this because I feel like a complete failure as a dog owner. My Boxer has had very red eyes for as long as I have had him when he gets tired, I honestly thought that it was nothing, I took him for his yearly check up in August and the vet never did an eye exam, just listened to his heart and such.

I recently noticed that they seemed inflamed all the time, I decided to take him to a new practice as the one I usually go to doesn't do an evening clinic. He was diagnosed with mild entropian, where the eyelids turn inwards rubbing against the eyes, it is obviously very sore for him and he is on drops for the next week to see if that dampens down the inflammation if not we will be looking at surgery but we are back in 7 days to assess and see where we go.

I feel like I have completely failed him, this isn't something that has just popped up, it has been there for a while and I just didn't notice, what makes it worse is I am studying to work with animals in a clinical setting, I see other peoples dogs every day when on work experience and can easily see where there are issues but I can't see it in my own? I am so angry with myself. :mad:

Anyway I suppose I just needed to get that out of my system as I have been fuming with myself for the last few hours. On another note does anyone have any tips for getting drops into his eyes, he is extremely strong and quite a bit larger than your typical boxer, he doesn't like it and for the most part I will be doing this on my own. In the clinic we had two people restraining while one administered the drops, I had someone help me just a few minutes ago and they had serious trouble restraining him while I put in the drops, the only thing I can think of is to sit on him. I know how stressful this must be for him, but I am just trying to think that it is for the best and if we can avoid surgery it would be wonderful. Any tips on this would be great. Also if anyone else has dealt with this condition I would love to hear some more about what I am facing here.

Thanks guys, I'm really glad boards is here on days like this.

anniehoo

Ah don't beat yourself up, it's a mild entropian which most owners even good ones wouldnt spot and you said yourself it wasnt even obvious enough to your last vet to warrant even doing an eye exam. Sure i missed very enlarged submandibular and prescapular lymph nodes on my dog before she was diagnosed with lymphoma. I was so embarrassed when they were pointed out, they were huge,but not something i was used to checking.

My advice for eyedrops is to straddle him from behind in the corner of a room.Make sure he's standing. You will have a firm (not too tight though) grip of him using your legs leaving your hands free and he cant wriggle backwards. Tilt his head very gently upwards.Then being as quick as you can drop the eyedrops from a few centimetres above his eye i.e. dont touch the bottle off the corner of his eye as it'll instantly cause him to blink and flinch.Anymore than 1-2minutes of restraint will stress him out, so be swift, lots of praise and give him a small treat afterwards.

meoklmrk91

anniehoo wrote: »

Ah don't beat yourself up, it's a mild entropian which most owners even good ones wouldnt spot and you said yourself it wasnt even obvious enough to your last vet to warrant even doing an eye exam. Sure i missed very enlarged submandibular and prescapular lymph nodes on my dog before she was diagnosed with lymphoma. I was so embarrassed when they were pointed out, they were huge,but not something i was used to checking.

My advice for eyedrops is to straddle him from behind in the corner of a room.Make sure he's standing. You will have a firm (not too tight though) grip of him using your legs leaving your hands free and he cant wriggle backwards. Tilt his head very gently upwards.Then being as quick as you can drop the eyedrops from a few centimetres above his eye i.e. dont touch the bottle off the corner of his eye as it'll instantly cause him to blink and flinch.Anymore than 1-2minutes of restraint will stress him out, so be swift, lots of praise and give him a small treat afterwards.

Thanks for that, I will give that a go in the morning so, anything to make it easier on both of us is only going to help. Thanks for the reassurance, I suppose it's not really going to make any difference to him whether I am kicking my own ass or not, it's not going to make him better, I think i just really needed to vent and get it out there and now I can focus on moving forward and getting him better whatever it takes, really glad I took out the pet insurance policy now though, if we have to go through with surgery atleast I won't have to worry about money, poor student and all that. :rolleyes:

SillyMangoX

In addition to anniehoos post I would also recommend putting him on a short lead and tying him onto something sturdy, otherwise if he decides to bolt when you are standing over him he may turn into a horse rather than a boxer! Dont be hard on yourself though, mild entropian can be very easily missed because they still look normal enough with it!

meoklmrk91

Just wanted to report back that I have been able to get his drops into him thus far today using the method anniehoo suggest, took no more than 30 seconds this morning as he was still sleepy, later when he was more his usual self it took a little longer, around a minute to a minute and a half but it is working! Thank you very much.

Sillymango, great suggestion with the short lead, I will sort one out for my mother and her friend who will be administering the drops when I am in college, I think it would be a good help for them!

tk123

Ah don't beat yourself up OP though I know easier said than done!! I do it all the time about my dogs legs - was he on the wrong food, was he injured and I didn't realize, should I have waited longer to neuter etc etc etc You can't change the past but you can do your best to take control and shape the future and give him the best care you can!
If he's not ok with you touching/holding his muzzle/face then I'd advise building up his tolerance in case it's on going or if he does need surgery and you'll have aftercare etc..so touch and give him loads of praise and a treat and build up to you holding his muzzle . I trained my dog to flip treats off his nose so he's 100% ok with me/the vet holding him by the muzzle etc - very handy for eye drops or kennel cough vaccination lol!

terminator2

<snip>

Mod note: Warning issued to Terminator2, unhelpful comments aimed at provoking other posters are not allowed.

meoklmrk91

<snip>

Meoklmrk91, whilst I understand your need to reply to such a stupid comment, please don't feed them.
Thanks,
DBB