How is Blackie doing???
He is doing really well! I am able to keep his eyes clear and goop-free using the steroid drops every other day. On the “off days”, I just wipe his eyes clean with special eye cleaning pads. This takes care of dried whatever around his eyes. The excellent thing is, there is no goop in his eyes. He looked like he had on thick white eyeliner. Ugh! He does not mind it at all to have the steroid drops in his eyes. With the other stuff, he immediately wiped his face with his paws and rubbed his face all over the rugs.
I will be taking him back for a check-up in a few weeks, but so far, so good! Thank you for asking.
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I’m glad!!! 
Yay for happy healthy dogs and ponies!
Glad for the improvement!
Find an eye vet as great as Victoria Pentlarge. She’s at UGA vet school & has her own clinic and travels around the state working with other vets. She is terrific. BTDT.
Thought I’d chime in here, as I am an RVT working at a veterinary ophthalmology practice and currently pursuing my tech specialty in ophthalmology. (I’m kind of an eyeball enthusiast!) The compounded Cyclosporine you were using is 2%. Optimmune is 0.2% So the compounded stuff is far more potent. If it were just the ease of application (ointment versus drops), you can get 2% Cyclosporine compounded into an ointment form, but it doesn’t sound like that was your issue. While it is not common, some dogs do experience a sensitivity to Cyclosporine. It can cause irritation and redness, especially immediately upon administration, and it sounds like your pup is one of those unfortunate few. I think it would be well worth trying Tacrolimus if the steroid drops you’re on aren’t cutting it. Having a sensitivity to both Cyclo and Tacro is exceedingly rare.
The thing to remember is that these drugs are actual tear stimulants. The steroid you are using is bringing down the inflammation caused by irritation from the KCS, but it is not really attacking the root problem. The mucoid discharge is decreased because the topical steroid is lubricating the cornea enough to act as natural tears. And just like using them systemically, long-term use of steroids is not innocuous. Over time it can weaken the cornea, making your dog more susceptible to ulcers that then will be extremely difficult to get to heal.
All this to say that while I am very glad things are going well now, I would highly recommend seeing a veterinary ophthalmologist to monitor the KCS. Once you are on a good, stable drug regimen, most dry-eye patients only need to be seen once or twice yearly. You can order your medications directly from the compounding pharmacy to save money as well. Also, the OptixCare gel that was mentioned in an above post is a great adjunctive therapy that has no drug in it and can be used as often as needed. We recommend our clients use it, or whatever their preferred artificial tear is, before bedtime, baths, walks, or on dry and windy days. But we have a much bigger problem with KCS out here in dry Southern California, so people rely on their artificial tear products quite a bit to get them through the time between medication doses.
Anyway, best of luck, hope his eyes continue to improve! This can be such a frustrating condition.
