Cleaning bad eye gunk.

[jfinner1]

Hi everyone. I'm feeling like a horrid owner right now, so Please don't make me feel worse. Xenos is a 6.5 year old intact male Hotot Lionhead mix. He has head tilt, has for years. Last week, I was overwhelmed, dealing with an ill fiance and an ill dog, and fighting off the flue myself. Ever since Xenos got the head tilt, he one eye tends to drain more then normal. My vet has said this is normal, and just told me to wipe it out, keep it clean, shouldn't be a problem. I normally check it every day when he's out playing, but it usually only needs wiped out every week or so. Well, while I was dealing with everything else, poor Xenos didn't get much attention. Yes, I felt bad about this, but I thought that a few days locked up wouldn't hurt him, and like I said, I was overwhelmed. Well, yesterday everything was back in order, everyone is mostly over the flue, and I brought Xenos out for some much needed playtime. And his eye is completely gunked up... I feel horrible! I don't know how I didn't notice, and it's only been a few days that I didn't check it, and he's normally fine and doesn't need it cleaned that often, but it was completely covered and almost glued shut... Gahhh!! I spent almost half an hour wiping it with a warm wet rag, and it did help, but it's still all crusty. Is there anything else I can do, any sort of solution I can use? Or do I just keep wiping it every day until it's all cleaned up again?

Feeling like a horrid mommy....

 

[Watermelons]

You can clean the crustys and gunk off the outside with just what you did, warm damp rag.
For cleaning the eye itself, just use saline. There are some human eye drops out there that are JUST Saline but watch for other ingredients like moisturizers and anti inflamatorys and what not.

 

[LakeCondo]

Yes, definitely don't use the "gets the red out' kind of eye drops.

 

[JBun]

You may need antibiotics for the eye if it's starting to get that gunky.

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree with above. You can use sterile saline made for contact lenses (not the kind that de-proteinizes them but the kind for heat disinfection). However it shouldn't be too gunky unless it's infected. With tilt, you can use artificial tears to keep the eyes protected, but they are more sensitive to getting infections.

 

[jfinner1]

Hey everyone! I thought I'd give you an update. It took three sessions with warm water and a rag, over two days, but his eye is cleared up. It wasn't his eye itself, like the eyeball, just gunk in the fur around the eye. And no infection or anything, my vet has told me what to look for for that. Just plain old excess drainage. I think part of the reason it got bad so fast is that Xenos's tilt got a little worse over the past 6 months, and he's having a harder time cleaning that side of his face. He's coming up due for a checkup next month if I remember right, but there doesn't seem to be any need to rush him in right now. I'll keep an eye on it, make sure it doesn't give him any problems, etc etc. Thanks for the advice, and I'll let you know if anything changes! :biggrin: