Just a warning for owners with older Yorkies out there!
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LouJack, a Yorkshire terrier owned by Lorraine Bertha of Brookline, already was diabetic when he had a small, benign tumor removed late last fall. Then Bertha noticed a new problem a few months later.
"I was playing with him and noticed he was not finding the toy when I threw it," she said.
"It was odd, he'd always found it without sniffing. And he would bump into parking meters."
She looked at his eyes and saw a white film, and within days it got worse, so that the eyes looked like clouds.
The 14-pounder, just 9, had cataracts.
It's one of an amazing array of eye ailments that can affect cats and dogs, ranging from glaucoma to cornea ulcerations to entropion, in which the eyelids curl inward toward the eyes, contacting the cornea and causing pain, squinting or excessive tearing.
The good news, says Dr. Carmen Colitz, a veterinary ophthalmologist at Ohio State University, is that more of the eye problems are being diagnosed earlier and owners are choosing treatment, including expensive surgery.
In August, Colitz was booked until Oct. 1. Dr. Larry Bagley, the only board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist in Western Pennsylvania was similarly scheduled and eager to find a partner to share the load at his Animal Eye Clinic of Pittsburgh in Shaler.
"I think they are more aware [of things like cataracts and entropion] now," Colitz said. "We're seeing the cases earlier, which is important."
Colitz believes a big reason is that younger vets are being taught to recognize symptoms such as the early indications of cataracts, leading to about a 95 percent success rate of repair with few complications. It's the same success rate as humans, she said.
Bagley recently took the time to talk about the most common eye problems, their symptoms and their treatment of pets.
Entropion, seen mostly in dogs, can be so severe that it causes the eye to become ulcerated, he said. Dogs may paw at their eyes because of the pain, worsening the condition. Certain breeds are more susceptible, such as Chinese Shar-Peis , Labrador and golden retrievers, chow chows and bulldogs.
Entropion must be corrected with surgery.
Cornea ulcerations, affecting both dogs and cats, can be caused by foreign objects in the eye, traumatic injuries or entropion. They are treated with topical antibiotics and pain relievers and sometimes by a drop that dilates the pupil.
Even more traumatic for dogs and cats are cornea lacerations that cut through the full or partial thickness of the cornea. Symptoms that may alert the owner include fluid and blood dripping from the eye. Many cases are surgically correctable. The surgeon resets the tissues back in normal position and closes the laceration with microscopic sutures. The vets must use human operating microscopes -- there are none yet for animals -- to see their fine work.
Cataracts, which cause a cloudiness in the eye's lens that impairs vision, are corrected in dogs and cats as they are in people. Ultrasound is used to break up the cataract, which is then removed. Implantation of an artificial lens usually restores vision.
Another disorder in dogs, glaucoma, results from increased pressure in the eyeball. This damages the optic nerve, causing loss of vision. Dogs get either primary or secondary glaucoma; cats get secondary.
Primary glaucoma can be inherited or common to a breed. Susceptible breeds include, among others, poodles, cocker spaniels, chow chows and Shar-Peis.
Secondary glaucoma has many causes: intraocular in-flammation or bleeding, lens dislocation or intraocular cancer. Symptoms include a frosty blue appearance in the normally clear cornea.
"It's frustrating, Bagley said, "because a dog often comes with one eye already blind. If it's primary glaucoma, treatments need to be started in the other eye to avoid it developing glaucoma too.
Surgery may be required; but other treatments include topical solutions.
A common problem in cats is feline herpes virus, an eye surface infection that also can cause a respiratory infection. This virus is contagious only to other cats, he said.
Symptoms include swollen tissue and ulcers; medication can send the condition into remission. Uveitis, an intraocular inflammation, can be common because it can be from an infection, especially in outdoor cats. "It could be bacterial, fungal, viral, leukemia," Bagley said. "It also can be toxoplasmosis -- the one pregnant people have to worry about."
The ailment can be severe enough to cause secondary glaucoma, cataracts and bleeding.
Another common cat problem is equally common to people: hypertensive retinopathy, in which high blood pressure causes retinal bleeding and detachment. It's treated with anti-hypertensive and anti-inflammatory medications.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04258/378473.stm