This border collie is presented with a lesion in one eye – what is it likely to be, what more might you expect to see and what might your treatment be?
This could quite easily be a healed corneal ulcer couldn’t it? But in fact its a focal vascular keratitis – just like chronic superficial keratitis in the German Shepherd dog which is sometimes also seen in border collies. The key factor showing its not an old corneal ulcer is that there is bilateral disease. Its always worth looking closely at the other eye – and hey presto here is a tiny lesion hiding away until you look closely for it! Topical steroid tid or cyclosporine bid work equally well to resolve the pathology (Williams et al: Comparison of topical cyclosporin and dexamethasone for the treatment of chronic superficial keratitis in dogs.
Vet Rec 137:635-9 – not available online as I haven’t a pdf file of it I’m afraid but e-mail me if you want a print copy!) but some prefer to start with a more frequent dose regime and treatment will need to be lifelong.