This young puppy presented to the clinic with a few day history of squinting and scratching at his left eye. Just looking at the eye all I could see was some conjunctivitis but otherwise the cornea looked normal. This photo shows the cornea after it has been stained with fluorescein which “sticks” to any imperfections in the surface of the cornea turning it green, ndicating an ulcer.
Every squinty red eye I see gets a complete work up including numbing the eye and looking behind the nictitans for foreign bodies, looking at the inside of the eye and the surface, and inspecting the lids and palpebral margins. Often owners think we can just supply an ointment without doing an exam and while this may work in some cases it is very important we work the eye up because as you can see above, things can be missed.