Studies on the incidence, diagnosis and management of eye affections in dogs

The study was conducted in 2 parts. In one part of the study, basic ophthalmic database of dogs like tear production rate, intraocular pressure (lOP) and prevalence of micro flora in healthy as well as diseased eye conditions were recorded. Another part of study involved critical evaluation of existing status of veterinary ophthalmic cases of dogs and their current diagnostic and managemental practices. The results of research showed that tear production and lOP in healthy dogs did not have diurnal and seasonal variation. Microbial growth was observed in 63.67% conjunctival fluid samples of healthy and 71.43% of diseased dogs. Gram positive microorganisms constituted 87.18% of the conjunctival microflora in diseased conditions. Staphylococcus spp. was the predominant ophthalmic microflora in healthy as well as clinical cases. Gentamicin was the most sensitive antibiotic for treatment of ophthalmic infections in dogs. Incidence of eye affections in dogs was found to be 8.96%, the older (>8 yrs) dogs were more prone to eye affections constituting 48% of total eye cases. 45.68% of eye affections were chance findings. Cataract was the most common eye affection leading to visual deficit. Lack of proper equipments like operating microscope and phacoemulsification unit for cataract surgery led to many intraoperative complications. Conjunctivorhinostomy was found to be a useful technique in refractory cases of nasolacrimal duct obstruction in dogs.