Clinical Outcomes of Infected Corneal Ulcers in Dogs With or Without the Use of Topical Serum

ABSTRACT Objective To determine if topical serum use impacts clinical outcomes of infected corneal ulcers in dogs. Animals A total of 252 eyes (237 dogs) undergoing medical and surgical therapy for infected corneal ulcers managed with or without topical serum. Procedures Patients were identified retrospectively in the same geographic region of the United States. Healing times, visual outcomes, and enucleation were recorded for medically managed ulcers. Visual outcomes and enucleation were recorded for surgically managed ulcers. The number and frequency of topical medications were recorded for all groups. Statistical analyses were performed for all comparisons, with a significance level of p = 0.05. Results In total, 252 eyes (237 dogs) were included. Of these, 203 eyes underwent medical therapy (150 without serum/53 with serum) and 49 eyes were treated surgically at presentation (35 without serum/14 with serum postoperatively). In the medical group, the use of serum had no impact on healing times ( p = 0.380), visual outcomes ( p = 0.751) or enucleation ( p = 0.433). In the surgery group, visual outcomes ( p = 0.488) and enucleation (no eyes enucleated) were not impacted by serum use. Healing times were not impacted by frequency ( p = 0.092) or number of topical medications ( p = 0.346). Clinical Relevance To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to determine if topical serum use affects clinical outcomes of infected corneal ulcers in dogs. Topical serum did not impact healing times, visual outcomes, or enucleation rates of infected corneal ulcers treated medically or surgically in dogs.