Why are my dog’s eyes cloudy?

Question

Lauren Adelman · Answer

There are a number of reasons why your dog's eyes might be cloudy. So one of the more common reasons in aging dogs is something called nuclear or lenticular sclerosis. So this is a hardening of the lens. Typically these dogs have almost like a bluish haze to their eyes that you might notice, especially at night. They don't actually tend to be cloudy per se, but it's more of a haze and that can limit their vision, especially in darker conditions. Now other causes of a cloudy eye could be something like cataracts, where it's actually the lens is being taken over by the cataract and those dogs can look cloudy as well. And then also any sort of inflammation in the eye itself can also look like a cloudy eye. So if you're not sure, it's always best to go to your vet, have them do a proper eye exam so that they can tell whether this is something that needs further investigation or treatment. Sometimes the eyes can be what we say the window to the rest of the body. So things can show up in the eyes first that require further investigation and we find out there's something elsewhere. So an eye exam is very important. Your vet can look at all the different parts of the eye, the retina, the anterior chamber, the lens, and have a good idea why the eye is cloudy.

Joshua Broadwater · Answer

Why are my dog's eyes cloudy? This is something I see very commonly as a veterinary ophthalmologist and there's a number of reasons that you can see for this. Sometimes it may be concerning, sometimes it may not be concerning at all. A lot of times this will be something that owners notice at home that animals eyes are getting cloudy. It may be something your general vet may notice, but when they present to me the most common causes that I'll see for cloudiness, one can be just a normal age-related change called nuclear sclerosis or lenticular sclerosis where the lens, the little M&M shaped structure inside the eye behind the iris, it ages as we age and as it ages new fibers are added on the outside and it makes the middle, the nucleus, very dense and over time that density will become cloudy. And so those cases that is not something that needs surgery. Most dogs still see very well with that type of cloudiness. For people, the way that lenticular sclerosis would present is what's called presbyopia. So you start having trouble seeing close up because your lens, now that it's a lot more dense, can't move the way it used to be able to focus on structure. So you have trouble seeing things close up. You have to hold the menu or your iPhone a little bit further away from your face. So with dogs we don't really do anything about that because it doesn't cause a major issue. Some of the other things we'll see that causes this, cataracts, that would be the biggest concern and the biggest way you may know that is they may start having trouble seeing. They may start bumping into things and a cataract is where that lens turns truly cloudy and they can't see through it. If it is a cataract, then many times they will see someone like me, a veterinary ophthalmologist, to consider cataract surgery to remove it and then see if we can improve their vision. So that's probably the biggest reasons for cloudiness in eyes of animals.

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"Why are my dog’s eyes cloudy?"