Hi,

I have a 7 month old black lab. He is a fine big dog for his age, but has been bothered by Conjunctivitis since an early age. I have had him to the vet numerous times in which he has had a biopsy to diagnose the problem, and a ‘scrapping’ out of the conjunctive follicles under anesthetic. After the scrapping he was put on steroid drops which haven't sorted the problem. (but made the areas around his eyes bald).

Last week he was referred to an eye specialist, and had another scrapping under anesthetic this time using a scalpel. The specialist has put him on a special diet (Royal Canin SC24), and on salin drops, and told us to refrain from using any chemical cleaning products and aerosols while we try to eliminate the problem.

Obviously I'm at my wits end, not only are there financial implications (pet plan won't cover me for this), but I'm worried about my young dog having so much trauma at a young age.

Has anyone experienced anything like this and found a solution.

Labman do you have any suggestions.

Regards
Gregor

I am sorry, but in most cases, I can suggest working with your vet.

In some ways, I am very lucky. I get puppies that are very carefully bred not to have medical problems. And even in a case like Zeke that needed orthodontic work, it only cost me a 500-600 mile drive to pick him up when he was finished. That was somewhat offset by taking a friend and her dog that needed to go too. Zeke's lower canines came in too straight and were digging into his upper gums. A couple of weeks in a retainer fixed that. Although a couple of the puppies out of her first litter had problems with their teeth, the school bred her 4 more times because they could fix the teeth problems, but not some other problems.