Cherry Eye

[Leigha]

One of the puppies has what I think is a Cherry Eye. The inside corner of his eye is red and puffy and protruding out of his lower eyelid. What can I or should I be doing for him? Is this a go to the vet thing or treat at home thing or leave alone thing? It just started today, this afternoon in particular. I went outside to give them some more water and noticed his eye. Sooo, what do I do?

[Fundog]

Some breeds have a genetic disposition to what is known as "cherry eye." Severe cases do require surgical intervention by a qualified veterinarian to fix it, while other cases are rather mild and can just be lived with. But... what you are describing here sounds more like an irritant got into the puppy's eye and has irritated it, perhaps even cause an infection. Tonight, get a bottle of saline eye wash (in the first aid supplies section at Walgreens or the grocery store), and rinse his eye out really well, just to make sure that if there is a foreign body (like a seed or blade of grass) in there, it can come out. Then tomorrow morning, if it is still red and irritated, take him to the vet. He may need some antibiotic drops or ointment.

[Leigha]

We have some saline drops the vet gave us when Bruiser had his yucky eye gunk, so I'll try to find those and use them (he gave us two packages, and one was unopened, so I'll use the unopened one--Bru didn't have an infection, it was for ant bites around his eye, but I have a weird thing about eyeballs and cross contamination).

[Fundog]

Did you know that if one of you happens to wear contact lenses, you can use the contact lens cleaning fluid? It's the same stuff, and really gentle.

[Leigha]

Yep, vet told us that too The stuff he gave us is basically a trial size of a contact drop from the manufacturer. Thankfully I have one of those vets that's all about saving us money and doing things the easiest way possible (and by easy I mean least invasive).

[josie1918]

true cherry eye is caused by a weak attachement to the nictitating membrane gland. THus allowing it to protrude/prolapse from the third eyelid. It is most often recognized as a genetic disorder. Signs and symptoms are heavy tearing, conjuntivitis, spasms of the eye, and appearance of swelling. Due to the fact that none of us here are qualified to diagnose your dog, even if we could see it, I would absolutely take my dog to the vet, the signs and symptoms you describe are similar to many other eye diseases that could lead to blindness. When it comes to eyes, always err on the side of caution, some of the "home remedies" can cause allergic reactions, Never ever "mess" with eyes.