How do I know if my dog has cataracts?

Question

Joshua Broadwater · Answer

How to know if your dog has cataracts. This is something as a veterinary ophthalmologist I see very commonly. Cataracts, basically what they are is an opacity, a cloudiness in the lens inside of your eye. The lens is this skittle shaped or M&M shaped structure that sits behind the iris, the brown or blue part inside of her eye, and it's typically crystal clear and its job is basically to serve as the fine focus of a camera. It's what focuses light on our retina in the back of our eye so that we can see so well and see so clearly. But for various reasons, with dogs it's sometimes because of age. There are certain diseases like diabetes that can cause this as well, congenital factors, so basically their genetics that can cause this as well, but for different factors dogs can develop cataracts, which is a cloudiness of the lens inside the eye. And sometimes if these are small, dogs may even not be affected. Their vision may be normal, but as these progress, dogs may experience visual issues. They may stumble over things. They may bump into objects. If any of those things develop, it may be good to see a specialist like myself where we would do certain testing and if found that that your dog does have cataracts, there would be the option for something like cataract surgery, which is done very commonly in our field to get their vision back to normal.

Swimming

Strength

Triathlon

Photography

Track & Field

Nutrition

Physical Therapy

Running

Pets

Cycling

Podcasting

HealthCare

Musculoskeletal

Hockey

First Responders

Integrative Medicine

Chiropractic

Cross Country Skiing

Adaptive Sports

Climbing

Mental Health

Surfing

Tennis

Military

Mind Body

Scholars

Criminal Justice

Liquor

CrossFit

Golf

Soccer

Pickleball

Hunting

Public Speaking

Venture Capital

"How do I know if my dog has cataracts?"