Dry Eye in cocker spaniel

Hello,
I was looking at a cocker spaniel girl rescue and she has dry eye which is a lifetime condition, anyone got a dog with this problem if so please enlighten me as to treatment an if anything can be done to alleviate it.

Have just asked my colleague as am sure her spaniel suffers from it amongst other things bless her.

Will let you know when she gets back to me

And the verdict!

'Yes indeed my little lady has dry eye.

She has a gel that I put in her eyes twice a day but can't remember name of it but it costs a blxxdy fortune (£38 a tiny tube!)

It is where they don't produce proper wet tears but instead have a thick substance in their eyes or sometimes not, & the gel breaks it down to produce nice wet tears in their eyes - arhhh…'

hope that helps

Rosie has dry eyes, this is a result of her thyroid condition. Usually when it flares up she takes conjunctivitis alongside it. The vet issues Maxitrol which is very effective for the conjunctivitis

You can use Liquid Tears which are for daily use or if the dog needs something better you can get a gel like substance in a tube - cant recall name of it. The Liquid Tears [artifical tears] are easier to work with. What we do is use the tears in the morning and gel at night. The L.Tears you can buy in the chemist, the gel is perscription from the vet

You know when they need treatment for the dry eyes as a lot of grey like gunge starts to occur in the corner of the eye.

I wouldnt say this is a huge problem and would not let it put me off getting a dog. People suffer from the same complaint

Thank you for your replies.

Ive got a bit of a different slant on it. My Cavvie has dry eye, he developed it when he was around 6 months old, (even with eye and heart tested parents )so we have a long time of treatments etc ahead of us.

Alfie needs two x a dose of the ointment Optimmune per day, its a 3ml tube and costs £38 a tube and last around a month. I have been able to get it online but the cheapest is still £20 ish. The ones you can get online tend to be the generic version and in my opinion do not work as well.

The optimmune dampens down the immune damage to the tear glands in the eyes so that they water with natural tears (I think Ive got that right, if anyone knows any different?) I was told that the other ointment that could be prescribed was viscotears. This is a synthetic tear replacement and has to be applied 4+ times a day. As its synthetic it doesnt have the same properties re infection and anti bacterial properties that real tears have. So its really time consuming applying viscotears and the effect does not last as long (couple hours max) the dog is also very prone to eye infections.

The other option is an operation that re routes the salivery gland to the eye. Its a very expensive op and as the saliva is lubricating the eye it still doesnt have the same properties as tears, so you generally need extra meds on top. Also the dogs eyes water when there is food about, and it can make their mouth dry.

If I forget to apply Alfies Optimmune by the next morning his eyes are V sore and red, the surface of them looks dull, and he goes very quiet. He gets lots of eye infections and has also had the odd ulcer.

Alfie has been seen by a veterinary hospital opthamologist and he says that his dry eye isnt even a really severe case Alfie has had a treat every single time his eyes have ointment put in them but even so he now runs and hides every time I get out the ointment, he doesnt growl or bite, but he really really doesnt like having the ointment put in and it really stresses him. He also cant go out in the direct sunlight as his eyes are so sensitive, the same with the extreme cold and wind.

Would I take on another dog with dry eye...no, no way, definately not.

I thank you for your candid answer, i have decided against adopting her sadly due to her medical condition me and my partner chatted about it and we felt we are too much outdoors (when the plaster comes off) to have a dog that requires daily and sometimes often several times daily treatment of course if it happened to one of my resident dogs then that becomes my responsibility.
Again thank you.