Ideas on sight loss

[HAH]

Hi all - my mum’s older dog seems to have lost a lot of vision over the last few weeks. He has severe cataracts which is a likely cause but I’m encouraging a vet visit to explore reasons behind this and possible mitigations.
However, I wanted to farm your knowledge on management - does anyone with experience of older dogs with sight loss have advice or tips for managing this well?

 

[Selina27]

All I can offer Harriet is what I remember when our family spaniel lost his sight way back, a long long time ago, I recall my parents being careful not to move furniture etc and for us to be mindful not to leave objects lying about because he wouldn't see them. They said as long as he was familiar with everything he would be comfortable and happy, that he would get about the house by memory and smell.
He was very old by then and not so active, so I guess it does depend a bit on what he still can do or wants to do.

 

[MellowYellow]

When I was growing up, our old Jack Russel lost a lot of his eyesight. He used to follow our yellow lab all over the place - it seems he could see him and that gave him confidence.

My old Billy lost a lot of vision and most of his hearing in the last six months of his life. He seemed perfectly happy though, especially in the house and the garden, and when we went on slow little walks I used a retractable lead so he always felt in contact with me and did not need to feel nervous about getting lost.

Good luck to your mum with this, it's tough on her but I think she'll probably be pleased about how well her old boy will deal with things.

 

[Jacqui-S]

Poor chap. We often see a blind dog in the woods. He has a companion dog who wears a slightly jingly collar tag (same I think as used for wildlife chasers) and the blind dog is confident enough for you not to know there is an issue.

 

[kateincornwall]

Nelly has a degree of macular degeneration which adds to the possible problems with her deafness but she copes wonderfully well and has learned to use her nose much more than she used to do . I do think they cope far better than we would , hoping your Mums dog will manage well xx

 

[M.F.]

Sorry about your mom’s dog. She must be quite upset. My friend’s schnauzer went blind very quickly from untreated diabetes. She feels terrible she didn’t see the warning signs, but she was moving house and had other stress and only realised it too late. The opthalmologist vet removed one eye as she said the increased pressure (I think it was glaucoma) was painful. Her dog seems fine although he has lost confidence and can only walk on a leash. He used to race around chasing squirrels. At home he is fine, gets around fine. But she has put a baby gate on her steps cos he has difficulty coming down the very steep staircase.

I have seen advice to attach a halo to the collar to prevent knocking into things; the halo knocks into the thing first.

 

[Emily_Babbelhund]

Oh, that is challenging, but as others have mentioned, it seems much harder for us humans than for them. My Brogan went deaf first and did great with learning hand cues vs verbal. Then he gradually lost sight as well.

He coped very well - I thought he was super clever because he used to smell stairs to know where to put his feet. In fact that’s how I realized he couldn’t see much anymore. It was also helpful that I’d replaced his Turn Right/Turn Left cues with touches on his right or left cheek.

Touch in general seemed to really help with everything, and he became even more a leaner than before . It was his way of still keeping an eye on me. . Since we still travelled up to the end, it also became more important to orient him to a new space by using his travel blanket as a fixed orientation point so he could more easily work out a new place.

Most of all, he wasn’t sad about it at all and was still loving his life. I’m guessing your mom’s dog will cope just as well .

 

[edzbird]

Most of all, he wasn’t sad about it at all and was still loving his life.

I love this.