Eye infection - causes?

[MaryP]

We took in a very adorable 4.5-5 month old puppy from Animal Control a little over a week ago. We noticed that he was not as active as he should be and he felt hot. We took his temperature and it was high, so I called the vet and took him in. That was last Monday. His temp was 106.1. The vet couldn't find anything obviously wrong with him, so he just prescribed a couple of oral antibiotics to try and knock out whatever was causing the fever. Within 48 hours, his fever came down and he started acting more like a normal puppy. By this past weekend, we felt he was feeling well enough to go to the beach with the other dogs. And he had a blast.

 

Sunday evening, we noticed him squinting with one eye, so I figured he scratched it (got sand in it or something). I took him back to the vet yesterday. The vet couldn't find any scratches or anything in the eye. So, he prescribed topical antibiotics for that. The vet said that the eye problem could be related to the fever, as in, whatever was causing the fever was now causing an eye infection. He wants to treat with topical antibiotics before running a bunch of tests. He mentioned the possibility of a TBD causing these issues, but said that it could be anything, or it could be that the eye and the fever are not related at all.

 

Ollie's been treated with the topical antibiotics for 24 hours now and his eye still looks pretty red and he's still squinting. The eye also has a bit of a glaze over it, but that could just be the antibiotic since it is a pretty viscous substance. And since the eye is blue, it might be more obvious than it would be with a brown-eyed dog.

 

Has anyone heard of a TBD that causes eye problems? My dogs occasionally get little eye infections. Their eye gets pretty red and they produce green eye boogers. Those eye infections are pretty easy to clear up. Ollie's eye is red and obviously irritated, but he is not producing any green eye boogers. And I haven't noticed any improvement since starting the antibiotics. Granted, he's only been on them for a day, but usually the infection is so much better after just one dose of the topical antibiotics. Is there somehthing else we should be thinking about?

[OurBoys]

I don't know anything about TBD's causing eye problems but since your vet doesn't know what's going on with Olllie's eye is there an opthamologist in your area he can refer you/Ollie to?

[MaryP]

That would probably be the next step, if he doesn't show some improvement in a few days. The vet wants me to come back in, if there's no improvement in a few days.

[PSmitty]

I have no idea if this is relevant, pretty sure it's not, . But I had an eye infection a while ago. By the time I got to the eye doc, there was nothing in the eye, but she said all it takes is something to "infiltrate" the cornea to start the infection. So, there might not be anything to find in the eye? However, as you said, antibiotics clear up infection fast in eyes, so I'd think you'd see improvement soon.

 

Anyway, hope little Ollie is feeling better soon! Keep us posted.

[PSmitty]

Mary, how is my puppy Ollie doing today?

[Journey]

^^ what Paula said, less the my puppy part Any improvement or change?

 

have you run a TBD panel? If not, I would. I know of 1 dog who it took a while to diagnose - it was RMSF and had been undiagnosed on previous SNAP tests. He had pressure behind his eyes, almost like glaucoma, but it was from RMSF.

[MaryP]

Ollie's eye is looking better today. It was still a little red, but he's not squinting anymore. So, my guess is that the antibiotics are working.

 

He has not been tested for TBDs, yet, Karen. They did a HW test on him on his first visit, but I don't believe that that test included TBD (I wasn't there at the time; a friend brought him in for me). If he continues to have other health issues, then a SNAP test that includes TBD would be our next step, I'm sure. He's definitely much more active than he was when he arrived. So, I'm hoping this will be the end of his health issues.