ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop a "mind-set" or mental algorithm for managing ocular emergencies. Ocular emergencies can be categorized into one or more problems: loss of vision in one or both eyes, unequal pupils, red eye, painful eye, ocular discharge, ocular opacity, and change in position of the eye. If patients are presented for an ocular emergency because of an ocular discharge, typically the discharge is mucopurulent or purulent and copious. Most ocular emergencies that have visual implications should probably be seen by a veterinary ophthalmologist, either for definitive therapy or to confirm readers' diagnosis and advise on therapy. Ocular pain is a frequent cause for presentation of ocular emergencies. The most obvious manifestations of ocular pain are blepharospasm, third eyelid protrusion, and enophthalmos. The emergency patient with an ocular opacity may present with problems as diverse as third eyelid protrusion, pannus, and corneal edema, lipids in the aqueous humor, fibrin in the anterior chamber, hyphema, and cataracts.
