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prolonged pupil dilation?

judy

Well-known member
Does anyone have any experience with this? Zack hurt his eye while playing fetch last Monday. I took him to the vet Tuesday and he told me to put atropine drops in his eye twice a day for three days to prevent the iris from getting stuck in a constricted position. He said Zack might look weird having one dilated pupil. It wasn't really noticeable unless the light shined on him a certain way. I stopped the drops after Thursday. By Saturday i noticed the pupil was still dialted. I was starting to worry about it yesterday. I looked it up on the internet and read that it's a common effect of atropine drops, and that it can take "several" days for the pupil to go back. So, i thought it was normal. Today i took him for a follow up re-check of the eye, and saw another vet in the same practice, my favorite one, the woman, and we talked about the pupil (the corneal ulcer was healed, yay). She told me to stop giving him the atropine. I told her i only gave it for three days and stopped it on Thursday. She expressed some surprise about that, that it would still be dilated. That got me more worried again. She said it should go down soon and if it didn't, to call her. I asked what could be done if it doesn't go down and she said "test his intra-ocular pressure." :( but she said "i really doubt that will happen." but i was just looking on the web and it mentions acute glaucoma in connection with this.

i'm wondering if there's anything i can do to relax the iris.

She said he could go back to the dog park and not to worry about the dust, but she said to worry about the sunlight. I didn't realize i was supposed to keep him out of the sunlight, duh, and Saturday i had him out in the sun a lot at my friend's house and at the park we went to. i hope i didn't damage his eye. The other vet didn't caution me about that and didn't tell me about the pupil staying dilated for days.

:(
 
Hi Judy,
We had to give Twinkle the same drops when she lacerated her eye. The atropine drops can cause the eye to be dilated for about a week believe it or not. We gave drops for two days and were told to stop after that. Don't be alarmed it will go down eventually. It looks so strange though doesn't it?
Joanna
 
joanna said:
Hi Judy,
We had to give Twinkle the same drops when she lacerated her eye. The atropine drops can cause the eye to be dilated for about a week believe it or not. We gave drops for two days and were told to stop after that. Don't be alarmed it will go down eventually. It looks so strange though doesn't it?
Joanna

yes, quite strange. thanks for that reassurance. :flwr:
i read on the net a criticism by a vet of that medication, they said this other one was shorter acting, though it has to be given more often during the day, but because it's shorter acting, it gives mobility to the iris, as if that is a good thing.

http://www.vetmedpub.com/vetmed/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=150701

so if there's a next time, i'll ask about that. I'm hoping the light he's been exposed to didn't damage the eye. I didn't know that the pupil was stuck on open when i exposed him.

how did twinkle lacerate her eye?
 
Hi Judy,
We don't really know how she did it - it must have been something in the garden. It was pretty bad though - it looked like conjunctivitis.

I hope Zack feels better soon.

Joanna
 
Cathy Moon said:
Judy, how is Zack doing? Is his eye back to normal yet?

I just checked, the pupil is still dilated, it's been a week ago today that he first started the three days of atropine. It's now been 5 days he's been off it. Hopefully, the effect will wear off. thanks for asking. :flwr:
 
as of tonight, zack's pupil is still dilated. The last of the three days i gave the atropine was last Thursday, so it will be one week after stopping on friday. I wonder how long it will take, i've heard it takes a long time, but i thought it was more like days instead of weeks. The vet said if it didn't go back to normal, she'd have to check his intra ocular pressure. On the web, there was something about acute glaucoma triggered by atropine in the eye. :( If anything like this ever happens again, no more atropine, he will have something shorter acting. i wish there was something to help the eye go back to normal. I'm worried about his pupil being exposed to too much light. I'm not sure if he's not supposed to be out except for after dark. I had him at the dogpark as the sun was setting tonight. The light was pretty bright, i was wearing shades. This is one of those things where i feel bad that i didn't find out more about the side effects of atropine before giving it to him. I feel like i was too trusting, it's better when i check things out first as i often do. but i was busy with my work schedule, it was hectic to get him to the vet, and i just did what the vet said. i hope there won't be any permanent damage as a result of my not being more cautious.
 
Wow, that is upsetting about the atropine. It's not your fault that you didn't know! Wonder if taking Zack to an ophthalmologist vet would help?
 
i called the vet thursday and he called back and left a message on my answering machine saying that it was normal for the pupil to be dilated for a few day. I didn't know if he realized it had been over a week, a week and one day, so i called Friday to clarify that and the woman who answers the phone said that it's normal for it to last up to 10 days, so since yesterday was the 8th day i was reassured. I think it's going down today. It's hard for me to check it, i haven't really seen it except sometimes when i'm standing in the kitchen and he looks up at me. I shine a little flashlight in his eye and that's how i could tell it was still dilated. so when i did that today, i could see more brown around the pupil. And it looked the same as the other eye. So i think it's ok now. It's just hard to see so im not sure, but i'm hopeful that this one is finally passing by.
 
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