Oliver has juvenile cataracts

[gemy]

Originally Posted by dottiesyrky

Thank you. I fully appreciate your concerns over the genetic nature of cataracts. It is impressive that you take such actions and precautions with your dogs. How sad that your male developed cataracts at nearly six years old, and that it involved you in so much anguish contacting all litter owners etc.
Unfortunately my dog was a rescue with unknown origins and thus I could not warn or inform anyone of the early onset cataract. When we adopted him he was a very healthy dog until a few months later the cataract appeared on one eye. We were very dismayed and shocked. He is now four years old, and still has eye drops! It seems from some posters here that cataracts are not always detected early enough by regular vets and perhaps they should be more aware that very young dogs can get this genetic disease.
You make a very important point that it is essential that breeders are quickly informed of any possibly genetic defects in their pups, even after the health guarantee period is over.
The breeder's life is not an easy one!

For sure to inform. All responsible breeders want to and need to know this.

And yes it was hard to contact owners but so necessary. So far no pup has presented with cataracts, as of yet. My health guarantee is a five year one. Which I think is a minimum for certain conditions. Like eyes. Other conditions are warranted until 2yrs old.

With rescues for sure it is well very open in terms of what their health problems can be.

Just a word on inheritable eye diseases. For most breeds there is no genetic eye test to ascertain if your dog will pass on a genetic defect. Most breeders will test frequently with the opthamologist. But this test only says if your dog has an eye condition now. They will do their due diligence and research the history - how-ever if we don't get puppy owners doing and posting the health results on databases - we continue to make decisions on really slim data.

[dottiesyrky]

As I said, you have a tough job and even with the care you take to ensure healthy pups, the wild card can suddenly raise its ugly head.
Rescues are of course a crap shoot, but that is the risk one takes.
Certainly your health guarantee is wonderful and from what I have seen better than most! I have learned so much on YT and was such an innocent when I first adopted a dog. I knew nothing of puppy mills and greeders and all the diseases that Yorkies are prone to, and I am sure there are many pet moms and dads who are also not well informed. Go YT!!

[beachdog]

Keep in touch about the surgery. I am thinking of you.

[lexi43]

Well we got some bad news about Oliver. He is a good candidate for the cataract surgery but when he was screened for the surgery they found that there was a problem with his liver. His liver enzymes were over 1000. We took him for a sonogram yesterday and we're waiting for some more tests to come back. The funny part is, he's acting normal in every way so I don't know what to think. Now he's on three different meds for his liver plus eye drops. The vet can't understand what's going on either. He had this problem with his liver awhile back but he got over it and everything was going great. Well keep him in your thoughts and I'll keep you posted as soon as I learn more.