Eye drops for pink eye... What does the burn mean?

Probably means it’s working.
When my sister had the pink eye my dad held her down and squeezed lime juice in her eyes and it went away the next morning.

I’ve had pink eye a few times but I never remember my eyes burning from the drops. You may be having a bad reaction to the drops or are using too much. I’m not entirely sure. The drops I had never burned my eyes at all. If it keeps up, you should seek real medical advice.

@trendge These are physician prescribed eye drops, used as prescribed. I have used the same prescription before to treat styes. My mother also had pink eye and her drops also burned/stung. I was just wondering if someone had some insight as to what was going on with the chemistry or whatever.

Mine were also prescribed. However they still didn’t burn. Maybe I have a super eye or something. Haha. I don’t know the scientific reason but you’ve sparked my interest so i’m going to Google it now.

I’ve never had pink eye, but I had a corneal ulcer and that caused light sensitivity. Is it possible you also have one? Did your ophthalmologist test for corneal ulcers? in vet medicine we do this by staining the cornea

Having had particularly aggressive conjunctivitis for four years (perhaps more, I forget the specifics) I found that the burning sensation you describe occurs only at times when the infection is more hostile than usual causing the eye to become increasingly vulnerable. I wouldn’t worry too much but perhaps mention the issue to your Doctor if you’re still somewhat unnerved.
Something that also affects the feeling in question is the concentration of the eyedrops you have been prescribed. This may be something you should investigate.

@Lovey_Howell As I’ve been looking around, one of the first things I saw was that light sensitivity is one of the symptoms of pink eye. When you’re already sensitive like I am, it becomes almost unbearable. I was a pink eye vampire for a couple of days! What I found out today is that it can also cause flu-like symptoms, so not only did it burn but now I have the reason behind puking the other day for no apparent reason! They didn’t test for anything since my mother had pink eye and gave it to my father and then got it again and I dogsit as they go off on vacation and catch it! Basically they looked at me and already knew that it’d been going around in my immediate environment and gave me drops that had worked for previous eye infections.

@Nially_Bob Thanks for the insight!

It means you need more and it’s working!

Don’t worry as long as the burning isn’t accompanied by smoke.

I have had pink eye a zillion times and it never burned. I usually used the ointment, but I have used the drops. You might be allergic to the antibiotic or something else in the drop. It is not unusual to be allergic to neosporin, if you are using neosporin ophthalmic. I think they use eurthromycin also to treat that?? you an be allergic to that to, to anything. If the burning is just for a the first few seconds after the drop, that might be nothing, but if it continues to burn I would call your doctor and try a different medication.

There should be a list of reactions or side-effects on the instruction sheet that comes with the drops. Call the nurse asap and report this, to be on the safe sight.