Cherry Eye
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Cherry Eye Remedy: Natural Pet Cures!

| Modified on Dec 26, 2022
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What is Cherry Eye?
Cherry eye occurs from a congenital defect of the nictitating membrane (also called the third eyelid) which helps supply oxygen and nutrients to the eye via the tear duct. This dog health condition is mostly seen in young dogs. In cherry eye, this third eyelid gland becomes prolapsed and protrudes from the eye as a sensitive mass of red flesh. The gland becomes more susceptible to damage, infections, inflammation, and drying out. Dogs with cherry eye may develop further complications.

Find a Natural Pet Care Remedy for Cherry Eye

On this page you can find a number of user submitted home cures for cherry eye and related eye problems in dogs. Our most popular cures are lubricating eye drops, massage, and ice applications to help cherry eye go away. Let us know if you try anything you find here at Earth Clinic. Know of a cure for cherry eye not yet listed here, feel free to let is know about it!

The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
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Acupressure

10 User Reviews
5 star (9) 
  90%
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Posted by Robert (Easley Sc) on 12/21/2017
 ★★★★★

Before reading up on this I had previously used a chi method about 24 hours prior to messaging it. Heating my hands up rubbing them together violently, then holding a hand to the eye concentrating the "chi". Well that didn't work lol! I read up on cherry eye, and before coming to this post I warmed the hands again and rubbed the eye in a large circular motion, and GONE!! I now find these posts and see massage as a cure. I know now, and will pass this on!!

Acupressure
Posted by Sally (Atlanta ) on 08/08/2017
 ★★★★★

Thanks for the great advice! We came home and our 4 year old beagle had developed cherry eye! I read up on your site and massaged it for maybe a minute and his eye is back to normal!

Acupressure
Posted by Valerie (Pflugerville, Tx) on 04/11/2017
 ★★★★★

Massaged with a warm face cloth for about 3 minutes! It worked!!! Thank you soooo very much!!!

Replied by Alice
(Connecticut)
06/09/2018

Can someone tell me how soon after seeing cherry eye did you start home remedy warm cloth and massage. I can't find an answer to my question.

Replied by Charlotte
(South Africa)
05/19/2022

Will the massage method work after 3 days???

Peggy
(United States)
12/25/2022

Charlotte, I'd at least try since it's non invasive. I don't think it could hurt. Sorry no one else has responded. Pray, try, and best wishes.

Acupressure
Posted by Dixie (Newport Beach) on 01/24/2017
 ★★★★★

My Weiner Dog Dixie had "Cherry Eye" this evening for a the first time. I googled the condition and found your website. I took a soft cloth and warm water & massaged her eye for two minutes...the cherry eye is gone! She is happy and appreciative & I am thrilled we don't have to visit the Vet in the AM (it would have been a $250 visit with the recommendation of a $1000.00 surgery.

Thank you a thousand times!! Dixie the happy Dauchund and Barbara the thankful Dog Mom.

Acupressure
Posted by Carl (Dover Foxcroft, Me) on 12/25/2015
 ★★★★★

Thank you guys from New York. We have just gotten a 9 week old chiweenie. And on Christmas Day she decided she was going to get cherry eye. We use your instructions and within 10 minutes we have pushed it back in. You don't know how much this just saved us. Hopefully it will go away and not come back again.Penelope is her name by the way. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Acupressure
Posted by Natalie (Oak Forest) on 08/21/2015
 ★★★★☆

WORKED TEMPORARILY

I have a dog who has had cherry eye for about 6-7 yrs. At first the vet showed me how to gently push it back in with a lubricated Q-tip. This would work temporarily but would always eventually come back Then stopped working all together. Since I didn't have the money for surgery (which isn't a guarantee anyway) I decided to live with it as it never bothered him. I am just wondering if the massage method will work now being that he has had it so long. I always put eye drops in but it seems to be getting bigger. He is 10 now and I don't want to put him through surgery. Anyone else have a suggestion or similar situation?

