Has anyone any experience in this please, especially in Akitas?. In our litter we have 2 solid white bitches, one has very slightly smaller right eye but other has slight entroptrion (excuse spelling) of upper eyelid and seems to has microphthalmia, vet has referred her to eye specialist as she is only 5 weeks our vet cannot tell if any other problems with the eye yet. Wondering if anyone has had similar and if colour could be connected andwhat outcome could be ??

many thanks

Lorraine

Never had it in a dog, but a grey foal of ours ,out of a chesnut mare ,was born with micropthalmia once, some years back, and was obviously blind. The dam, who had foaled four times before, and was a good mum, realised that there was something dramatically wrong, and actually killed the foal. Most upsetting, but I suppose nature in the raw.

We actually blamed a cocktail of herbicide and fungicide which our neighbour had sprayed in the next door field the very day (day 42 of gestation) that the eye buds were forming in the foetus. I believe there is ongoing work on the same subject in humans.

Don't suppose this helps much with your Akitas, but thought it was of interest. Good luck with them

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

I had a Westie dog puppy once that had this problem in both eyes, he was completely blind. However he is very happy in his pet home where he has the company of a sightetd Westie. They never move the furniture/leave things out in the garden for him to bump into and at home, they say you would never know he cant see, as he knows his way around so well. He goes out for walks on a couple with his friend and is a completely happy and otherwise healthy boy. All the other puppies in the litter were fine - all my puppies are eye tested as a litter at 7 weeks. I have used the same stud dog, before and since, no other litters/puppies had eye problems.

Hi , so far it does look like pups can both see, as to how well I m not sure, could you tell with your pup that he could not see early on ? our pup with microphthalmia seems ok and watches things but other pup without problem tends to look very vacant when you put anything in front of her ( bit like myself really !) the eye specialist says to leave visit until they are 6 weeks so hopefully I ll know more then.

Thanks Lorraine

I found it was hard to tell until he was about 4 weeks when he start bumping into things when I put him in a strange room without his litter mates and he just walked into the walls. They seem get to know their "own" space very well and seldom bump into anything in a familiar place. they follow their litter mates about very well and their other senses seem to be better to compensate, You could put a large cardboard box in the middle of the floor in his own "room" and see if he goes round it or bumps into it. Fingers crossed for your eye testing.

Hi Jo, thanks, funny enough my mare had a foal last year who looked like he had walked into a wall, his face turned to the right about 2 inches below his eyes, again he had similar as the eyes did not look straight out of sockets, thinking about it that was probably microphthalmia, sadly his top jaw was undershot by a couple of inches and he had to be put to sleep because he would not have been able to eat. The foal this year was fine and I have always wondered if the mare took a kick late in pregnancy.

regards Lorraine

Hi Lorraine - that's interesting, as well. There's a bit of a parallel with your poor foal with flatcoats, as in the last 3 years some have been born with what has, for want of a better name, been called deviated nasal septum. Otherwise known as 'Squiffy nose' by people like me.

Because the whole face turns to the side, the teeth are out of alignment as well, tho' they can eat. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason for it, but a similar thing occurs in pigs, and one cause is known to be Bortadella sp, a closely related bug to that which causes kennel cough in dogs.

Glad your pups seem to be able to see - that's a blessing. My foal with microphthalmia had little rudimentary eye-buds like tiny mushrooms.

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

Just an update to say our pups eye finally opened last Tuesday, by Thursday her eye was straight, they were all seen by specialist yesterday who advised that they all have perfect vision and eyes, the entropion was probably due to a knock or scratch from other pups which caused the eyeball to retractfor a while. Huge sighs of relief !!!!

Lorraine