_Treatment._--This must be of both a "local" and general kind.
Sponge eyes several times daily with a weak boracic acid lotion (30 grains to 6 ounces of water), using a sponge or piece of linen previously dipped in boiling water. Good results sometimes follow fomenting with luke-warm tea, its simplicity being a recommendation. When the cornea is ulcerated, use a solution of nitrate of silver (4 grains to the ounce of distilled water) as drops, night and morning. Keep the dog's head steady, part the lids, and then apply.
These drops will be equally useful for "cloudy cornea."
Rest the eyes by keeping dog in a dark place. Around the margins a little of Singleton's Golden Eye Ointment will be of as much service as aught else that can be recommended, and can be procured at any drug stores.
A predisposing factor in the production of blindness is that of old age, many aged dogs having what is known as senile cataracts. Injuries of any kind to the eye are liable to end in either partial, or complete, blindness.
In cataract, it is the lens, its covering, or both, that are the seats of disease.
In the so-called glass eye (_Amaurosis_), the appearance of the eye is that of a normal one, the optic nerve being in a paralytic state.
Opacity of the cornea does, in accordance with the degree and situation of such deposit, produce corresponding deficiency of sight.
In this diseased condition it is generally the upper eyelid that is turned inwards. If the eyelashes grow inwards, it is called _Trichiasis_. In both conditions it follows that the lashes must be in contact with the globe of the eye.
If only a few lashes are growing inwards, they should be pulled out, but, if numerous, this is not a good plan. To cure it, a surgical operation is necessary.
Like inverted or turned-in eyelid, everted, or turned-out eyelid is not a diseased condition, but the outcome of disease, probably of a weak orbicular muscle.
It is the lower eye that is usually affected, and is curable by operation only.
Injuries to the eyelids, unless properly treated, are liable to result in permanent unsightliness, or, it may be, affect the sight.
Either of the conditions last alluded to can be produced through injury to the eyelids externally, or internally.