It is essential to evaluate the pupil in a red, squinty, teary eye with or without the cloudy surface appearance.

The pupil is the black hole in the center of the eye formed by the iris, which is the colored part of the eye.

If the pupil is widely dilated (a large black spot with minimally colored parts visible) and it doesn’t contract (get smaller) in response to a bright light, glaucoma is highly possible.

When checking the pupil response, don’t be confused by the normal reflection of bluish/green or yellowish/orange that is frequently seen shining through the black hole of the pupil (like red eye in a bad photo)

Assessing your pet’s vision can be difficult, but is very helpful. Your pet should blink to a bright light shown into the eye. Without creating airflow or touching any whiskers, see if your pet blinks when you wave your hand in front of the eye (known as the “menace test” because your pet is responding to a menacing gesture).

You can also throw objects like cotton balls (anything that won’t make a sound when it lands) in front of your pet to see if s/he follows the object.

 Setting up mazes can also be helpful; move chairs or garbage cans around in a room that is familiar to your pet, and then see if they can navigate across the room. This type of test will be less effective if only one eye is affected, but will still give you some indication as to how well your dog (especially senior ones) can see.