Keep Your Hunt Dog's Eyes Clean, Free From Injury

My first hunting dog had ectropion—saggy lower eye lids that caught every seed, leaf, stick and bug that he ran past. I quickly learned to do an eye check and lid dump frequently in the field. Fortunately, he was tolerant of my ministrations, and I didn’t do anything stupid to endanger his vision. I’m sharing the following tips so you don’t do anything stupid around your dog’s eyes, either.

After his nose, a hunting dog’s eyes are his most important sensory organ. Eyes keep him from running off a cliff, help him mark shot birds as they fall and guide him to you when you call him back. Taking care of them helps ensure that your dog will have good days afield for the rest of his hunting career.

How do you know if your dog’s eyes need attention? They do. At the least, check at the end of every day in the field when hunting or training. If he’s pawing at them, rubbing his face on the ground or shaking his head, do a quick field inspection. Watering, redness, bleeding, discharge, swelling or lumps are all red flags. If you’re carrying the basic stuff I mention below, most of the time all you’ll need is a brief pause and then it’s off after birds again.

COMFORTABLE INTRODUCTION

During a once-in-a-lifetime South Dakota pheasant hunt isn’t when you want to be pulling, poking and flushing for the first time. If you think bath time is a rodeo, aim a cotton swab at your dog’s face! But leaving an eye problem to fester (literally) is just plain dumb—and dangerous. A scratched cornea can lead to an infection or an ulcerous lesion, putting your dog’s vision in jeopardy. He doesn’t have the option of reclining in a cushy chair under local anesthetic while an optometrist chats him up. Cleaning your dog’s eyes isn’t going to be that easy, and like any new skill, he will be better off and more cooperative if you both practice in advance.

In a quiet, comfortable, distraction-free environment (tailgate, picnic bench, training table), introduce the processes slowly, calmly and gradually. Leash him up, and step on the end—it’ll come in handy, believe me. Teach your dog to let you hold his muzzle, move his head around and gently touch his eyelids. With your thumbs about half an inch above and below the lid edges, gently manipulate his eyelids, pulling them up and down with your thumbs. Try not to touch the eyeball, directly or through the lid; if there is something under the lid, scraping the foreign object around on the eye could scratch it even more.

Once your dog is good with your fingers on his lids, work your thumbs closer to their edges, rolling them back slightly. If you face him away from the sun or shade his head with your body, he’ll be less likely to squint and impede your view of his eye.

TWO METHODS

Now it’s time to show him the tools. There are two basic ways to remove gunk: catching and lifting it out with a cotton swab, or washing it away with a small squeeze bottle or syringe. Both need a gentle introduction.

I’ll first show the dog a cotton swab at a distance and move it around his face. Then, I’ll do a few mock extractions, keeping it low-key with little tool-to-eye contact but increasing contact as he becomes comfortable. One of the few times when gravity is your friend, most gunk will collect under the lower lid. Keep the swab away from the colored part of the eye (the iris) and most of the white part (the sclera), too.

Tease some fibers away from the ball at the tip, keeping them attached. You’ll need to control your dog and master your own manual skills, holding the eyelid open with one hand while bracing the other hand on his cheek or forehead and carefully touching the fibers to the object. Often it will catch the fibers, and you can lift it away. Sometimes, you’ll have to gently push the object to the corner of the eye and out. You may have to do the same on the upper lid, so practice manipulating both.

If there’s too much crud in there, or it’s too fine to catch with a swab, washing it out is your best strategy. You’ll need a pretty big hole in your squeeze bottle or syringe because you don’t want the water coming out with a lot of velocity. While plain old water will do in a pinch, my veterinary ophthalmologist likes distilled water. Introduce the bottle or syringe as you did the cotton swab—from a distance, then closer and ultimately doing some practice laps.

Hold the dog’s muzzle so he’s facing down to help the water run out of his eye. Open the lower lid and gently run some water from the outside of his eye toward the corner, where it will exit the eye. Do the same with the upper lid. While you’re there, check the other eye. When you’re done, a fun bumper or food treat will help seal the deal.

There are some caveats to both methods. If you’re at all uncomfortable or your dog is squirming, nipping or growling, the risk of further injury is too great. Get to a veterinarian and let a professional handle it. Unless you’re absolutely sure there is no damage to your dog’s cornea, don’t administer ointments containing a steroid. It could aggravate the condition and slow healing. Finally, if you suspect there is something under the dog’s “third eyelid” (nictitating membrane), you’ll need the hands of a surgeon to extract it, not your shaking, frostbitten mitts.