Guide

Cloudy eyes: when to worry

Everything on this shelf soothes an irritated eye. None of it treats a damaged one — and knowing the difference is the most important page in this library.

Same-week vet visit: a cloudiness or blue-grey haze over the cornea, a visible scratch or dent in the surface, green or yellow discharge, a pupil that ignores light, or an eye held squinted shut for more than a few hours. Each of those is structure or infection, not dryness, and every day of delay narrows the treatment options.

Same-day vet visit: a suddenly bulging eye, blood in or around the eye, or a pet pawing at a visibly painful face after any impact. Eye emergencies move fast, and 'wait and see' is the one strategy the eye cannot afford.

What this catalog's tubes are for is everything milder: the dry itch of heated rooms, the dust of the trail, the post-groom rinse, the stain on a white cheek. Comfort after the all-clear — with the label and your veterinarian outranking every sentence here.