Can I give my dog eye drops?

Yes and no. If you're looking through your cabinet for things to give your dog, the answer is no. But many medications that we dispense are human drops. They're on the human line of things, so it's not weird that we're using human drops for dogs. But if you don't know what you're treating, there are way too many things to choose from. I do not recommend grabbing Visine or something like that. That's never a recommendation for treating a dog's red eye or whatever it may be. In general, I'd say don't use anything. However, I will say this, one of the potentially safer things to do if you were trying to get an appointment and just wanted to flush your dog's eye out, would be to use plain sterile Saline. Saline only, not contact solution, not Visine. You can run it across the eye to flush it out.

You do want to make sure, though, because if you use something like an old eye medicine, it may have cortisone in it, and you don't want to use those until you know what's going on with that eye. If there's a scratch, you can make it worse, or conversely it won't do anything. The best is to wait and not medicate until your vet has had a chance to look at the dog's eye.

Some people will say, "Well, he's had this before.", but there's a big difference between a red-eye two years ago and a red-eye today. There can be some subtleties where that one was just inflammation and allergies, and this one is a scratch. Steroids on a scratch are not okay and will make it worse.

I would not recommend using over-the-counter eye drops for your dog. There are specific medicated eye drops that we would administer at the hospital.

Eyedrops can be used if prescribed by a vet. Buying over-the-counter eyedrops from local stores without a vet's approval is discouraged. It is important to examine the dog's eyes to determine the appropriate treatment.