Cleaning and Medicating the Eye

Cleaning the Eye

It is important to clean your pet's eyes of any discharge before instilling medicine into them. Eyelids can be cleaned by applying a few drops of salty water (1/2 tsp salt to 1 cup of water) to a wet cotton ball or gauze square and massaging the eyelids gently with the eyes shut. Once all crusts and discharge have been removed, wash away the salty water with one or more cotton balls or squares moistened with water only.

If discharge has collected inside the lids or on the eye itself, begin removing it by slowly dripping sterile saline (found in the contact lens department of any pharmacy) onto the eye from above. Then, when the discharge has been rinsed to the corner of the eye, use a tissue or cotton ball to draw it out of the eye.

Medicating the Eye

To apply eye drops to your pet's eye, lift the muzzle upward with one hand and drip the medication from above with the other. It is helpful to rest the heel of the hand that is holding the bottle on the animal's forehead so that the bottle does not inadvertently touch the animal's eye. Let the medicine drip from a height of at least 2.5 cm, taking care not to touch the tip of the bottle to the fur.

Remember that only one or two drops are needed at any one treatment. If you are using more than one kind of medicated eye drop, space the treatments by at least 5 to 10 minutes rather than applying both medications to the eye at once, so that each medicine will get a chance to be absorbed.

When applying ointment, be careful to use only a small amount because a long strand can be irritating. Apply it to the inner corner of the eye or to the white part of the eye, known as the sclera, and then gently rub the eyelid over the eye to distribute the medicine. It may be helpful to rest your hand on your pet's forehead to steady yourself as described above for eye drops.

If you are using both eye drops and ointment, apply the eye drops first, spaced at 5 to 10 minute intervals if you are using more than one eye drop medication, and wait at least 5 to 10 minutes before applying the ointment.

Dr S. Armstrong 1998