Most pet owners want only what’s best for their pets and that means keeping them healthy too. This includes preventing diseases and illnesses and treating them when they happen. Eye infections are fairly common in pets. They can happen at almost any time when something flies into the pet’s eye or a cornea gets scratched somehow. Eye infections can be caused by either a virus or bacteria, foreign matter in the eye and others such as Lyme disease
Some of the more common things to look for to see if your pet is having eye infection problems are squinting, eye discharge of fluids, redness, trying to scratch the infected eye. This last warning sign can be the worst because scratching the eye can make it even worse. That’s when one of those ‘megaphone’ shaped plastic devices should be used to prevent the animal from scratching the eye and causing more harm.
One of these warning signs that should be highlighted is the discharge of fluid from an eye. The discharge will be fairly ugly but it’s a good way to tell if the animal has an eye infection. The discharge will be thick and probably green, or yellow. Do not ignore this important warning sign. Eye infection happen very quickly and sometimes the result of an infection is permanent eye damage. A pet with any off-color eye discharge that lasts for more than 2 days without getting better should be seen by a veterinarian.
As always, prevention of a health issue is the best way to avoid damage to your pet. Sometimes they will get infections no matter how you try to prevent them, but there are some recommended ways to help minimize eye infections in your cat or dog. Some of these easy to do steps include keeping your dog’s head inside any moving vehicle. This minimizes the chance that its eyes will get something in them from the wind kicking up a foreign particle from the road or bordering land that is close to the highway.
Another tip for protection is to be sure you check its eyes on a regular basis. Looks for the signs of early eye infection and call the vet if you notice something is wrong. Always keep your pet’s eyes clean by wiping away and normal discharge that may accumulate. Also, make sure that a good eye examination is added to the normal health assessment done during its annual checkup.
