dogs tear ducts?

Question

Hi, My wife took our 5 month old Yorkie to the vet today to have her groomed. She has been having problems with her eyes and they are very dry. Her noses has never been wet either. Well the doc has had her on this ointment and it wasn't really working so he put her on artifical tears and it wasn't really helping either. So he put her on this steroid like these drops and her eyes have been looking great since then. Well he told her today that they couldn't keep her on the steroids and there wasn't really anything else he could do for her. He said she will go blind. Me and my wife have been very upset and we are hoping there is something we can do. Please help us!

Hi, this is Chris' wife. I have a few things I would like to add. The doc told me that he believes she doesn't have tear ducts, period! Is that the same thing as just not producing enough tears? Also she smacks her lips a lot like she has no saliva either. I know she has little saliva though, for her tongue stays pretty moist. I know this is all connected, and the tear ducts is what the problem is stemming from. I also wanted to get advice about one more thing. The vibe that I got from the doc was that it is inhumane to let her suffer with this irritation. Do you believe that it is wrong of us to let her live with this? She is a lively puppy, and acts like she has no problems. I could not live with myself putting her down, because of this one flaw. We love her too much to even think about that. Are we selfish to let her suffer? Is she suffering if we keep them moisturized?

Answer 1

There are veterinarians that specialize in opthalmology, try to find one of those. There are opthalmologists in all vet schools as someone suggested, but if the vet school is too far from you, you can call them and ask for a referral. I agree that steroids long term aren't a good idea, surprised that the artificial tears didn't help. There is paralube, is like artificial tears but is an ointment, lasts a lot longer than the drops.

Eye problems can sometimes be tricky, a specialist is your best bet. Good luck in finding her problem!

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In reading your update, I'm wondering if what the vet diagnosed was KCS (or keratoconjuntivitis sicca)? Basically a condition where there isn't enough tears being produced by the eye and the irritation causes a secondary infection.... hence steroids being a bad idea since it will only make an infection worse. If she is healthy otherwise, I'd strongly suggest about trying the paralube before giving up on her. There is also a surgery (only done by specialists) where they transpose a salivary duct to the eyes in really bad cases (make the dogs tear up when is time to feed them).... Wish I could give you more help, but only a specialist can really help you. A specialist may be expensive, but it will be cheaper in the long run to just go straight to one than jump from vet to vet and trying different meds that may make things worse. Meanwhile, you can get artificial tears for people from any pharmacy, like the ones for contact lenses users.... and no matter what condition she may have, this will not make anything worse.

Answer 2

Take her to another vet and get a second opinion, or see if you can take her to a veterinary college, they'll have everything there, plus plenty of students and instructors to help out your dog. I know there is a huge veterinary college located at Louisiana State University, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Answer 3

I would check other vets. This just doesn't sound right to me. I feel really bad for you guys and your dog. Also check vet colleges.