Dry eye

teddysmum

My ancient (well, 14+ is ancient for a cavalier) passed his MOT, today. He has a slight heart murmur, which he's had for many years and causes no problems, weak muscles in his back legs, a touch of dementia and one dry eye, but the vet says he seems quite content.


He also mentioned that treating dry eye isn't expensive, but was very surprised when I told him how little I pay for the carbomer gel.


I pay £10.40 for 10 tubes, delivered, from an Amazon seller ( an actual pharmacy shop; not just an online seller), while the vets charge £6.99 a tube, with chemist shops only being £1 or £2 cheaper. (The product is identical in content to the big brand name sold by the vets, Boots etc and is made in the UK).

fairymoneysaver

Trouble is carbomer gel is artificial tears and like many similar products on the market it doesn't treat the cause of the dry eye. One of my dogs (a lot younger than yours) has to have Optimmune for his dry eyes, it acts on the immune sytem to treat the underlying cause and is unfortunately a very expensive prescription only ointment at £60+ for a small tube from the vets although I buy ours online for around £25 a tube.

teddysmum

fairymoneysaver wrote: »

Trouble is carbomer gel is artificial tears and like many similar products on the market it doesn't treat the cause of the dry eye. One of my dogs (a lot younger than yours) has to have Optimmune for his dry eyes, it acts on the immune sytem to treat the underlying cause and is unfortunately a very expensive prescription only ointment at £60+ for a small tube from the vets although I buy ours online for around £25 a tube.

The vet who originally spotted Joly's dry eye mentioned that possibility (he quoted £50 a month, saying it's cheaper online; he knows I buy online when appropriate), but said it only 'may' work, because of Joly's age.


As I can get the gel so cheaply and his eye is nicely moist, with no infection, I'm happy to have the trouble of up to 5 times application a day. The vet said you can't overdose on it and I tend to apply just when he wakes, so applications vary in number.