Resumo:
Dry eye syndrome, or keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS), is a common dysfunction of the tear film in dogs, and its characterization through multicentric and retrospective studies is essential for epidemiological understanding. This research aimed to characterize, through a multicenter cross-sectional study, dogs diagnosed with dry eye and examined by veterinarians certified by the Brazilian College of Veterinary Ophthalmology (CBOV) in different federative units of Brazil. Between 2016 and 2023, 14,375 medical records were evaluated, and 2,330 dogs were included for presenting a Schirmer tear test result < 15 mm/min. A similar proportion of the evaluated records originated from university hospitals (46.44%) and private practices (53.56%). Breed, sex, age, prescribed treatments, and associations among variables were analyzed. The highest incidences were observed in 2023 and 2017. Dry eye was most prevalent in Shih Tzus (32.5%), followed by mixedbreed adult and senior dogs (12.3%), Lhasa Apsos (9.1%), Yorkshire Terriers (7.3%), Poodles (6.1%), and Pugs (5.1%). Shih Tzus were three times more likely to develop keratoconjunctivitis sicca compared with mixed-breed dogs. There was no sex predisposition (P = 0.6301), and the mean age of affected dogs was 8.06 ± 4.04 years, except in one university hospital in the Northeast region, where the mean was 6.5 years (P < 0.001). The most frequently prescribed treatments were cyclosporine (50.3%), tacrolimus (39.4%), and ocular lubricants (5.1%), with a statistically significant difference among them (P < 0.0001). Despite Brazil’s vast territory and the diverse environmental conditions across its federative units, the multicenter study methodology revealed a consistent profile of dogs affected by dry eye: Shih Tzus of both sexes, primarily adults and seniors, predominantly treated with immunomodulators.
