Cateracts

[Janer]

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Just wondering does anyone have or had a dog suffer with cateracts and did you have them operated on. Poor Spike has just been diagnosed with them and vet is pressing for them to be operated on. Feeling so sorry for him he’s just lost his lifelong best buddy and now he’s losing his sight. I have to be so careful with him now on a walk, he has bopped his face a few times before I had chance to correct him, I don’t want him to loose his confidence. He’s managing quite well around the house and can find his way to the fridge no problem lol. Vet thinks he’s basically just about seeing shadows

 

[Kara 1]

I had my lurchers cataracts operated on and it made a world of difference. ..
Its all about his quality of life its a fairly simple op and recovery is quicker tnan you think ...

 

[Mad Murphy]

It all depends on how old they are and what personality they have. I know a lady who had her older dog operated on because the blindness made him very aggressive. It helped but she said it all made him distrustful of her and the vet and he did bite when she was putting in the eyedrops.

However a friend has just had her cross chow aged just 3 operated on and Ruby is doing really well and bouncing back quickly.

When Bennys cateracts developed my vet advised that with his age he was then around 11 and the fact that he was a very grumpy dog who did not like rest or being messed about with that it might be wise to just let things runs their natural course and Im glad we did. Benny led a full and active life he adjusted brilliantly to his lack of vision and never suffered because of it. He even learned to walk off lead following me with a clicker.
In this video taken 6 months before he died aged 15 you can see hes having fun although his eyesight was virtually zero.

 

[Biker John]

We had a Whippet that developed them in both eyes, he was a rescue so actual age unknown but he must have been around 16 when they developed, (we had him for 10 years at that stage). Due to his age we decided to leave alone. And he coped well and he managed off lead fine apparently following our other dogs. He lived a full and happy life for another two years.

 

[merlina]

Some as other advice. We had a lovely old boy who gradually lost his sight and coped well- even swam on a long lead. But a young dog I'd probably have operated on.

 

[Janer]

Thank you all for the replies and for Benny’s lovely video, that helps a lot as Spike still needs to be assessed by an ophthalmologist and there is always the chance that he won’t be suitable for surgery. Spike is a Jack Russell and is ‘only’ 10, he will let me do anything to him so the aftercare shouldn’t be a problem if he can have it done. The only thing he will hate will be actually going to the vets but we will cross that bridge when/if he can have them done. Thank you again for the replies, guess I have quite a bit of thinking to do. X

 

[Ttaylor45]

Thank you all for the replies and for Benny’s lovely video, that helps a lot as Spike still needs to be assessed by an ophthalmologist and there is always the chance that he won’t be suitable for surgery. Spike is a Jack Russell and is ‘only’ 10, he will let me do anything to him so the aftercare shouldn’t be a problem if he can have it done. The only thing he will hate will be actually going to the vets but we will cross that bridge when/if he can have them done. Thank you again for the replies, guess I have quite a bit of thinking to do. X

My toy poodle Pepe the smaller one in the photo was diagnosed Jan 2018 with cataracts by a specialist at Optivet and was booked in to have the one in the left eye removed the following week but sadly he developed glaucoma when we took him for the op in both eyes so they could not do it. He was treated with eye drops to keep the pressure under control but unfortunately he also had kidney disease and we lost him in Nov 2018. It was a bad year for us last year as we also lost Rusty our other toy poodle in May 2018. We have no dogs now and the house seems very empty without them. I miss them terribly.

 

[Janer]

Oh I’m so sorry for your losses, both in the same year. We lost our 14 year old Roxy, 4th December and miss her dreadfully. When we lost our previous dog we went 8 months without a dog, it was awful. Vet did a urine test on Spike and his kidneys are fine and there’s no sign of diabetes so that was a relief. I have an appointment with the ophthalmologist for Monday so we will take it from there, hopefully we will have a bit of time before he needs the operation, our house has just sold so we need the funds for it from that to have it done.

 

[Ttaylor45]

Oh I’m so sorry for your losses, both in the same year. We lost our 14 year old Roxy, 4th December and miss her dreadfully. When we lost our previous dog we went 8 months without a dog, it was awful. Vet did a urine test on Spike and his kidneys are fine and there’s no sign of diabetes so that was a relief. I have an appointment with the ophthalmologist for Monday so we will take it from there, hopefully we will have a bit of time before he needs the operation, our house has just sold so we need the funds for it from that to have it done.

I hope it all goes well we were so unlucky with Pepe as we took him to our vet as soon as we noticed there was something wrong with his left eye and he was referred the very next day to Optivet in Havant where we saw a lovely lady vet who booked him in the next week as I have already mentioned by which time he had developed glaucoma so they couldn’t do the operation. We made several trips to Optivet to have the pressure in his eyes monitored and the drops were adjusted accordingly to make sure he was never in pain.

 

[Janer]

Oh dear that did happen really quickly, this is my worry with Spike. The cateracts seem to have happened really quickly, one day he was playing ball out the back with my grandson the next he couldn’t seem to see it, that’s what alerted us to him having a problem, took him straight to the vets. Now it’s like he can’t really see anything, vet said he’s probably seeing the shadows of us and it will be worse for him in certain light. On a good note he can find his way around the house fine and especially to the fridge where his favourite chicken is kept

 

[Ttaylor45]

Oh dear that did happen really quickly, this is my worry with Spike. The cateracts seem to have happened really quickly, one day he was playing ball out the back with my grandson the next he couldn’t seem to see it, that’s what alerted us to him having a problem, took him straight to the vets. Now it’s like he can’t really see anything, vet said he’s probably seeing the shadows of us and it will be worse for him in certain light. On a good note he can find his way around the house fine and especially to the fridge where his favourite chicken is kept

Pepe had been poorly the year before in 2017 with anaemia which was treated with steroids but he was on them for 10 months as advised by another specialist (North Downs specialist referrals) in Bletchingly Surrey and I can’t help but wonder if that was why the cataracts developed so quickly he was also diagnosed after he had come of the steroids with kidney problems which again although we gave him renal food for a while until he refused to eat it. I then cooked chicken fish vegetables for him and added a supplement called pronefra which was to stop the phosphorus going to the kidneys but it was his kidneys that got worse again very quickly despite my best efforts which was the reason we had to say good bye to him. We don’t think he could see much at the end either although he managed fairly well bless him.

 

[Janer]

It’s awful when they are ill because they can’t tell you how they are feeling and then you feel guilty and feel you maybe should have noticed something sooner, at least that’s how I’m feeling at the moment with Spike and also to some extent with the way Roxy passed with a heart attack but my daughter reassures me that there were no signs of anything being wrong with her in the weeks or even days before it happened. Still can’t help thinking this way, natural I suppose.

 

[Whippylove]

Sorry to hear about spike, i hope everything goes well for him. They can be such a worry x

 

[Janer]

I know, it’s more worry than having kids at least they can tell you what’s wrong with them lol. Spike knows when something different is going on I had to monitor his water intake for a week to see if he was drinking excess which would point towards diabetes. So first day he drank 125mls, second 100mls third day he’s realised I’m doing something different, it’s going in a jug first, so he drinks 30ml next day and then until he went back to vets 4 days after that no water was drank from the water bowl, in desperation I started adding water to his food and even some mixed in with chicken. Vet said he had been having me on lol, since I’m not using a jug now he’s back drinking normally