My mom's lab scratched his left eye on freshly pruned bushes and now he has a corneal ulcer. This happened approximately 1 1/2 weeks ago. He's being seen by their vet and has had the corneal stain. I'm wondering about the meds they have him on. They are giving him atropine(sp?) once in the morning which of course dilates the eye incredibly and it lasts all day! They are also using Teramycin a few times a day. I really don't understand the concept of dilating the eye at all. When one of my dogs had a corneal ulcer a few years ago I took him to Cornell and they did a corneal grid because he was allergic to the eye meds and the grid would speed up the healing. It worked beautifully and we used some other antibiotic and Puralube for comfort. His eye healed so quickly. If anyone knows if the atropine could cause other problems please let me know. I don't like the fact that his eye is sooo dilated and he has to go potty outside...can't totally avoid going outside in the daytime.

I had this with one of our JRT's several years ago but the Atropine helps relieve the pain in the eye I don't know how but it helped , her ulcer healed just fine.

My Lab had a corneal ulcer and nearly lost his eye as it was so deep. I believe it was called a "melting ulcer" since it went right down to the last membrane of the cornea. The vet stitched his third eyelid over his eye to protect it while it healed. We never used atropine at any stage. We were given antibiotic drops until his eye healed and then steroid drops to reduce scarring after healing had taken place. Now all you can see is a little cloudy patch on an otherwise normal eye. My boy was very lucky to keep his eye. Vet said it was a 50/50 chance to save the eye.

Atropine gives pain relief to the eye. Because the pupil is dilated you should be careful not to have the dog out in the bright sunlight while on this medication. Best of luck with the healing process!

Atropine works by relaxing the muscles within the eye that cause severe constriction when the eye is injured, resulting in increased pain. Because it is relaxing the muscles, the eye will be dilated for a period of time (the duration depends on the dog).

Some dogs need it, some dogs don't...but regardless, any type of corneal scratch or ulceration can be incredibly painful (speaking from experience)! I'm all about pain relief.

You may ask your vet to script some Nalbuphine drops for pain. You will have to have it made at a compounding pharmacy.

We had a 4 month old puppy that scratched it's eye and caused an ulcer. She actually had an infection inside the eye that was causing her pain. She was on four different types of eye drops that had to be put in the eye in the correct order three times a day for almost 2 weeks, doxy for a month and she is on the last med now for another 2 months. Total time on meds - 2 months and counting. We were never able to diagnose the original problem (she had uveitis) (sp?) and the doctor suspected a tick borne disease, but we couldn't find it on the testing.

Thank you everyone for all the helpful information. I will pass it along to my parents. I did not know that atropine could be used in the eye for pain.