Doxycycline making eyes worse?

[paultheknight]

Hi.

I have mgd and have been taking doxycycline for 26 days now in an attempt to help it. However from the very first time I took it I could feel my eyes get slightly drier a few hours later. Every day I have taken it since it has had the same effect and I can definitely pin point it to the doxy. Not only do my eyes feel drier my meibomian glands feel more clogged (i.e when i close my eyelids and move my eyeballs around I can feel bumps on my eyelid - something I didn't feel beforehand).

So, should I discontinue the doxy? I have read many times that it can take 1 to 3 months for its therapeutic effect to kick in but I wasn't expecting it to make my eyes get worse, nor have I heard of anyone else having the same experience as me.

Any advice?

[atta]

I had the same experience

I once tried Doxycycline for about 1 month.
Since the second to third weeks, my eyes started to get whiter and I didnt get so many white powder around my eyes when I woke up, but I felt my eyes were slightly dryer.
Since my goal is to get rid of redness I kept on taking it till the 5 week, my eyes got suddenly so dry that I felt I got no tear at all and I needed to take drop every 5 minute.
I gave up and I got bad inflammation and bad redness.
I would suggust you just stop it, it wont be your cure.
Besides, check for candida, google for some information of it. Now you've taken antibiotics so long and your candida must get worse(I guess every dry eye patient might have candida), if you dont do anything about it, you are awaiting some bad time with your eyes.
And if you are lucky, candida might be the main reason for your dry eyes. And you can cure yourself in 2 years.(approx.)

[paultheknight]

Thanks but I'm pretty sure I don't have candida as I don't have any of the symptoms listed on any candida websites. In fact many websites state that candida infection is one of these urban myths that people cling on to rather than tackling the real route of their ailments. My eye problems stem from seborrhea so I don't want to waste time with candida diets for years when the evidence that they are causing my symptoms or are the cause of any ocular symptoms are pretty much zero.

Further more stating "if you don't do anything about it, you are awaiting some bad times with your eyes" is a completely irresponsible statement to make given there is no medical evidence to suggest this, it is misleading and at worst is simply scaremongering.

Did anyone else find that doxycycline made their eyes worse? Or made their eyes worse before it started helping?

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi paultheknight and welcome.

However from the very first time I took it I could feel my eyes get slightly drier a few hours later. Every day I have taken it since it has had the same effect and I can definitely pin point it to the doxy. Not only do my eyes feel drier my meibomian glands feel more clogged (i.e when i close my eyelids and move my eyeballs around I can feel bumps on my eyelid - something I didn't feel beforehand).

Interesting and surprising that you would seem to have such a marked worsening of symptoms while on doxy.

Giving & taking advice over the internet about prescription meds is fraught with problems of course so I'm assuming any decision you come to will be in consultation with your doctor. But it sure sounds like you've got plenty of reason to question continuing, especially if those lumps are at your lid margins. I went through something like that with Sterilid, which by all accounts is a perfectly good product and helps many people but with me personally, during three separate attempts to use it regularly I got lumps in my left eyelid so I left off.

Have you tried other MGD treatments yet? Oral antibiotics are only one approach. Heat treatment, lid hygiene, Omega 3s and in some cases topical antibiotics are additional treatments. Many people on this site use Dr. Latkany's daily lid care regimen as described in "The Dry Eye Remedy" successfully for MGD maintenance and supplement with additional treatments just to get past any acute flare-ups.

[clairvoyant]

Get out while you can. If seb derm is your problem then I am nearly positive doxycyline will help those fungus grow. Granted, taking probiotics will help I'm sure.

I don't understand why a doctor would prescribe this with blepharitis (knowing seb. derm. could be involved), especially w/o advising probiotics or trying a topical. Maybe older topical like bacrtrim don't help with MGD but I think Azasite does. GG with the preservitive on that though.

I would try compresses (5 to 10 mins) and believe it or not I think restasis has helped my glands... But that is probably wreaking havok on the mucin layer *shrug*

[mflores22]

For what it's worth, I am having a similar experience. The whites of my eyes look much better, but my eyes are less tolerant of contacts and I wake up with more eye irritation in the morning since taking doxy. I am on my last week of a three month supply of oracea, and am gunna see my doctor in a week. I'll tell him my experience and see what he says. If I think it's valuable, I'll post it. But so far, doxy has been another waste of time.

Good luck.

[dave25]

I have been on Doxy for almost 2 years now and it has had a small yet positive effect on my symptoms. I have blephartits and I had very uncomfortable Seborrheic dermatitis on the outside corner of my eyes. The outside part of my eyes right where the skin meets the eye was very red and inflammed. My doctor told me to try doxy and see how it works. So while on doxy the redness on the corner of my eyes cleared up, however I did not notice much improvement for my dry eyes. I did not notice them getting worse either. My dry eye symptoms pretty much stayed the same, but the redness on the outside of my eyes was gone so I figured that the doxy was doing something good for me. My doctor tells me that long term use of doxycycline is ok, yet I would prefer to get off of it as soon as I can. For me, its important to listen to what my eyes are telling me, along with following my doctors advice. This would also be a good question to ask Dr. Latkany or Dr. Holly.

[152genielane]

Doxy mostly good for me

I've been on the doxy for about a year. for the first 6 months I noticed immediate and substantial improvement of my MGD / DES. since then I've had periods of DES problems just like before the doxy, but in general better overall with the doxy. for me it's not a magic bullet or cure, but it definitely helps, and I have not noticed any drying. this is just more proof that DES is multifaceted and the causes are treatments can vary tremendously from patient to patient. for instance I tried Restasis and I thought I was going to go blind from the eye pain and SEVERE dryness it caused me.... yet others swear it works. I wish you the best of luck in finding the best treatment for your DES. experimenting with all doctor approved methods until you find the right treatment regimen for your eyes will hopefully work