Eye Discharge In Golden Spanial

[coventry]

I have a Golden Spanial which continually has a thick green discharge to both of her eyes. I've had her to the vets a few times and he's had her on antibiotics and eye drops of various kinds but nothing seems to clear the problem up. It cannot be a bacterial infection as I have 3 other dogs and they show no sign of it. Could it possibly be an allergy ? This is not a sudden thing and seems to have been continuous since I got her. She's about 8 months old.

Thanks

Edited July 28, 2007 by coventry

[Nienke]

I have a Golden Spanial which continually has a thick green discharge to both of her eyes. I've had her to the vets a few times and he's had her on antibiotics and eye drops of various kinds but nothing seems to clear the problem up. It cannot be a bacterial infection as I have 3 other dogs and they show no sign of it. Could it possibly be an allergy ? This is not a sudden thing and seems to have been continuous since I got her. She's about 8 months old.

Thanks

Hi,

It's very difficult to say just like that.

Have you checked the eyes carefully? Are there enough tears to keep the eyes properly wet? I know of one cocker spaniel who produce insuffient tears and she has recurrent eye discharge. Actually she had. She was a homeless dog who has a wonderfull new home now The new owners take special care of the eyes, and since she has hardly any problems anymore. If it is that your dog has not enough tears production, then artifical tears in the eyes on a daily basis (1 drop in each eye 2 to 3 times a day) can greatly clear up the problem. The vet can check if the dog hasn't enough tear production.

If the tear production isn't the cause, then more questions:

Is there case of entropion, i.e. the eyelids turn inside touching the eyeball? Is there a hair irritating the eye ball? Or ectropion, eyelid turns out too much?

How are her ears? Is there case of (recurrent) infection or too much wax production?

How is her eating habit? Does she always gobbles it down with gusto, or is she finicky and sometimes skips meals? What kind of food do you give? Low grade diets can be at the root of problems such as eye, ear and skin infections. Change it to Nutro or a raw food diet, in case she doesn't eat this already.

How are her feces? Always firm with the same color, or does it changes?

Has she been checked for bloodparasites, through the SNAP test?

How long do you have your dog? Has she been vaccinated while she had already the problem with the eye discharge? It's possible that she was fighting a virus before the jabs, and still is fighting the virus.

There can be many causes and most probably the eye discharge is not the only symptom.

Nienke

[Sheryl]

If the discharge is actually green, or yellow-green, there is almost surely an infection (altho inadequate tear production, foreign body etc could be contributing factors). Since usual antibiotics have not cleared it up it is time to have the discharged cultured. Ask your vet to do this and if he does not have the capacity to do so then take the dog to a better equipped animal hospital (bring history from proper vet so you don't waste time repeating the same things that didn't work).

[coventry]

I thank the 2 people who replied to my dog problem with their advice. Since I started this thread I have been looking around on the net for clues as what to do. I came across a site www.petplace.com. I thoroughly recommend this site to anybody who may have a medical problem with their pet. With regard to my dog problem they say that I should get the discharge cultured, which was also given to me by one of the above. Once again thanks to the above. Check out this site.