Green discharge coming from Lab's right eye. What is it?

[littlewhitebag]

This morning my brother noticed a green discharge coming from my Lab's right eye. (he looked after her for me today). I have cleaned it with cooled, boiled water like i used to do when my kids eyes were like this. She also seemed to be rubbing at it with her paw.

She has a vet appointment on Wednesday when i have a day off to get her vaccinations. I am working tomorrow. Will it be okay to wait or does this need to be seen sooner?

I wondered if it might be hay fever or maybe an infection. Anyone experienced this before?

Thanks.

Personally, I would never hang about with eyes - they are one of the things that I think demand a vet visit pronto every time, as if an eye problem escalates (which they can) they can become very serious and very expensive very quickly.

It's more than likely conjunctivitis - but you want that seen sooner rather than later because it can damage the eye if left.

If she will tolerate it, peel back her eyelids one at a time, by pulling on the skin above or below to check there's nothing trapped in there (grass seeds are a culprit). If you can't see anything that can be removed, she needs to see a vet.

Conjunctivitis is very infectious so usually both eyes are affected. When one eye is involved it's more likely to be an injury or ulcer, so it's worth getting checked quickly. Apart from anything else, eye problems are horribly painful.

Hope you saw the vet yesterday, OP, and that your lab is ok.

Just wanted to post in response to what poachedeggs said. My old lab cross was quite prone to conjunctivitis. It's not the same in dogs as it is in humans - she'd only get it in one eye (bloodshot and with grey discharge) and it very rarely crossed to the other eye. It's also not that infectious - I had to check with the vet as I work in a place where there are many pet and working dogs, and used to bring my girl in with me. Vet said it was fine to continue bringing her in, allowing her around my family's dogs whilst she was being treated.

Hoping that helps someone...

She saw the vet yesterday. By then the discharge was in both eyes and her eyes were very bloodshot. Vet checked her for injury but all was fine. She said it was probably conjunctivitis and was given drops to try and clear it. Her eyes still look red but less discharge today. They are obviously itchy too as she rubs then with her paws or on my leg or the furniture. Hopefully it will clear up soon.

I do see cases where it has cross infected other dogs in contact. It isn't massively infectious without close contact, but will usually affect both eyes as it seems to have in the OP 's case. It can also be found as part of the kennel cough syndrome.

I should clarify that conjunctivitis isn't always bacterial. In many cases it's secondary to conditions which cause trauma to the eye tissues, such as entropion or ectopic cilia. It can also have allergic causes.

poachedeggs you are scaring me now with all those things that could be wrong. I actually think it may be allergies. The past two days I have had to take hay fever medication as the pollen count is very high. We live in farming country and in the middle of a golf course so lots of pollen around.