Acupressure
Posted by Shivpal ( India) on 05/14/2015
 ★★★★★

Thank you so much. I tried the gentle massage for my beagle and it works. Can you suggest me what should I do to prevent it coming back??? We did surgery before 2 months and again it was back but I tried your suggestion so her eye is normal now. My beagle female puppy is 6 months old.

Acupressure
Posted by Puggle Owner (San Fran, California) on 10/18/2014
 ★★★★★

This was so easy. My 3-year-old puggle suddenly had a protruding swelling in the corner of her eye, so I Googled "dog swelling corner eye" and arrived at this site. I didn't have eye drops in the house, so I just wet a towel with warm water and held it to her eye for a minute while massaging, and voila! The swelling was gone. Thanks everyone!

Replied by Mimeeh
(Gilbert, Az)
09/08/2015

I have an English pup who just got a cherry eye and all Im seeing and hearing online is surgery. But I came across this website and see of all the exciting success story I'm excited to try myself. But before I do, I want to know how do I massage it? Do I put my thumb on the corner of the eylid and directly on the cherry eye? Do I do strokes? Do I do circular motions? What kind of pressure?

Replied by Theresa
(Mpls., Mn)
09/08/2015

Hey Mimeeh!

I would clean the eye and the gland - flush it with warm saline solution, and then - if possible - use an eye lubricant or eye drops for dry eyes to lubricate the gland. Make sure your own hands are clean and your nails are trimmed short and filed smooth. I use my thumb and place it over the gland and press down/inward. You want to feel it gently recede back into the eye area. This is NOT the same pressure like you are popping a pimple! This is gentle, steady pressure and you should not see the eye itself being pressed to the side or out of place- if you are seeing that you may not be pressing the gland into the corner of the eye correctly - that or it is too swollen/infected and may need treatment with an antibiotic.

Acupressure
Posted by Dbldutch (St Charles, Illinois) on 02/25/2013
 ★★★★★

WOW! I am new to the site and a new dog owner. Our 4 month old puppy, Lexi, is a border beagle and things have been going relatively well. She has big brown (Disney style) 'puppy dog' eyes that just make one fall in love. While I've noticed that the whites will often be a bit pink or look irritated, I had run across cherry eye pictures while trying to see if this was normal and she did not have this problem - though beagles apparently are proned to this. Well, today she clearly did have this in her right eye but I was fortunate to come across the posting here! About five minutes of massaging mixed between 15 minutes of squirming and it is gone!!! I did not add any drops, put a compress on it, or 'push it back in' but I did the massage almost immediately after noticing it and it had not progressed very far. Thanks to all who posted. This not only provided me with an alternative, but all the postings gave me the courage to try this on my own.

Acupressure
Posted by Anon (New York, New York) on 06/19/2012
 ★★★★★

Luis and Joanne from New York. Thank you all for all the feed back that you guys posted on this website about cherry eye. We have a 7 year old female cocker spaniel. About three months ago, we noticed what appeared to be a red ball bulging from her left eye. We freaked out and took her to the vet. We were told that it was Cherry eye and the only way to fix that problem was surgery. The cost of the surgery was very expensive and we were not able to do it at time.

Anyways, We've been saving for the surgery but today we came upon this website and read all of your posts. We decided to give it a try. We could not believe how helpful they were and especially how much we saved.

We started off by massaging the cherry eye directly with her bottom eye lid in circular motion counter clockwise towards the nose, gently pressing down on the cherry eye until you feel it tucked in or back into place. In other words, keep massaging it until you don't feel anything bulging. It didn't take more than 15 minutes. Once you don't feel the cherry eye bulging, stop and take a quick look at it. If you don't see the cherry eye continue massaging it for another mintute and then just hold it down for five to eight minutes. The results are amazing. The eye is going to be irritated so they are going to scratch it or rub it on the floor. We decided to put a cone around our baby, her name is Lady Molly. Her cherry eye was gone in 15 mintutes. Again, thank you all. We are very satisfied with the results.

