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Cholesterol on eyes???


sea4th
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I'm taking a dog back who I sold almost 5 yrs. ago. He is now a little over 5 yrs. old. The owner can no longer keep him. In talking to the owner about the dog's history, I was told that last year, two spots were found on this dog's eyes (a spot on each eye). The vet referred him to a specialty clinic where it was found that the spots were cholesterol deposits and a change of diet was in order. The change of diet was to Fit & Trim dog food, which after a year of eating this stuff, the spots are disappearing?

 

None of the other dogs in the litter had this. Anyone hear of this problem and are there any other solutions other than the Fit & Trim dog food?

 

TIA.

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Years ago when I was feeding Sam's Professional to my dogs I had the same thing in several of them. The opthal. vet who pointed it out was the head guy at Auburn - he said they were getting farm more fat than they needed. Reduced the fat in the diet and no more problems. None of raw either.

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I had a husky/shepherd mix (20 years ago now) who developed these spots at about 4 years old. The vet told me what they were, but didn't mention anything about reducing them with a low-cholesterol diet! Aiiee!

 

The dog lived with the spots the rest of her 13 years, and seemed to see perfectly well. She went deaf in her last year, but never went blind.

 

Mary

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Is this an inhertied condition --IOW, should I be looking at related dogs as well, or is it just the individual dog.

 

I'm really interested in finding out more about it, because if there is something better than Fit & Trim, I'll fedd him that instead.

 

Also, is it merely the percentage of fat in the kibble or does the protein source have anything to do with it?

 

Thanks.

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Here's what my friend said about the dog that had this --

 

"I can't remember the medical name but it is an inability to metabolize animal fat, so she does ok if kept on fish only types of chow. Otherwise the fat causes clouding of the corneas. The same condition can arise from a bunch of different causes but in this case it was the metabolic thing."

 

Scratch what i said about duck and sweet potato food, must have been something else.

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In humans, if it is a whitish-grey ring on the cornea itself, it is called "arcus senilis," which is caused by cholesterol deposits, and is common, and may just be a harmless sign of aging, or also a sign of dysfunctional lipid (fat and cholesterol) metabolism. I'm not sure if there is a genetic component or not. If it IS arcus senilis, it really shouldn't cause any problems with vision. Not sure if this is what you're describing, though, since you mentioned "spots" specifically and not a ring-shaped problem? That's all I can think of off the top of my head that has to do with eyes and cholesterol, other than Hollenhorst plaques, but those are inside the eye (in the retinal blood vessels--one would need to examine with an ophthalmoscope), and not visible just by looking at the dog. I also don't know if any of these possibilities even occur in dogs--I'll try Googling.

 

**Okay, Googled and found this: is this it? Corneal dystrophy in the dog eye Hope that helps.

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Thank you. I hope to be picking the dog up within the next couple of weeks and I'll get all of the paperwork and information at that time. I'll keep you posted.

 

I'm wondering if it's the inability to metabolize fat, why did it happen at 4 yrs. of age and not, say, 18 months. If this is an inability to metabolize fat which developed later in life, there must have been a catalyst of some sort.

 

Thank you for your responses. Once I get more detailed information, I'll let you all know, but just the input I've gotten here has already been invaluable and at least I can approach the topic with my own vet intelligently.

 

Thanks!

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I'm wondering if it's the inability to metabolize fat, why did it happen at 4 yrs. of age and not, say, 18 months. If this is an inability to metabolize fat which developed later in life, there must have been a catalyst of some sort.

 

Thanks!

 

I'm not a vet - but I'm thinking maybe it just takes a while before the cholesterol deposits get big enough to be noticeable by us?

 

My old dog's spots didn't seem to get much bigger as she grew older, though. They kind of stabilized and didn't bother her or us much after we got used to them.

 

Mary

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I also posted the issue to the K-9 Nutrition list. Not much response there, but what few responses there were, were informative. When I pick up the dog, I'll have my own vet examine him. The issue of thyroid was brought up. I don't know if he was ever tested for thyroid, but I'll have that done as well.

 

In the meantime -- I'd like to find something better than Fit & Trim. Is it just the low fat content, or the type of fat that is used. I'm thinking if it's just the percentage of fat, then there are other kibbles which would meet the requirements.

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We have an opthamologist come to the vet clinic I work at every few months. We had a client with a collie x dog that had this same thing. The opthamologist recommended we check her thyroid levels and tryglyceride levels to see if either was out of whack (her T4 was marginally low) and also put her on a low fat diet.

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