Just curious everyones Schrimer's scores???

[dianat]

My family has a lot of allergies, so pets aren't really our thing. We are thinking of getting a fish tank soon. I am in awe of people who will spend time taking care of their pets as I simply cannot imagine the extra work. I have small children, and I'm always making time for them. Giving a cat eye drops? Yeah, right.

On that note, a friend of mine who had a baby procured a cat because she wanted a pet, but wanted one that would be low maintenance. As it turned out the cat had diabetes and needs insulin shots three times a day! All the effort must be worth it because she's still doing it.

I'll admit, a dry eyed cat would most definitely have my sympathies.

[Lucy]

My sister-in-law lives in Florida. They are always taking their dog to the dog ophthalmologist in Tampa. Florida is where all the dry eye docs are! I was telling her about some of my travels and tribulations and she said she took her dog to the dog ophthalmologist and I almost laughed out loud. She would not have appreciated that.

If you do a "search" on the internet for dry eyes, you are liable to get more info on veterinary issues than human. Imagine that. And.........we can even tell the docs how we feel! I wonder if they're working their way to canine lasik surgery? Or cat lasik surgery. People do pamper their pets and would probably spend the money if they thought it would help their dog or cat.

[Gaye]

Dog Opthalmologist

Hate to admit it, but I am one of those people. As my daughter is grown and married, and I have no grandchildren yet, my cats have become my children.

I did actually have a cat at one time who had been hit by a car and had her eye knocked out, then put back in. Mind you, this happened BEFORE I adopted her from the SPCA (very long story). Well, we spent many visits to the animal opthalmologist ourselves. The eye was basically dead as the optic nerve had been damaged so badly, and the vet recommended taking the eye out and putting in a glass eye. Unfortunately, she passed away from other complications of the accident, so we never had to make that decision. I was always putting some kind of drops in her eye because she developed sores on her epithelium all the time. It helped. And those specialist appointments cost even more than mine do!

[Rebecca Petris]

If you do a "search" on the internet for dry eyes, you are liable to get more info on veterinary issues than human. Imagine that.

One of our earliest customers for Dwelle/Dakrina was a fellow who wanted them for his dog. I think he said he has four different veterinarians. Cyclosporin is pretty much the only commonly used thing for canine dry eye and it wasn't working well for his dog.

[Gaye]

Schirmer's scores

I am definitely going to try the Dwelle!

[Chris]

I'm not sure what my schirmers is, but I have many tears in my right eye, I have to dab them out of my eye all day long. They are soothing tears, so I really don't feel dry eye that often, but, the pain I feel in that eye is tremendous. I always scrape my cornea (even when my schirmers was a 25 and I felt great).

You just never know what's going to happen when you cut nerves. I think mine misfired in some way.

Chris

[stella]

Schirmer and TBUT - are they meaningless then ??

I realize this is an old thread but it is still relevant
I have only had these tests done once in 18 months of being a DE sufferer- They were done at the hospital
At the time my eyes were feeling pretty good so i never even bothered to ask about them
The hospital told me that the tests showed my eyes were very dry !
I since had a really good spell lasting 10 weeks
Now my eyes are not so good
I went to my GP to see if i could get an MRI of my spine(arthritis)
She then asked about my eyes and read the hospital report - which said my schirmer (with local anaesthetic ) was 0 and TBUT ( i did'nt catch the result) but she said it was very bad
the point is how could i have such poor readings when my eyes were so much better??
I wish i had not been told these poor results as they just worry me
Can anyone else relate to this ??

[calli66]

For me the sensation of dryness and uncomfortability occurs when there's inflammation and actual dry spots. Even though my eyes make very few tears, as long as they're wetting the eye surface, then my eyes feel relatively normal.

My new doctor doesn't even use the Schirmer. In fact, he says he can't assess the dryness of my eyes if the technicians have put the anesthetic drops in there (to do the glaucoma test----something they usually do before the doctor comes in the examination room). He has to keep reminding the techs NOT TO PUT ANYTHING IN THE EYES (if it's for a dry eye patient). But they forget. He told me I should remind them and refuse the glaucoma test.

