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.
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!
I have a 9yr. old shepard / chow mix she has had cherry eye for more then a yr. I could not afford surgery; I just found this, so I decided to give it a try. It worked much to my amazement in just a few minutes, I really could feel it "pop" back in, and she seemed to like it. It has only been a few min. and I expect I will have to do it again, but I have to say WOW! I wish I would have seen this sooner!
The wonderful Theresa from Minneapolis, MN has been helping pet owners and their beloved pets around the world on Earth Clinic since 2013.
About Theresa
Theresa from Minneapolis was born and raised in the inner city, always wishing she had been raised on a farm.
Her love for creatures great and small began at an early age, starting with caterpillars - which continues to this day, along with an interest in all insects and 'creepy crawlies'.
Theresa's interest in pet health started with a bird keeping hobby at age 14, where she learned from another hobbyist that the simple addition of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) in a bird's drinking water kept fungal infections away; she was able to share this with her avian vet who in turn prescribed it to her own clients; Theresa was surprised to learn that she could teach her vet a thing or two. This important lesson - that each of us can be a teacher - was a turning point for Theresa, and fueled her quest for the knowledge held in lore, and remedies passed by word of mouth. That quest for knowledge continues to this day, as new and old remedies alike are explored. She may not have experience with a particular issue, but she will research it to the best of her ability and share what she finds freely, in the hopes that you can heal or improve your pet's health.
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How To Show Theresa Your Appreciation
If you would like to thank Theresa for her helpful posts, she asks if you would please consider making a donation to one of her favorite local rescue organizations, or by making a donation to help the genius contributor, Ted from Bangkok, recover from his stroke.
Posted by Abraham B. (Hialeah, Fl.) on 04/01/2014 ★★★★★
I got my Boston Terrier puppy 3 weeks ago. He is just 12 weeks now. He got cherry eyed the day before yesteday and my wife got some iced water with a sterile gause and put it on the puppy's closed eye a couple of times. She then gave the puppy the circular massage and it worked!!!! We got really happy after feeling soooo bad for the puppy. Bostons rock!!!!!!! Thank you all for the help...
The wonderful Theresa from Minneapolis, MN has been helping pet owners and their beloved pets around the world on Earth Clinic since 2013.
About Theresa
Theresa from Minneapolis was born and raised in the inner city, always wishing she had been raised on a farm.
Her love for creatures great and small began at an early age, starting with caterpillars - which continues to this day, along with an interest in all insects and 'creepy crawlies'.
Theresa's interest in pet health started with a bird keeping hobby at age 14, where she learned from another hobbyist that the simple addition of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) in a bird's drinking water kept fungal infections away; she was able to share this with her avian vet who in turn prescribed it to her own clients; Theresa was surprised to learn that she could teach her vet a thing or two. This important lesson - that each of us can be a teacher - was a turning point for Theresa, and fueled her quest for the knowledge held in lore, and remedies passed by word of mouth. That quest for knowledge continues to this day, as new and old remedies alike are explored. She may not have experience with a particular issue, but she will research it to the best of her ability and share what she finds freely, in the hopes that you can heal or improve your pet's health.
-----------------------------
How To Show Theresa Your Appreciation
If you would like to thank Theresa for her helpful posts, she asks if you would please consider making a donation to one of her favorite local rescue organizations, or by making a donation to help the genius contributor, Ted from Bangkok, recover from his stroke.
I have had to deal with the start of cherry eye twice with one dog; he had done some straining while pooping and when he came back into the house the gland was visible in the corner of his eye. I used my thumb to apply pressure under his lower lid and just rolled upward and inward. I didn't touch the gland as I had the skin of the lower eye lid between my finger and the gland.
It was easy, quick and didn't hurt. Try it on your own eye to see what kind of pressure to use on your dog's eye.
That said, and that was the advice you didn't want ;-)
If you don't manually replace the gland and leave it out then you run the risk of the gland becoming dried out, irritated and infected, hence the 'cherry' in cherry eye. You need to keep the eye and gland cleaned and well lubricated - its work as you know.
I cannot help with locating an inexpensive vet - but you might try calling around; vets out in the boonies typically are less expensive than those in the heart of the city. So google vets in your area, make up a list and start calling and ask: have you done the gland tacking [or gland removal if that is what you are after] surgery before? And if yes, how many cases and what success rate have you had? Write the answers as well as the cost of the procedure down and then compare notes to find your cheap but well qualified vet.
Hi my name is Judy I have a shipoo who is 5 years old and he had surgery on one eye - I spent $650 a couple of months later he developed it on the other eye - I could not afford to do another surgery so I left it like that as the vet said if it does not get infected it is ok and I should use "fucithalmic vet eye gel" - I have used it for a week now I am worried I want to use all the info here and try to push it in but I am scared that I could aggrevate it - is there anything else I could do - please someone help me - is there a cheap place in Toronto that I could do the surgery - I would be so grateful if someone could give me advice other than trying to push it in.
