Badger’s Battle: A Tale of Corneal Ulcers and Canine Resilience

Publish: October, 2024

Badger was a young cocker spaniel whose diligent owner had noticed he was squinting his right eye. He was brought into the practice to be seen by one of our vets. Noticing the blepharospasm (squinting/winking) and epiphora (excessive tear production, the vet put some dye in his eye which told us the presenting signs were caused by a corneal ulcer, when a green circle revealed itself. This was suspected to be caused by trauma when doing spaniel things in the bushes. 

Corneal ulcers caused by trauma generally heal well with some supportive management. We reduce the inflammation and pain with pain relief. We prevent bacterial infections with topical antibiotics. We provide lubricants so allow the cornea to stay moist and the cells to migrate in order for it to heal quickly. Generally, ulcers will heal within 1-2 weeks and with regular checks you can see it get smaller until no dye is taken up. 

Badger’s eye took longer than expected to heal. We felt it got smaller then remained fairly static. It also began to have a halo around it when the dye was applied. This indicates some of the healing epithelium (outmost layer of cornea) was under-run and therefore not going to fully heal without some help. This is called a SCCED (spontaneous chronic corneal epithelial defect). We used a cotton bud to aid the process by debriding some of the loose layer, but it just wasn’t healing. After a couple of attempts, we decided to proceed with a ‘Grid Keratotomy’. As gruesome as it sounds, we scratch the cornea with a fine needle many times in a crosshatch pattern. Don’t worry, Badger was under sedation and given local anaesthetic into his eye so he didn’t feel a thing. This stimulates the cornea to heal and removes the under-run the layer. 

 2 weeks later, Badger’s eye was fully healed, and he could go back to rooting through the bushes but hopefully being more careful with his eyes!