Happy Eyes

It was two years ago last month that Noah's eyes were a problem. He had a reaction to an antibiotic that left him squinting and rubbing his very goopy left eye. When Dr B tested it for dryness  we were hoping for a result of 12, but got only a six. That meant he needed treatment.

We tried several different drops, but he couldn't tolerate any of them. I was really worried that the boy would lose his vision in that eye. Finally we tried Optimune which is the canine version of Restasis. It worked for him. He tolerated it very well and his eye started to heal.

At first he needed the ointment twice a day in his eye. After about a year I carefully started cutting back to once a day. Then when he was still doing well, I cut back on the amount I was using. Still no problem. Then a couple months ago I started skipping Saturdays. Still no problem.

Then suddenly on Monday I noticed that his right eye was goopy. Oh no! On Tuesday when it was even worse, we went to visit Dr B. We were both afraid that the dry eye condition was now in both eyes.

First he did a dryness test on the left eye. We were amazed at the reading...16!!! Twelve is considered normal. Noah's is perfect. With the help of the Optimune, he's producing tears. He'll need to continue the drug for his lifetime, but we know that it's working. The right eye only tested at 11, which isn't really bad. Dr B felt pretty sure that it was a minor infection and sent us home with some antibiotic drops to use for a week.

It hasn't been a week yet, but Noah has two happy looking eyes now. No goop, no squinting and no rubbing. I am so relieved that the dryness isn't a problem. Noah, Norma Jean, Tess and Sebastian all love to roll in the dirt in the back yard and I'm sure they occasionally get some in their eyes. Each has been treated for an eye infection at one time or another. We'll just watch them closely.

I know you're going to say, but you can't even see Noah's eyes. Well, Mom sees everything.