FOREIGN BODIES.
Foreign bodies become lodged on the internal surface of the eyelids, in the folds of the conjunctiva, in the thickness of the cornea, and sometimes, though rarely, in the anterior chamber, the lens, or the vitreous humour. They include particles of grit or dust, the awns and glumes of grain, etc.
The eyes are half closed and the conjunctiva is swollen, whilst the eye weeps and the animals dread the light.
Diagnosis. This is somewhat difficult, for the parts rapidly become very sensitive, and the animals violently resist examination. When the foreign body penetrates the anterior chamber or the lens, it produces suppuration or traumatic cataract.
Before anything can be done it is often necessary to render the parts anæsthetic by instilling a few drops of cocaine solution into the eye.
The foreign body may then be discovered by close observation. If the pain is very intense, and great resistance is offered to opening the eye, the practitioner may confine himself to passing a soft camel-hair brush saturated with cocaine solution over the surface of the eye and into the conjunctival sacs. The brush loosens, and often removes, the offending body. In the absence of a camel-hair brush, the little finger, covered with a piece of fine linen, may be used.
Where the parts cannot be touched owing to the resistance of the animal, lukewarm solutions of antiseptics such as boric acid may be occasionally injected into the eye by means of a syringe, but care must be taken to prevent the animal injuring itself against the syringe by sudden movements.