Abscess Behind (or Inside?) Eyeball

[HugUrPup]

Miley was scratched in the eye by my neighbours dog the other day and it got very inflamed the next day and she could hardly open her eye. It was so bad I was worried she was going to lose her eye

Anyway, her pupil was tiny and fixed from an apparent abscess in or behind her eye? Does that sound right? She had a scratch on her pupil but the infection I couldn't see.

The vet gave me drops to dilate her pupil to relieve the pressure and pain. I gave her 2 drops over 4 hours and it's been 3 days and her pupil is still very very dilated.

I am wondering when it will go back to normal? How long do the drops normally take to wear off?

She's been on oral and topical antibotics which seem to have cleared everything up. She's also on ant-inflammatory medicine for pain but doesn't seem to be in any pain at all now either. So the only thing that it concerning me now is this darn dilated pupil

Any thoughts?

Edited March 17, 2011 by HugUrPup

[vetrg]

The dilated pupil may still be due to the atropine. The pupil (in an uninflamed eye) in a dog can stay dilated for 3-5 days from a single drop of atropine. As the pupil is dilated it suggests the eye isn't inflamed which is what was desired. The pupil should go back to normal soon. The other option would be that the optic nerve was damaged and this is a blind eye with a dilated pupil. If the eye is visual then it is just the atropine.

[Inevitablue]

Years ago my dog had a scratch on his eye and I could see it was irritated. The vet did the fluroscene test and gave him some bute (yes...bute) and said it would all clear up. I voiced my concern that this was my agility dog and needed his eyesight and was told to relax, it would heal perfectly fine.

3 days later I come home from work to a shaking dog in the corner whose eyeball had burst. His muzzle was wet from eyeball fluid and his eye was like a shrivelled up pea. Rushed him back to the vet, there was a younger locum on who had a go at me about leaving the eye long enough for it to pop. Not so politely told her the dog had been there 72 hours earlier. An abcess was in the back of the eye and took out the eye when it burst

She immediatelty operated on him and stitched his 6mm corneal tear back together. It took 4 months for the eye to refill and lots of care with his eyelids stitched together.

Soooooo moral to the story, if your concerned about an eye definately ask to see a specialist. I asked the original vet for a referral and I should have gone with my gut feeling. It would have only been a bit of wasted money if I was being too precious.

He ended up with adhesions and could never quiet cope in bright light afterwards and had a scar on the cornea. 6 months after that happened he misjudged some stairs and broke his lower jaw!

[Staff'n'Toller]

Eye injuries change from being ok to not ok very quickly.

You should have a Vet revisit @ 5 days at any rate, I would go in today, you need Vet or specialist advice on this.

[HugUrPup]

Yep I'll go in today. I'm not sure if she can see out of it.