Anybody ever have Cataract surgery for your dogs?

[ScreamingPotato]

In dogs the lens is removed and there may or not be an iol implanted? Apparently without an iol mid and far vision is good?

Apparently WITH the atificial lens it clears up their near vision (like for humans, reading) but without the lens they can see fine further but blurr out up close. I didn't get clarification if the distance vision is blurred with the lens or not. I'll have to ask that next visit in 3 weeks.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

In dogs the lens is removed and there may or not be an iol implanted? Apparently without an iol mid and far vision is good?

Apparently WITH the atificial lens it clears up their near vision (like for humans, reading) but without the lens they can see fine further but blurr out up close. I didn't get clarification if the distance vision is blurred with the lens or not. I'll have to ask that next visit in 3 weeks.

OK vet tech called for something else and I got clarification. She said in Labs the lens functions more as an additional focal lens and assists at all ranges, so without it most of the ranges would be blurry or fuzzy except for very close. She said with the Boston's and dogs like that it's a little different by didn't elaborate as to why. She said my dog without the lens would have trouble seeing further distances very clearly and wouldn't be able to see anything really clearly unless it was very close range. She also noted that they haven't really observed a difference in recovery with or without the lenses, and that they only wouldn't do the lens in my dog if the doc got in there and something wouldn't accommodate it.

 

[yfarm]

Son is a human ophthalmologist, told me you can’t refract a subject that can’t give you feedback on what improves their vision so no way to predict the correct refraction of a lens in a dog. So I guess they just guess on the iol or use one standard lens for all. Wonder if that works much better than no lens.
Given your dogs diabetes, is retinopathy a more likely cause of sudden visual deterioration than a cataract?

 

[yfarm]

Refractive lens replacements in people without cataracts has been a growth business opportunity for cataract surgeons, always beware when faced with this situation.
As an aside, all of my dogs over the course of my 71 yrs on earth have had cataracts, none were operated on and all seemingly did fine with their cataracts including labs that were still hunting at 15.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Son is a human ophthalmologist, told me you can’t refract a subject that can’t give you feedback on what improves their vision so no way to predict the correct refraction of a lens in a dog. So I guess they just guess on the iol or use one standard lens for all. Wonder if that works much better than no lens.
Given your dogs diabetes, is retinopathy a more likely cause of sudden visual deterioration than a cataract?

Refractive lens replacements in people without cataracts has been a growth business opportunity for cataract surgeons, always beware when faced with this situation.
As an aside, all of my dogs over the course of my 71 yrs on earth have had cataracts, none were operated on and all seemingly did fine with their cataracts including labs that were still hunting at 15.

Interesting on the lens, and makes sense. I guess they just guess at a standard lens. As for the retinopathy I couldn't tell you. I do know that part of the pre-check we have scheduled in three weeks, the breakdown is $1,370 and part of that is the ocular ultrasound which I want to say they explained to me as a test to verify the retina is working properly and sending signals to the brain so they may be checking for that prior to scheduling the actual surgery. I can tell you that her eyes look like the White Walkers from Game of Thrones, snowed over pretty heavily, so I'm ASSuming it's the cataracts and neither the vet nor ophthalmologist have hinted at any other diagnosis. All my previous dogs have had some haze in their eyes as they aged but none ever lost vision, but then I've never injected any of them with insulin before either. This dog had plenty of haze for last couple years, went from retrieving ducks in January to completely blind and running into walls a few weeks later after starting insulin. I understand something like 80% of dogs with diabetes end up blinded with cataracts but I just can't shake the feeling that the insulin caused it because it happened almost immediately after starting it and happened so fast.

 

[yfarm]

With an opaque lens no way to visually assess the retina so ocular U/S seems completely appropriate prior to surgery.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

With an opaque lens no way to visually assess the retina so ocular U/S seems completely appropriate prior to surgery.

Yeah seems like a good move and worth paying for it. If that reveals the issue is different then no sense in forking over $6,200 for cataract surgery so definitely would want to catch it in advance. I'd be ticked if I put her through all that only to find out she still can't see because the problem was something else.