Originally Posted by CaptainJack

Jack had a rough night last night, but in the end all is good. His appointment was booked for 6:30, and hubs was taking him because I have a CGA exam today and was studying last night. Jack was playing outside before they went to the vet, and when he came in there was blood all over the floor. Turns out he ripped most of one of his front nails off. It was disgusting, but we said hey, goo thing he's already going to the vet!

Anyway, the vet said right away it wasn't cherry eye. She examined the eye and noticed a very fine hair sticking out from behind the third eyelid. She pulled that out and opened up the pocket behind the pink puffy bump and saw a clump of dirt. She tried to swab it out but it was embedded in there. So the vet and her tech used giant tweezers to grab the dirt out. It turns out it wasn't a clump of dirt at all, it was a seed pod from the end of my feathery ornamental grass in my garden. Jack is always messing around with the grass, and I guess he managed to get one of the little pods in his eye. The hair she pulled out was one of the feathery things the seed pods are stuck to. So he probably had it in his eye for a few weeks, and we thought the discharge was from a regular eye infection. The vet says the pink swollen part will go away now that the irritating thing is out of his eye, and we are to continue a few more days with the drops. Apparently Jack was a total angel and kept still while they were prodding around in his eye, then he gave them kisses when it was all done.

Now, his nail. She said that if his nails weren't kept so short, he would have pulled the whole thing out. As it is, about half is gone from the end, and there is a crack up the middle of what's left. It will heal itself fairly quickly, which I believe considering how fast his nails grow. Other than putting a bootie on it for walks, there is nothing to do but wait. Glad he'll be fine, and I'm glad that thing is out of his eye, he must have been very uncomfortable.