Tips for eye drops without trauma

[fruitstick]

The first day was ok but now he's wised up and won't let me near him. Snaps when I get close to touching his eyelids to lift them up.

I don't want to restrain him because I don't want to traumatise him anymore.

He's a cocker spaniel. So not huge but also not packet size.

Can you pop a muzzle on him?

We don't have one but I could get one I suppose

The snapping will be most likely be a mixture of fear and pain.

I would make it as quick as possible - coat the inside of the muzzle with something yummy (cream cheese or peanut butter), muzzle on, eye drops in, muzzle off.

I know it's horrible when they're scared but you don't want to mess about with eyes as infections can get nasty very quickly.

Is there anyone to help? If so have them hold the dog and feed him something nice that he has to work to get, like squeezy cheese. If not then improvise - I spread cheese, pate, natural yoghurt etc thinly on the back of a plastic garden chair and get the dog to sit on the seat to lick it.

While he is occupied, stand behind him. You are going to put the hand holding the drops over his head from behind (this is important so he doesn't see it coming straight at him). With your other hand, put a finger underneath his eye and press and pull down very slightly to make a well appear in his lower eyelid (try this on yourself to see what I mean). Drop a couple of drops from the bottle into the well. Job done and he probably won't even notice. This is basically the same technique as eye drops for humans so if you can't find a youtube video for dogs, one for humans will give you the idea.

You can get crafty and put the squeezy cheese high enough up that he has to tilt his head back to get it, this makes it easier to see what you're doing.

If you have time you can accustom him to the chair/cheese routine first without the drops, he will then leap up willingly. Then do the finger under the eye without any drops a couple of times. Finally add in the drops. Throw a couple of treats on the floor to release.

Good luck!

The only way I ever managed it was muzzle on, hold the muzzle to stop the head turning, and put the drops in - but approach with the dropper coming from behind the head, not looming straight towards the eyes

I've managed it! Thank you. Coming at it from behind was far more successful! Thank you!

👏well done both of you

Whatever I did yesterday is not working today. Now he's even worse!

We only on day 3 of 7 😭

We’ve had this recently with our year old sprocker. He was becoming really frightened and it was impossible to get the drops in as we couldn’t keep him still. I was despairing of getting the drops in. Eventually we adopted a two person approach. I held a large really thick chunk of ham and he kind of pulled and nibbled at it on my lap and I didn’t let it go as he nibbled bits whilst my husband went in from behind with the drops. Having had a terrible 4 days after a week he was so distracted by the ham he was hardly noticing the eye drops.
We’d tried squeezy cheese and other treats which he wasn’t interested in so it might be that you have to get something really special? Good luck!

We use a suction aqua lickimat with yogurt or pate on patio door up high and come from behind. It helps he's a lab so I can stand over him and use my knees to keep him sort of steady. Be lavish with the high value spreadable treat on the mat!