Dogs eyes sensitive to light just happened today

[tla0126]

Ha.. we had to do eye drops for Beau. My boyfriend had to pin him down and I had to pry open his eyes. He would howl and cry like we were stabbing him with knives. I'm sure my neighbors thought that is what we were doing!!

I was exactly like you, trying to figure out what was wrong. I looked up every possible thing on the internet, which actually got me more worried than anything else!!

I am glad is was just allergies, too. I was so worried that my boss let me leave early for the day to make the vet appointment. It makes it so hard when our pup's can't tell us what's wrong!!!

[WendiS]

Hi, sorry, I was gone for a little while. tla0126, I totally get what you mean about having to have 2 people to hold the dog down to give the eye drops. It was a holiday weekend so I had a little help those first couple of days. After that I was on my own and had to get really creative.
I ended up doing his eyes like I do my horses wormer. Get him very calm rub the tube around his eyes while he relaxes, messing with opening his eyes but not doing anything then quickly, while he's lulled into a false sense of security quickly run a line of goop (aka ointment) in his eye. Rub, praise, kiss, then roll him over and do it again. What a pain...but we're almost done and he's doing great.
Isn't the internet the worst? Not once did I read about anything as benign as allergies causing Uveitis. It was all LEPTO, this LEPTO that. LEPTO, LEPTO, LEPTO or cancer.
It still makes me a little nuts not knowing exactly what caused it but I'm trying to put that down to "things I cannot change" but to tell you the truth I'm not really a Serenity Prayer kinda girl.
Wendi

[WendiS]

tla0126, has your dog ever had another reaction? I'm just wondering if the next time is worse, or the same or what (I really hate not being sure what caused the reaction).
I'm only suppose to give the Benydrill one more day and I'm wondering what happens then?
Just curious about your experience
Wendi

[tla0126]

I'm sorry, I was out of town this weekend and just read your post. Beau has never had a reoccurance. It went away within 2-3 days and he has been fine ever since. Has your pup's eyes cleared up? I was worried about the more serious causes also, but the vet assured me that if it cleared up within the first couple of days and he had no other symptoms, he should be fine...

I found this description on this website:

http://www.dog-health-guide.org/dogeyeinfection.html

"Uveitis is an inflammation of the interior of the eye. Symptoms include redness of the eye, sensitivity to light (photophobia), blurred vision, and eye pain. Blindness can occur if it is not treated.
Causes include infectious disease, including viral, bacterial, fungal, protozoal and rickettsial."

It could have just be a bacterial infection or something like pink eye. If it happens again, you might what to get your vet to do a full blood work up, because at this point, I'd be worried it was something more serious than allergies.

What kind of food do you have your pup on? If it is a mix of all types of meat, you might think about switching to a food with a single protein, like lamb and rice, or chicken and rice. He may be allergic to one of the meats.

Good luck and hopefully it won't come back!! I was scared to death because stuff with eyes you don't want to play around with!!

[WendiS]

tla0126, sorry I've been away with birthdays graduations and the stuff of a normal, busy life.
Riley's eyes are fine and we've not had a reoccurrence of whatever caused the reaction. I'm thinking it's something similar to what you suggested, a bacterial infection or something like that. We don't mess with his food to much because he tends to have a sensitive gut. There was one minor change and I thought for a while that may have been the culprit but he finished out the bag without any problems. He was raised on Innova puppy, then Innova adult. When money became a little tight we bumped down to Chicken Soup adult formula, my son accidentally bought Chicken Soup large breed and it was around that time that he came down with uveitis and I thought there might be a connection and I wasn't going to finish the bag but where we buy our food was out of the regular adult formula so I didn't really have a choice but to finish the bag. We did and he was fine and remains fine, so I doubt I'll ever really know what happened. I'm just so very relieved it has never happened again.
Thanks to everyone for their concern and tla0126 thanks for sharing your experience it was really helpful
Wendi