Dog Eye Health, Medicine Implants for Canine Eye Diseases

Dogs with eye problems may not have to rely on daily drops from their owners much longer, an Iowa State University researcher has developed a better way to get the needed medicine into the dogs eyes. Medicine implants surgically placed into the tissue surrounding the dog’s eyes allows for the medicine to work around the clock for up to a year to restore dog eye health.

A small pellet sized implant is made of the needed medicine to treat the canine eye disease, mixed with a polymer and formed into ultra-fine fibers. From the fibers, a fabric is created, from which numerous medical devices, including drug release devices, can be fashioned

The surgical procedure to implant the medicine takes only a few minutes under local anesthesia. The medicine implant is made through a small incision in the white tissue surrounding the dog’s eye and then closed with one tiny stitch.

The medicine implant procedure has been tried to improve auto-immune corneal diseases that can cause pain, redness, inflammation and other eye problems for canines.

With medicine implants, dog owners no longer have to worry about getting eye drops into their dogs eyes, and no more worry about missed doses. The correct amount of medicine to treat canine eye diseases is working 24 hours a day through the medicine implant to improve the dog’s eye health.