dog eye discharge

Hi, I have two foster dogs (sisters) who both have milky white discharge from their eyes. The goo varies in thickness, also the amount varies daily. Some days there's hardly any, other days it seems I wipe their eyes and it returns within an hour or so. Here are some details:

Lab looking dogs, we think maybe mixed with Bassett Hound (kinda long noses, long ears, short legs, long bodies)  Eyes are not "droopy". Found abandoned in the woods, at approx. 9 months old. They have been in foster care for over 2 months. They are extremely shy of people, so were either abused or abandoned very young (Vet visits are traumatic!)

They've been wormed twice (Panacur, then later Drontal) and given their rabies & DHLPP. When the eye discharge continued even after wormings, I switched them from a lower quality puppy food (which had been donated to the rescue) to a high quality puppy food. The discharge seemed to lessen noticeably in frequency within 3 days of being fully on the new food, however it hasn't gone away completely. One of the dogs showed no discharge for 3 days so I thought it was gone in her, then this morning she had some again. :-(

It doesn't seem like an eye infection- the whites of the eyes are not red; the girls don't rub their eyes or even try to rub the discharge off so I don't think they itch. (And my own dogs show no signs) Other than the discharge, the eyes are clear and they are healthy girls with lots of energy. They do love to play in the dirt, dig and essentially get completely filthy all over. I've wondered if they're getting dirt in their eyes? Could it be a food or environmental allergy?

I know the best thing is to get them to a vet... but I would like to wait until their spay appts next month to have their eyes checked while they're sedated. Meanwhile, could I purchase a human eyewash at the drugstore and use it? Is that a good idea or not? Any kind? What other advice would you have? Thanks!

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

It could be dry eye (KCS) which can be congenital.  It could also be  food or enviromental allergies, which can also be congential.  It is interesting that the change of food caused an improvement.  So until they can be tested for dry eye with the Schmirer tear test and switched to a hypoallergenic diet if the tear test is negative you can try adding Omega three fatty acids to their diets.  Omega three fatty acids can help reduce allergy severity.  You could also try using over the counter allergy eye drops 4 times per day in each of their eyes.  And lastly, try Benadryl  antihistamine at one mg per pound.  If they are 25 pounds you would use 25 mg tablets.  Benadryl can be used 2 to 3 times per day.

[mom@homenow]

Thank you! Good news, these last two days I have only seen a little of the eye discharge in both dogs first thing in the morning, and once I wipe it off it is not coming back in any significant amount during the day. I will add omega three fatty acids to their diets & use some eye drops as I put them to bed to see if they wake up without gunky eyes. Based on all this I am leaning toward a food allergy & I plan to check the ingredient lists of the two foods and see what is different. It also just occurred to me that whatever the culprit is may be in the dog biscuits I'm using for training, which may be why it hasn't cleared completely. So I'm going to stop those as well & just use bits of cheese or their usual dry food as treats and see what happens. Again, thank you for your suggestions, I will try them and see which if any clear this up!