Third Eyelid

Vets; **potential emergency** With the snow today, my puppy was outside playing and shortly after coming inside, my fiancé had noticed his eye looked like this. The “third eyelid” does stay showing even after his eye is closed and reopened but then will eventually re-adjust itself. He still has full vision and it does not seem to hurt him although it seems pretty swollen. Our local vet is closed so this is my last hope in finding out if this is an emergency and I need to travel. (Pennsylvania, USA) He is a 10 month Newfoundland/Golden Retriever mix. He is 70 pounds and healthy but we are currently battling ringworm (as you can see in second picture).

Hello and thanks for this query.  Third eyelids (the one closest to the eyeball, coming out of the medial canthus (nose-side corner) can part-close for lots of reasons.  One is pain or damage to the eye, for example the top and bottom eyelids bending in (entropion) or a foreign body or ulcer.  Sometimes however, there is inflammation affecting one of the nerves supplying the area, which has the net effect of allowing the third eyelid to partially close.  This might, for example, involve the tooth roots.  Other times, there can be direct damage to that nerve.  To get the situation triaged, you need to call your vet or the folk who man the emergency lines, and ask for 'phone triage in order to decide how soon my dog needs to be seen.'  Best of luck with this interesting case; please will you let us know what is found?