Baby Wipes, Dietary Changes

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Posted by Earth Clinic Fan (Seattle, Washington) on 06/23/2016
 ★★★★★

We recently rescued a dog with cherry eye. My husband began to wipe his eyes with Babies' hand and face wipes every morning, just to get the dreck out of the inner corners. I would repeat during the day occasionally if his eyes got glommed up with junk. We also added a "pricey" dog food slowly to his diet (spelt, oats, codfish, orange, and a ton of vitamins) and within a week's time, his cherry eye began to disappear....no redness at all left. I must say he is on a chicken-free diet and he gets very rare steak (sell-outpriced) pieces of meat for his very best treats. That's the only thing going on around here....no time- consuming ice packs orexpensive bottles of doggy vitamins or potions!

Dietary Changes, Supplements

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Posted by Chris (San Francisco, Ca) on 12/24/2016
 ★★★★☆

Spontaneous healing, then-unhealing of cherry eye

My chihuahua terrier mix got cherry eye one day for no reason I could tell. I tried massage. nothing. then about a week ago we looked and it was gone. what had changed? He had been off commercial food for about 2 weeks at that point. Starting a human food diet. Also started getting vitamin C, B, D, bone meal, and l-glutamine in his food. This happened after a 7 hour flight to Boston. so he was fasting the day before. Boston exposed him to cold weather (we live in san francisco). Then after about 5 days it came back!

The most significant thing that has changed in Boston is his food. He ate a lot of broccoli rabe and raw streak. Dogs do have beef allergies. and not sure about the brocoli.

Eye Drops, Ice Pack, Acupressure

21 User Reviews
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2 star (1) 
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Posted by Arleen (Mi) on 02/18/2017
 ★★★★★

I'm a believer! My mini doxie came in from outside and in the corner of her eye was a red bulge. I immediately started looking up what it could be. It is known as a 'cherry eye". I read all comments on this site about this and decided to go with using first an eye drop solution-1 drop, then ice in a baggie w/cloth wrapped around it for 5 minutes laid on the bulge and finally gently pushing the bulge towards the corner from which it protruded not on the eyeball. I did this 3 times that day. I could still see a reduced bulge before she went to bed for the night. This morning - nothing - gone. I am so thankful for this site and the results.

Replied by Aileen
(Philippines)
05/09/2018

Name of the eye drops?

Eye Drops, Ice Pack, Acupressure
Posted by 2puppyowner (Texas) on 02/18/2016
 ★★★★★

I noticed my old 8 week puppy all of a sudden had cherry eye thought he scratched it or got something in it, but looking online I used the method with the warm cloth and massaged his eye while having him laying on his back.Then I put 3 drops of eye drops to the eye and continued to massage. Within 15 minutes his cherry eye was gone. Thank you for the post and how to correct this. Got me very worried about my little guy.He's doing better. Thanks

Replied by Isabella
(Connecticut)
02/19/2016

What did you put in his eye?

Replied by Catherine
(California)
04/10/2017

My little pup almost a year has this and my question is, are the lub eye drops simply over the counter human use or do I need to get prescription from vet?

Eye Drops, Ice Pack, Acupressure
Posted by Jennifer (Madisonville, Ky) on 12/17/2015
 ★★★★★

I just did the ice and massage treatment on an eight week old beagle mix. Used cube of ice for minute or two the massaged for about three minutes n it's gone. Hers was really protruding out.

Replied by Kialey
(Mcaliister)
02/02/2016

Ice massages do help! BUT please be careful with the time length of using it. No longer than 10 minutes is suggested, any longer their skin and vessels under the skin can become damaged from the ice contact! Follow human rules ;) 10 minutes on 10 minutes off!

Replied by Julia
(Kent)
06/21/2016

Do you put the ice directly on the eye? Or should you wrap it in a wash cloth?

Replied by Suseeq
(Sydney, Australia)
06/22/2016

Wrap in a cloth.


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