The Schirmer isn't reliable, that's the main point. I've had it done differently every time: with numbing drops, without drops, with drops and vigorous scrubbing of the excess (and much irritation) by the tech. It's just a number, and it's not scientific.

My doctor checks the tear layer by "painting" a tiny quantity of fluorescing dye on my eye surface---just enough so the tears can be seen under the blue light.

The most important thing is how your eyes feel to YOU. Unless you have nerve desensitization, this is a good indicator as to whether your eyes need attention, treatments, meds, etc. For example, when I had 4 plugs (for a month only), my eyes felt and looked awful---itchy, red, crusty, inflamed. But I had "good tear coverage," according to my doctor. Pretty convincing, but I didn't buy it. Had the uppers removed, and I have been 100% more comfortable.

Calli

[stella]

For me the sensation of dryness and uncomfortability occurs when there's inflammation and actual dry spots. Even though my eyes make very few tears, as long as they're wetting the eye surface, then my eyes feel relatively normal.

My new doctor doesn't even use the Schirmer. In fact, he says he can't assess the dryness of my eyes if the technicians have put the anesthetic drops in there (to do the glaucoma test----something they usually do before the doctor comes in the examination room). He has to keep reminding the techs NOT TO PUT ANYTHING IN THE EYES (if it's for a dry eye patient). But they forget. He told me I should remind them and refuse the glaucoma test.

The Schirmer isn't reliable, that's the main point. I've had it done differently every time: with numbing drops, without drops, with drops and vigorous scrubbing of the excess (and much irritation) by the tech. It's just a number, and it's not scientific.

My doctor checks the tear layer by "painting" a tiny quantity of fluorescing dye on my eye surface---just enough so the tears can be seen under the blue light.

The most important thing is how your eyes feel to YOU. Unless you have nerve desensitization, this is a good indicator as to whether your eyes need attention, treatments, meds, etc. For example, when I had 4 plugs (for a month only), my eyes felt and looked awful---itchy, red, crusty, inflamed. But I had "good tear coverage," according to my doctor. Pretty convincing, but I didn't buy it. Had the uppers removed, and I have been 100% more comfortable.

Calli

Thanks Calli - Thats reassuring.I just wondered did such low readings predict badly for the future I suppose

[kitty]

I have never had a Schirmer's test. My doc used flourescene dye and said I had a miniscule tear lake, thus aqueous deficient. He said the burning and mucous strings indicated destruction of my goblet cells so insufficient mucin layer as well. I think I remember that right, it was a few years ago that I was diagnosed.

[Rojzen]

The fluorescein clearance test; corneal health as offset

http://books.google.com/books?id=WaQ...qMvI#PPA266,M1

At the above URL (if it works OK), one can find a good step-by-step description of the fluorescein clearance test, which many docs consider to be a more reliable measure of tear gland secretion than is the Schirmer test. . .On the other hand, I've had this clearance test done several times at Bascom Palmer in Miami, and I have to admit that results varied, for me, wildly, across a period of about 5 years. . .Symptomatically, moreover, I never changed, over that period (:^)). . .

So I think that the clearance test is a step up from Schirmer, BUT I couldn't agree more with Rebecca's eloquent and beautifully focused reminder that our numbers are not a good predictor of our subjective experiences with dry eye, or even of our ocular surface health. . .

For what it's worth, more and more I suspect that a healthy cornea (at all its levels) can deal with deficits in tear production and in meibum production, but that, unfortunately, corneal health suffers when tears and meibum get abnormal. . .What intrigues me most about Dr. Holly's drops, in this connection, is that I believe they may, in some cases, hold the power to restore corneal health sufficiently for the eye to FEEL better even if tears and meibum never come back to normal. . .Just a theory. . .

[stella]

I do hope your thory is correct Rojzen - I await my order for dwelle dakrina and nutra-tears ,3 of Dr holly's drops - to try out and hopefully improve the tear film
I know they have helped you greatly and am hopeful
So pleased we can now get them on mail order from the shop - Thanks Rebecca