Question:
Twelve weeks ago I adopted a 7-8 year old miniature male poodle
from the local shelter. One eye has a severe cataract and the
vet thinks that Charly can see only shadow with it. His other
eye has the beginnings of a cataract. The vet manual (Carlson
and Giffin) and the vet say that the dog will become accustomed
to blindness (which seems inevitable). But the Merck Veterinary
Manual suggests that "surgical removal ... will return good
ambulatory vision." (223)
The cataracts are not due to diabetes and the vet thinks not
congenital because they are not bilateral. I wonder why he
didn't recommend surgery.
The secondary problem is that Charly is very aggresive and has
bitten me and other people. He will fight with any dog however
innocuous - but he loves cats. I think part of his fear-biting
behavior is related to his impaired vision. While obedience
training is helping with the biting problem I feel I must pursue
a surgical solution if viable and affordable.
Answer:
My sister's miniature poodle had cataract surgery about a year
ago. It didn't seem to work, and she had a lot of pain. At one
point, her eye started to shrink. The vet (a specialist) decided
that the dog had retinal damage, perhaps stemming from her past
(she had been a cruelty case) and that her blindness in that eye
was not curable. (BTW, Muffin is 13 years old.) Just in the
past month or so we have noticed that Muffin is seeing much better.
She is profoundly deaf, and a couple of weeks ago she recognized
me across the yard (I live in another state, but am one of Muffin's
special people...she sees me maybe once every six weeks, and it's
always obvious when she recognizes me). This is a distinct
improvement. Muffin's other eye is also cloudy, and my sister was
not going to put her through the surgery again because the previous
operation did not appear to work. Now she's not so sure. The vet
seems to be at a loss to explain why it took so long for her vision
to improve, but we aren't looking gift horses in the mouth!
I had a Siberian Husky (pound dog, probably a puppy mill dog from
a pet shop....he had a lot of other genetic problems) who had
retinal cataracts. Not soobvious, but every bit as blinding. When
the poster said "cataracts" I assumed it was the clouding of the lens,
like Muffin's, they were talking about.
