cataract advice please

[hblower]

I took orin for his yearly jabs early December and mentioned to the vet that under certain light orins eyes look a bit cloudy so has he got cataract?  he looked and he has early stage diffuse cataract he said.  Too early to operate and bring him back if we get concerned in the meantime if it goes downhill or gets blood vessels in his eyes.

Orin watched TV happily and barks when cats and other animals come on and runs round the garden still like a loon.  IF you throw him treats he will 90% of the time catch them, however we have noticed in the dark in new places he is a bit cautious and bumped into a parked car tyre when running around a few weeks ago but was fine.

MY question is I supposed having seen my mums clumber spaniel go totally blind as mum and dad didn't want to operate, how long do they leave them before they operate.  I don't want to be fobbed off by my vet if they will remove them by now and I don't like the thought of orin suffering because he cant see. 

[Joules]

Coco is 11 and she has the start of cataracts too - her eyes look quite cloudy

At the moment, they do not seem to be affecting her - she can still see a cat at the bottom of the garden, catch a treat with ease and recognise people and places.  She sometimes bumps into things, but I think that is more because she has her nose stuck to the ground sniffing than bad eyesight. 

My vet told me that the cataract operation on dogs is more difficult than on humans and so we concluded that we would not do anything for now and hopefully her eyes would last her out well enough.    I am not at all keen on putting her through surgery if she doesn't need it, especially as she gets older.  Even if her eyesight fails a bit, I am sure she will be fine as she certainly seems to find her way by smell more than sight.  If her sight were to fail dramatically, then I will rethink, but at the moment, I am leaving it be. 

[elaine.e]

William is 12 and was diagnosed with cataracts in both eyes about three or four years ago. As it happens the diagnosis was by the ophthalmic specialist vet who checks William's eyes every 6 months because he has Dry Eye. I wouldn't have realised otherwise because at that time William's eyes weren't cloudy and he had no obvious problems with his vision. The vet's advice was that the cataracts might worsen or might not. If they worsened they would probably get to a stage (she described it as the cataracts ripening) which would be the optimum time for surgery.

6 months later his cataracts had worsened a little, but since then they've stayed the same. The vet describes William's vision being like that of somebody wearing scratched sunglasses all the time! It doesn't really bother him, although he doesn't like going down the garden at night unless I put the outside light on, and if he's at a distance from me when off lead in the New Forest he can't identify me from other people!

Now that William's 12 I'm hoping his cataracts won't worsen because I don't especially want to put him through surgery unless necessary. But he lost his hearing a couple of years ago and, having owned an elderly deaf and almost blind dog once before, I'd give serious thought to William having cataract surgery if it was needed to save his sight and if he was otherwise fit and well.

[PennyB]

Bosley developed a cataract in one eye when he was 2 years old and I got it assessed by the eye vet and in his case am pleased I did as his was a hypermature one - which meant if it was left too long there was no hope of an op (its desiccates and shrivels up so they can't put a new lens in). He sailed through the op and while it is scary with the warnings the vet gave about keeping him chilled - yea right a 2 year old working spaniel - he was fine the whole way through it plus I did make sure he stayed chilled by putting 2 of my dogs in kennels. The lummox though has gone and managed to stick a thorn in it so now has a scar in the eye.

You have to be prepared for lots of vet visits + if you have older dogs with poor teeth they do suggest getting a dental done beforehand - Boz was fine with his though

[aljeana]

Amy at 12 years old last year showed the first signs of having problems with her sight I was doing agility with Amy & we suddenly noticed Amy was not as confident at jumping or going into tunnels & was really quite bad if very sunny this was December of last year.

I went to my vet who felt Amy had the onset of cataracts within a month Amy started to panic out on walks when off lead if she was a distance away from us could hear us but could not find us, she would walk into door frames.  We decided to have Amy referred to an Eye Vet specialist who confirmed in the January of this year that Amy had Juvenile cataracts in both eyes but her right eye was more developed.  Fast forward to March & the eye vet reassessed Amy & confirmed that the progression was quick & that Amy could be blind by this December it was agreed to reassess in April & to decide if to operate.

In April it was agreed that Amy sight in her right eye was now poor & the cataract was mature enough to operate but the left was not advanced enough & if operated on to early could fail causing blindness.  We felt Amy was not coping getting quite distressed as things had happened quite quickly so she was going from a very confident outgoing cocker to being quite old in her manner we agreed to just have the cataract removed from her right eye & leave the left eye with the hope that we could gain Amy good sight in her right eye.

Amy had the cataract operation in April which she coped with very well there was an immediate effect on Amy she was like a 2 year old it made us realise how much her sight had been effecting her daily. It has not been easy the drops routine is intense we had a few set backs but we are now 8 months on and Amy is back to her normal bouncy self full of life & confidence.

The eye vets prediction was correct Amy's left eye is now covered with the cataract so if we had not had the right eye done would have been blind this December instead Amy has good vision with one eye and she is coping really well.