Cataracts

[Lillium]

I own a toy poodle, she is approximately 7-9 years of age; she has developed cataracts and has lost her sight rapidly. She is still a happy-go-lucky dog, loves her food and doesn't appear to be any worse for wear. I would love to hear from dog owners that have been through this or anyone that has any information as to the costs involved for surgery and whether it is worth considering.

I will be taking her to see the local vet this week and will be finding out how much it will cost to remove her cataracts. Cost is important and I do owe the vet another $400, he's a terrific vet in that he didn't expect payment on the spot....so to speak and allowed me to pay him off. If it were a case of life & death I would not be pondering but I am a little concerned about having her anaesthetised at her age also.

[Sandra777]

I don't think 7 or even 9 is all that old for a Toy Poodle, they tend to live a pretty long time from what I understand! But it does depend on her general health of course

Can definitely relate to the cost thing and you do have to be honest and consider this right up front - we aren't all made of money

I have had a dog which went blind, she was about 10 when it began to really affect her. She lived until she was almost 16 and although there were a few problems along the way, she seemed perfectly happy and still came for walks (on lead obviously) and to the beach until she was about 14 and a half. Depends a lot on the dog and their temperament - some will cope without a problem some you need to work with. Sight is an important sense for dogs but not as important as it is for us, so you have to avoid thinking of it in human terms. My old girl was definitely more affected when her hearing started to fail, but of course she was already blind then plus much older and more "frail" but we definitely noticed much more of a change in her demeanour then than when she lost her sight.

In her case there was no operation that was going to help so I just had to make the best of it.

[Kirty]

I work at an eye specialist clinic so hopefully I can answer some of your questions.

First of all, blind dogs generally cope very well. However as cataracts progress, they can cause secondary problems (uveitis and glaucoma) so even if you decide against surgery, they must be monitored quite closely.

In terms of cost, you should expect to pay around $4000-$5000 depending on what state you live in, what tests need to be done, whether you get artificial lenses put in, etc. Cataract surgery is done by a specialist using mostly human equipment, hence the cost.

I have to say, with a Poodle as young as yours, I would be worried about PRA. How was her vision before you noticed the cloudiness?

As far as her age, she would be fine to have surgery. Most of our patients are 10-14yrs and they cope really well. The specialist should give you a likely success rate and that should help you make your decision.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Kirty

[Lillium]

I don't think 7 or even 9 is all that old for a Toy Poodle, they tend to live a pretty long time from what I understand! But it does depend on her general health of course

Can definitely relate to the cost thing and you do have to be honest and consider this right up front - we aren't all made of money

I have had a dog which went blind, she was about 10 when it began to really affect her. She lived until she was almost 16 and although there were a few problems along the way, she seemed perfectly happy and still came for walks (on lead obviously) and to the beach until she was about 14 and a half. Depends a lot on the dog and their temperament - some will cope without a problem some you need to work with. Sight is an important sense for dogs but not as important as it is for us, so you have to avoid thinking of it in human terms. My old girl was definitely more affected when her hearing started to fail, but of course she was already blind then plus much older and more "frail" but we definitely noticed much more of a change in her demeanour then than when she lost her sight.

In her case there was no operation that was going to help so I just had to make the best of it.

Thank you Sandra, I appreciate your advice. Yes, Chrystal seems quite happy and doesn't seem bothered at all. She knows her way around.

I work at an eye specialist clinic so hopefully I can answer some of your questions.

First of all, blind dogs generally cope very well. However as cataracts progress, they can cause secondary problems (uveitis and glaucoma) so even if you decide against surgery, they must be monitored quite closely.

In terms of cost, you should expect to pay around $4000-$5000 depending on what state you live in, what tests need to be done, whether you get artificial lenses put in, etc. Cataract surgery is done by a specialist using mostly human equipment, hence the cost.

I have to say, with a Poodle as young as yours, I would be worried about PRA. How was her vision before you noticed the cloudiness?

As far as her age, she would be fine to have surgery. Most of our patients are 10-14yrs and they cope really well. The specialist should give you a likely success rate and that should help you make your decision.

Thanks Kirty I didn't realise that there could be secondary problems, I will be keeping a close eye on her and I guess I will have to see what the vet has to say. The cost of the surgery is astounding and quite frankly I cannot afford such cost. I do have a blind siberian husky. She developed glaucoma, I took her to see a doggie eye specialist that diagnosed her with glaucoma and gave me some drops to delay the disease as she had one good eye at the time, needless to say, her good eye became afflicted and to cut a long story short....she lost her sight and she had surgery about 12 mths ago to have both eyes removed as I knew that glaucoma is a painful condition. She is happy and also knows her way around and is coping magnificently. A person I know thought I was cruel in allowing my sibe to live, he was of the opinion that I should have had her put to sleep; I never considered that for one second.

[Dogsfevr]

Has the dog seen an eye specialist ??

[Pretty Miss Emma]

My old girl was the same, she developed cataracts very quickly (she was diabetic); however, she stressed out about it (totally shutting down and she just wasn't the same old dog) and that made me not cope so great. She just about 12 years old when this happened.

So I skipped seeing my normal vet and just made an appointment straight away with the specialist to get their opinion. Em was a great candidate for surgery and it was early enough in the progression of the cataract development (if it is too far along they harden and then it's not an easy task getting them out etc etc). So because of all this and the stress levels both of us were experiencing I went ahead with the surgery.

Surgery went really well, but unfortunately Emma ended up with a lot of complications a couple of weeks later (in the form of uveitis/glaucoma). They were totally unexpected and I can't sing the praises of the eye vets and nurses ( ;) ) enough with how they dealt with Emma and persisted right til the end in treating her and doing everything they could both to make her comfortable and try to retain her vision. I absolutely adore both my eye vets and my normal vets for Em's treatment!! But because all of this Em was on the way to losing her vision totally again, but then very suddenly had renal failure so she is no longer with us .

So, would I do it again? If I had the money or the dog was insured; if I felt the dog wasn't coping with the loss of vision; if the prognosis was good; if I was dealing with the same vet staff again - then yes. I might just deal with any complications a bit differently to how I did last time. If my dog was coping with the loss of vision I would probably think very very hard about it as they do cope really well when they are blind (after the surgery Em was losing her vision again but gradually and she coped so well with it then, as did I). But like Kirty said you still need to watch out for other associated issues.

I guess probably the thing I would say is really important is just go visit an eye specialist, normal veets are great but they really don't know anything about eyes. My normal vets learnt heaps from me about eyes because of Emma's problems (as she was in and out with them for other problems and they had to monitor her eye pressure etc so were following my instructions of what to do as after several months of dealing with it I could see things immediately that they didn't know about!). It's worth paying the consult fee just to have a chat with the specialist and get some really good accurate information about your dog.

Good luck!! Feel free to PM if you want to know anything else about some of the things I've mentioned above!!

[lynst]

We had a maltese who went blind quite early in her life. We got advice from our very caring vet who suggested that we give her a chance to get on with life. We made sure that all furniture stayed in there original spots as she was knew where it all was and we kept things from being put on the floor for her to walk into. She would come when she was called as we squatted down so she could come to us and feel our hands as she walked into them and we still got kisses when she got there. Give your girl time to adjust to things as they are amazing creatures our furkids.