Posted by Stephanie (Springfield, Mo) on 12/18/2013 ★★★★★
I came home from work today to see that my 3 year old puggle had a, what I found out was, a cherry eye. This website seemed to know what it was talking about, but I'm always questioning if the stuff you read on websites actually work. It was too late to take her to the vet, so I got a warm cloth and put it over her eye adding a little pressure for about one minute. Sure enough, it was gone! I was shocked it was that easy! Thank you all so much!
This is what I did for my english bulldog of 9 months. At the first sign of cherry eye I gently rolled her onto her back and just let her stay there with my help for a few minutes. When on her back she usually closes her eyes and relaxes (this is her submission stance). I don't think this had anything to do with it but I did also put one hand above her head (which is her jaw, essentially since she is upside down) and I envisioned her blood circulating better especially on her cherry eye so the swelling would go down. This worked for me. I'm pretty sure it was just because she was upside down and it made her close her eyes and let the cherry go back in without force. At the time she seemed to have fallen asleep for the 3-5 minutes she was upside down on her back. This was over a week ago and it has not come back as of yet... BTW no ice, no drops, nothing else was needed. Hope this can work for other peoples dogs.
Posted by Briana (Vancouver, Wa) on 03/31/2013 ★★★★★
Omg thank you so much for this info. We have a chihuahua and she was getting it. We did the eye drops, ice and then massaged twice last night and when we woke up today it was gone!
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.
Posted by Corinne (Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey ) on 02/24/2013 ★★★★★
Thank you thank you!! It worked I just massaged her eye for about 2 minutes and it was gone. I had to wait till she was sleeping because she is a puppy and wouldn't sit still. Thank you so much!!!
Posted by Piper (Toronto, Ontario) on 12/05/2012 ★★★★★
Our puppy developed a small cherry. I tried a few things so I am not sure which worked after a couple of days of giving supplements her cherry eye is gone.
I first checked online and tried massage. I did not have any success with this. I tried applying cold. Not much success with this either.
I checked what the cause of the affliction and it seems to be a deficiency in the connective tissue so I looked to see what would support and encourage the development of connective tissue. I bought a dog food that had glucasamine and chronditin in it. It is an all ages food.
I added salmon oil, glucasamine sulfate and shark cartilage to her food. Salmon oil capsule - snip end and squeeze. Glucasamine sulfate tablets ground with a knife. Shark cartilage caplets powder - just open capsule.
The supplements were all from the human drug store. The salmon oil was really for my cat, but I thought it would help the powder stick to the food and encourage her to eat.
Shark cartilage - I didn't buy but a friend was going to throw away so I thought I would take it. I thought it might help develop her connective tissues.
Posted by Heather (Waltham, Ma) on 11/03/2012 ★★★★★
THANK YOU THANK YOU!! I have a 8month old malitzu, I noticed he had cherry eye and right away searched the internet. I used one eye drop, iced and rubbed as directed and it worked! Thank you all so much! Still in shock it worked. took only 3 minutes.
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.
I tried rubbing the eyelid toward the nose but the cherry eye was still there just a little hidden. I had a little idea I put my mouth over her eyelid and ever so gently blew a little air into her eye. I mean I had to do it twice cause the first time I hardly put any air in it. I don't mean a whole mouth full. Anyways, the entire cherry eye is gone. I tried so hard to see if it finally went away. It's all gone, no sign she ever even had it. I think she got it when my little sister put the blow dryer toward my dogs face. I hope you guys try it. I saved alot of money trying this out.
Posted by Esther (Vilseck, Bavaria, Germany) on 04/02/2012 ★★★★★
Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU! This morning my 5 month old pup woke up with cherry eye and we all had no idea what it was or why it had happened. I called the vet and they said it sounded like "cherry eye" and that I should come in asap as this condition usually requires surgery to fix. I didn't like that, but I did make an appointment. Tooling around the internet led me to this lovely site. I tried this method with my darling little pup and whammo! Perfect! She's as good as new! Okay, almost as good as new. She's a little red around the inner corner of the eye, but I think that's from her scratching at the cherry. I'm so very, very pleased. Next up, apple cider vinegar for the conjunctivitus (sp?). Thank you all!!!!
Posted by Lily (Baton Rouge, La) on 01/16/2012 ★★★★★
Thanks so much for this feedback! About a month ago, I was bathing my Shinese puppy and shampoo got in her eye. The result was a inflammation to her tear duct. I took her to the vet, and she was prescribed eye drops. For several weeks, I saw no improvements and eventually took her back to the vet, where I was told she might need eye surgery in the future.
Yesterday, I stumbled upon this website and followed the instructions, hoping to pop the gland back into place. After applying a warm compress and massaging the area for a little while, the cherry eye disappeared -- only to come back immediately. I repeated the process today, and it worked!! She has been playing with other puppies and going about her normal activities, and her eye is completely back to normal. This is absolutely incredible! Thanks for the advice!
