How to Treat Dog Keratitis

1 Dog Keratitis: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

1. Causes of dog keratitis

Many causes: trauma or mechanical injury to the eyelid or conjunctiva, foreign-body irritation, and also diseases like canine distemper.

2. Symptoms of dog keratitis

It splits into acute conjunctivitis, chronic conjunctivitis, and purulent keratitis.

Acute conjunctivitis: congestion of the palpebral and fornix conjunctiva. When inflammation spreads to the eyeball, there is clear or purulent discharge, even pseudomembranous discharge, swollen painful conjunctiva, and a narrowed or shut palpebral fissure.

Chronic conjunctivitis: follicles on the corneal surface, mild swelling but dullness. Dry keratitis from low tear film shows as blepharospasm.

Purulent keratitis: skin eczema on the upper eyelid with clear itch; the cornea later turns cloudy. Stop the dog scratching to avoid infection.

3. Treatment of dog keratitis

For chronic conjunctivitis, warm-compress the eye and use chloramphenicol drops; sometimes stronger sodium phosphate or silver nitrate drops. For acute conjunctivitis with heavy swelling, flush with 3% boric acid or 0.1% rivanol, cold-compress, and apply anti-swelling ointment 4 times daily. For severe pain, use 2% atropine eye drops.

For keratitis from distemper, treat the primary disease and apply chloramphenicol ointment 1-3 times daily. For chlamydia or mycoplasma, chloramphenicol drops 2-3 times daily. For bacterial causes, use drugs based on sensitivity testing.

For irritation-induced keratitis without corneal damage, apply 0.05% dexamethasone ointment 1-3 times daily. For acid or alkali splash, flush the eye for 5-10 minutes at once.

For allergy-induced keratitis, find and remove the allergen, use thiomersal drops 5-6 times daily, or zinc chloride drops 3-5 times daily, with antifungal drugs if needed.