Weird squiggly thing that's part of my bcs eye?

[Katilea]

I hadn't even considered a parasite.

 

We've had him for just over a month from the shelter now, and he's been mostly blind the whole time. He's never evinced any discomfort in his eyes before though, and as of right now it's just the one eye that is clearly troubled. We've never seen the squiggle before, but the vet inspected his eyes when I told her we didn't think he could see and thought he had Collie Eye Anomaly.

 

We have an appointment with the vet in less than an hour so hopefully we'll know something soon.

Did your vet say why they thought your dog had CEA and what the symptoms were? JJ has always had his eyes colour kind of going into each, always had big pupils and the lines across his eyes, but I was told his parents were both clear of CEA. Though it seems they only actually test the parents for it and every pup in the litter.

[Katilea]

We've since seen a better vet who explained that those are folds , and that his eye never developed properly. She said he was completely blind in the one eye, with some light sensitivity in the other. Buddy has also had a fractious stomach, and though it's settled down some now he still occasionally will out of the blue have problems. Thus far he's done best with the Canidae grain free lines and the all life stages, and his upsets are so rare now we're probably going to stick with it.

Buddy sometimes seems to see better than other times as well, and he can always chase balls, but he listens for the bounces or the sound of my arm moving, if we make sure to do things in higher light and on the right side, he will see us throw, or at least appear to. He reacts to bright lights being shone into his eyes too, and I don't like when that happens to me so i assume he doesn't like it for similar reasons.

 

Buddy stays completely dilated in the eye all the time to let in as much light as possible. When I've met other blind dogs this seems to be a common feature, even if the sight is completely gone. I don't think it has anything to do with being excitable or intense. Buddy can be sweet and sleepy and not un-dilate a bit. Honestly, we went to two different vets before we found one who was actually looking at our dog and diagnosing him, not just repeating platitudes or generic diagnoses. I'd suggest looking some more so if your dog has a condition that can be helped, he can actually get it.

 

yes I eventually found a grain free food that he seemed to be ok on. Stuck with fish based one, he has mostly fish as red meat seemed to make him hyper when he was really young and gives him squits if he was eating it daily.

 

He can now also tolerate fresh cooked chicken, turkey and pork as an occasional treat in the week (usually a bit from the sunday roast with veg as a topper on his dinner) but his diet is mostly fish based with grain free treats and dried treats. Recently i found a place sold whole raw fish like sprats and sardines, sea bass etc which I freeze a bit for him and give him whole as a giant chew. Just keeps him busy for a bit longer if its frozen! ..and lasts longer than the dried ones too!

 

The night blindness I didn't notice until he was a bit older as he initially slept in a crate and was usually in there when I turned lights on or off at night. It wasn't until he was fully toilet trained and I left crate open at night so he could sleep where ever he wanted that I noticed he'd stay out of way when I was watching telly in bed (with no lamp on so TV light was really bright and right at end of bed in front of him) he'd come and join us when I turned telly off but would stick his head between opening in curtains so he could see the light from security light on patio just outside the bedroom window (I'm in a bungalow), or he'd go near the ensuite toilet if I'd left a door open as there was no blind so the moonlight would come through more when it was a bright/full moon.

It wasn't until he literally ran into the back of a parked white van on the pavement, which he didn't see cos the sun was so bright (I had dark sunglasses on cos of glare on the road too) that I asked the vet to check his sight too when I took my old girl for her annual check up.

 

It does make me wonder now whether there was a connection between the parasite, if he had got to sheep poo when he was still on a puppy before he came to me, that would explain his sight not developing properly and his initial tummy problems/no weight gain/delayed growing etc too?