Posted by Beagle-dashound Mix (Atlanta, Ga) on 01/26/2011 ★★★★★
My dog had cherry eye yesterday - I put in lubricating tear drops, held an ice cube in a baggy on it for about 5 minutes at most and then my husband massaged it for about 3 minutes tops using moderate pressure, pushing in towards the nose - AND IT WORKED! All of the sudden it was just gone!!!! This happened last night and her eye looks totally normal today!!!
Posted by Monica (St. George, Utah) on 04/01/2010 ★★★★★
Thank you for this site and the information of what to do with cherry eye. I tried it on my puppy and it worked. It popped out a few hours later. I did the warm compress and then massaged again, and there hasn't been another problem with it. Everyone else is saying surgery. Thank you for the real remedy! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Posted by Vicki (Mesquite, Tx) on 01/12/2010 ★★★★★
Hand Manipulation, Ice Packs & Similasan eye drops for Cherry Eye
I have a little male Chihuahua/JRT mix dog that looks like a puggle (blocky head, slightly bug eyes). About 3 years ago, when he was around a year old, I went on a trip and he cried the whole 3 days I was gone. He had a cherry eye when I got back. He also suffers from some sort of allergies and they'd been bothering him also.
I couldn't afford a vet & didn't believe it was necessary anyway, so I thought I'd try to work it back in myself. I had some Simalisan redness relief eye drops, so I put a few drops in his eye, then an ice compress for a few minutes. This shrank it down a bit, so I closed his eye and began working the lid around in a tiny circle, pressing in toward the corner where the "cherry" was. I keep my fingernails really, really short, by the way, not even out to the ends of my fingers. If you have long fingernails, they'd need to clipped off to do this because you have to form a little compress "tool" with your thumb and either your first two or first three fingers held all together, depending on the size of the dog's eye or what will contain the "cherry" in the little space between the ends of your fingers.
After a few minutes I could feel it slightly "pop" back in. I pressed on it for a couple of minutes with my thumb, then I put the ice compress back on for a few more minutes, gave him a weight appropriate dose of benedryl liquid and let him go. I put the drops in again a few more times the next couple of days, and an ice pack on whenever it looked like the eye was getting irritated the rest of his allergy season. It's been 3 years and it hasn't popped out again.
I also changed my dogs' food to one that doesn't have any grains in it, because his granny dog has really bad corn allergies and I figured that might be part of the cause of cherry eye in his case (she itches and looses hair).
Posted by Violet (St. Pete, Fl) on 09/15/2009 ★★★★★
Cherry eye is an unsightly swelling and protruding of the tear duct gland in dogs (prolapsed gland). It is most commonly seen in Bulldogs, Boston Terriers and Boxers.
Vets will usually recommend expensive surgery to correct this, but I was able to correct it at home on my own dog.
When my male Boston Terrier got cherry eye I started doing research and was dismayed to find that the surgery has a poor success rate. Even after surgery the cherry eye can come back, and I read so many messages from people who had shelled out hundreds of dollars for more than one surgery. But I came across a non surgucal fix on a bulldog website and I tried it for myself. It was super simple, it was cheap, it look less than 15 minutes, and it worked!
Here are the instructions I somewhat followed from Bullwrinkle.com:
"There are old timers with extensive experience with "Cherry Eye Condition" that recommend an alternative to surgery, especially those breeds that have high surgical risks. The first thing that is done to "treat" this condition is to prescribe an antibiotic ointment, second use warm compresses to the corner of the eye, third is to massage the gland lightly with the index finger applying even gentle pressure in a circular motion. Once the tear duct becomes "unblocked" even if it is out of its normal place it is now of a size that usually can be returned by pulling very gently the outer tissue and "popping" the tear duct back into place. You may have to replace the tear duct several times over a two week period, sometimes I have heard for even a month, but then it does not require surgery, and the dog as a general rule has no more problems with the condition whatsoever. We urge new pet owners to be very careful when attempting to use this technique because you can cause injury to the eyeball if you scratch it when trying to massage the tear duct. Try to find another owner of a bulldog or similar breed to walk you through it the first time to make sure you are doing it correctly. We do urge you to seek veterinarian assistance if the condition worsens or if this technique fails to make an improvement. There are some bulldogs that have an inflamatory disease as well and you may see a worsening of the condition. Inflamatory conditions must be treated with an anti-inflamatory antibiotic drop or ointment."
I made a few changes to the above instructions. I used OTC lubricating eye drops I bought at a pharmacy. They were called Gen Teal. I trimmed my fingernail all the way down. I did the massage and popped the gland back in keeping light pressure on it for about 5 minutes. I repeated the process for the next 2 days but I saw immediate results after the first day. It has been 3 months and we have not had another occurence of cherry eye!
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