POSTING FOR A FRIEND

Just literally that really..

Her Partner has taken Pooches for a walk earlier.. They are both rescue and a mixed terrier..

Patch has suddenly disappeared and then found some 15 minutes later.. Shivering under a bridge in a stream..

Since he got him home he has been bumping into things and fell down the stairs..

Yesterday it was noticed that when given a treat he couldnt really see it and it had to be put really close to him...

Just at the Vets.. The vets say he is completely blind.. and not seen anything like it for over 5 years.. not reacting to anything apart light being shone in his eyes..

Friend is on her way to vets now but any tips/advice in the meantime would be very helpful

She will be on later to read replies so Thank you very much in advance

Dreadful.shock.for all.concermed .I would ask for an opinion from an opthalmologist if other things have been ruled out .also have alook at SARS in dogs which can be very sudden . If this permanent most dogs are able to.cope.extremely well.guve the strength of their other senses.i know of one who recently lost her sight through Sars  almost over night and is living a very full.and normal life.there are. Also FB groups that will be able.to offer support

If any of mine went blind I would buy them a halo, it seems to me they would help a lot to avoid bumping into things.

Our golden oldie is blind it didn't happen over night, but over some months.
He's not shown any problem around the house or in areas he's known but we also don't move or change anything around Low light levels such as in the garden at night can cause confusion such as just standing still till I gently touch his back, or as the other evening he got to the door before me & walked into it (it's black). It has caused him to change from an independent boy, to super glue hound, but he also lost his life time companion some while ago & hadn't appreciated his dependency or depth of the bond & due to other concerns, know I've over compensated.
He's also deaf, this I would suggest has caused far more of a problem, ignorantly I'd always imagined it was 'like' turning the volume down but no he can still hear vibrations & basey sounds, but finds this disturbing as not able to gauge where it's coming from. His sense of smell has come to the fore & still is able to seek out cubed chicken spread over an area the size of a tennis court. Good Luck.

Glaucoma would do this.   Or as happened to two of mine, getting a face full of crop spray.   As glaucoma is far more likely in the case of this dog, it can indeed happen if there was a buildup of pressure which nobody noticed going on.   It's a problem in my main breed and I know of at least one dog who had sadly lost the sight in one eye with this, and then, before they could get to the Specialist, the other one blew and was lost.

An online friend's dog lost both her eyes to glaucoma over about a year I think, and in both eyes it was sudden blindness so when the second one went, she was blind overnight.  She's adapted amazingly well and from everything the friend posts, you'd never know she was blind from how she behaves.

WOW!  I clicked on the link.  £70 delivery??????????????????????

They are being shipped to the UK .it looks like you either pay £70 delivery or £125 all inclusive .

My sister had a dog who went blind and had 1 eye removed. As long as things in the house werent moved about a lot he managed well.

Dogs have been known to go blind rapidly after exposure to pesticides/chemicals farmers spray their fields with, but cases I've heard of the chemicals were in the air blown by the wind and presumably got in the eyes. Now it's not the season for spraying, unless someone specifically sprayed the dog - you said it disappeared out of the owner's sight for some time.

Facebook Reply:

Marilyn Anne Evill says: Sounds like SARDS which does come on overnight.

> Sounds like SARDS

Not knowing this I searched.   I have to ask whether there is any heredity involvement in this condition?

http://www.pethealthnetwork.com/dog-health/dog-diseases-conditions-a-z/sudden-acquired-retinal-degeneration-syndrome-sards-dogs. Doesn't appear to be although states some breeds are more at risk .

My boy went blind due to retinal atrophy age 5. It's an awful situation but they cope brilliantly. He could still play fetch! You adapt and the silver lining is that you'll often find that your relationship is even closer as a result.

Many years ago I had a bitch who went blind. I had noticed her eyes were cloudy but there was no change in her behaviour so I assumed she could see until, after several days of snow and then a thaw, she was feeling over the step with her paw when I was letting her out in the garden one night as though she couldn't find her way down. This puzzled me as I knew she had jumped over the baby gate earlier that day. The gate divided two rooms so she had an escape route from my young children. I watched her carefully and realised she was walking up to the gate, touching it with her nose, taking a couple of steps backwards and then jumping. As long as furniture was kept in the same place she did fine in the house. She tripped over kerbs when out for a walk at first but quickly learnt to sense when the pushchair was going up and down them to the point that a friend thought she had got her sight back.

This is so sad...