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Dry eye help

Published on: April 22, 2021 • By: gail66 · In Forum: Cats
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gail66
Participant
April 22, 2021 at 08:17pm
My cat has been confirmed with dry eye syndrome, had the test with a strip of paper. Was a stray and had a bad infection. Got it cleared up but needs life long eye drops. Was recommended visco tears which for quite a while was okay, but recently very sore and red eyelids, very dry. Can anyone recommend something better than visco tears. Been looking at Ocry Gel, Optixcare, Lubrithal etc. Some are carbomer based some are Hyaluronic based. I am not sure which ones work best to protect and keep his eye moist. The visco tears have carbomer, but if there is a better product and specifically for cats that would be great. Thank you
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Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
April 23, 2021 at 10:11pm
Hello!  Your eyes - and working dogs' eyes - are fantastic.  They produce tears all day long to protect the surface from drying out, and from particles in the air.   This cannot be replicated by putting artificial drops into the eyes occasionally.  Even if you do it eight times a day. the false 'tears' quickly drain away and need to be reapplied again and distributed well across the eye's surface.  A working lacrymal gland is therefore what is needed. It is also achievable in most cases:  the veterinary products that are available work to help the lacrymal gland to function, so producing its own tears.  This is not perfect but generally leads to a much better quality of life and much lower chances of an animal going blind.  We would urge you to see the vet - although the proper, veterinary drops are considerable more expensive than some of the brands you name, they are vastly superior in function.  Only a tiny amount is needed each day, so a tube stretches a long way, and they do make a huge difference.
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Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
April 23, 2021 at 10:13pm
My apologies there - I said 'dogs' but of course, the same can be true for cats.  Has your vet diagnosed dry-eye already?  If not, a diagnosis is where they will start and they will try to treat appropriately from there.
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Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
April 23, 2021 at 10:17pm
This article, by veterinarian Rachel Nixon, advises that the more advanced treatments are used alongside false tears and makes a valuable read https://vethelpdirect.com/vetblog/2021/01/12/does-my-dog-have-dry-eye/
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Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
April 23, 2021 at 10:18pm
(if you select 'blog' at the top of this page and type the title 'Does my dog have dry eye' into the search bar, you will find it)
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Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
April 23, 2021 at 10:24pm
We see cats with dry eye much less commonly - I suspect because they have less of the breed inheritance / conformation (head shape) issues that dogs do.  The prognosis for cats, specifically, with dry eye is still thought to be reasonably good if appropriate drug combinations are used.
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