Don't take injuries to your pets’ eyes lightly. Unless you get care from a vet soon, your pets could lose their eyesight. At New Hope Animal Hospital, we can care for your pets’ eye emergency with our fully equipped facility.
Signs of Eye Injury
You may not see an injury happen to your pet. The event could happen while you are sleeping or at work. Cats often hide when they experience pain, and you may not find your pet immediately. Even if you didn't see the injury happen, you still will see signs of an injury to your pet's eye later on.
Look out for these signs of a recent injury to one or both of your pet's eyes.
- Bulging
- Bleeding
- Redness
- Watery discharge
- Visible object in the eye
- Squinting
- Avoiding bright lights
- Tear production
- Green or yellow discharge
- Eye out of socket
- Torn eyelid
Causes of Eye Injuries
Injuries to the eye may happen for several reasons. Your pets may have been in a fight, gotten hit on the head, have debris in their eye, gotten chemical burns, contracted an infection, or had their eyes scratched. In some cases, you can treat your pet at home, but other injuries require immediate veterinary care to keep your pet from losing its eye.
Do You Need to Take Your Pet to a Veterinarian for an Eye Injury?
If your pet’s eyes have a watery discharge, redness, or your pet is squinting and avoiding light, look carefully for scratches or foreign objects in their eyes. Flushing the eyes with water solves many of the simplest vision issues. Whatever the problem is with your pet’s eyes, cover the eyes to prevent further damage from your pet scratching at the eye and take them to the vet the same day.
Green or yellow eye discharge typically indicates an infection. Flush your cat or dog's eye with water and schedule an appointment with your vet as soon as possible.
For damaged eyelids, cover the eye with a cold compress and get to the vet as soon as possible.
Other, more serious eye injuries, such as an eye that has fallen out of its socket, or a visible object penetrating your pet’s eye, get your pet to an animal hospital as soon as possible. These emergencies require immediate treatment to protect your pet's vision.
Come See Our Vet in Durham
If your cat or dog sustains an eye injury, call us immediately at (919) 490-2000. Doing so alerts us to have a veterinarian available when you arrive. If the incident happens after hours, we can refer you to the nearest animal hospital with extended hours. We care about your pet as much as you do, and our staff will do whatever we can to treat your companion animal's eye injury. Call (919) 490-2000 today!
