Dog eye redness, bulging eye and outside swelling

by Tina Martinez
(Ponderosa, New Mexico)

Our dog’s eye has redness, bulging and outside swelling. Some background: He was kicked once in the stomach by a cow when he was about a year old. Since that incident occurred, his behavior seemed to change although he did not have any physical ailments from the incident.

Rowdy is a 3 year old Australian Shepard/Blue Heeler mix dog that is either extremely happy, constant licker and jumper or he is not interacting at all, choosing to sleep in his dog house all day long with no activity. There seems to be no middle mood with him. Although he does interact with his brother, Dice and our other dog, Bud, the activity has seemed to decrease steadily over time.

Once he got neutered, the interaction with his brother and our other dog seemed to get a little worse. He has become extremely territorial over his food and the water bucket, only occasionally letting his brother Dice share but not very often. Rowdy never learned to bark. He will just growl really loud if the other dogs go near his food or the trash can.

It seems as though when he does chase something, like a bird or rabbit, he may have gotten poked in his eye by some brush or a fence or something because I started noticing redness around the white part of his eye. There has not been any abnormal discharge and no loss of fur around his eye. The bulging part seems to be getting worse but isolated to that area. He also has a lot of swelling on the external part of the eye in that area.

Something you must also know about Rowdy is that he recently had a dog seizure. I ran outside thinking there were pack dogs howling nearby and it was Rowdy crying, laying on the porch stiff with his tongue hanging all the way out on one side and eyes opened widely. He stayed that way for maybe a few minutes but seemed like forever!

He stopped crying when I got there but still laid there unchanged for a little while longer. I shoved my fingers in his throat thinking he was choking on a rib bone I had just given all three dogs, but nothing. A few minutes later he started to lick me and tried getting up and seemed really stiff. I checked his gums and they were all white to pale pink. After about 10 minutes, it was like nothing happened. Good color in gums, ate and drank fine and got hyper trying to lick my face off, seeming happy.

I am not sure if the eye condition was the cause as I think he has had one seizure before this about 6 months ago. During that first seizure, he just laid there for a few minutes and was unresponsive to my calling. But that was it. No crying or difficulty getting up etc.

Please let me know what his condition might be regarding his eye and if you think his last seizure could be stemming from this eye condition. Any advice is greatly appreciated! I lost my last dog, Pepper when she was just 3 years old and don’t want to lose another dog! Just want him happy and healthy! Thanks in advance!