Blindness/SARD in dogs?

[Tommysmom]

Hi There,

I was wondering if anybody here knows anything about sudden blindness or SARD in dogs? My 2.5 yr old JRT has been having problems this weekend - walking into things, seeming confused when trying to go somewhere, scared to jump on/off things - and the vet today thinks it is SARD, which apparently can cause permanent loss of vision pretty much overnight. We have an appointment with an ophthalmologist this week, but I was wondering if anybody had any experience with this?

If it's true, then he'll be permanently blind... how do we help him adjust?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Renee750il]

You need to talk to Karen (JRT_Rattie_Mom). Her little JRT went through the same thing. She set up a website about it. You can contact her there and she will be happy to help you out. http://blinddogs.net

Her baby adjusted so well and so easily. They have an easier time getting used to their loss of sight than we do

 

[MicksMom]

Has your dog gotten into anything excessively fatty lately or raided the garbage? I looked up SARDS when my nephew told me his Lab developed it after eating a buch of paintballs. Knowing paintballs are fairly harmless to ingest, I was confused about how they could have caused her blindness. Turns out SARDS can be triggered by a high fat diet (the coloring in paintballs is vegetable oil and food coloring). As for helping your dog to adjust- dogs adjust to handicaps a lot easier and faster then humans do. The best way to help him is notmake major changes to hissurrounds, keep the furniture in the same place, etc. If you have stairs, you might want to think about putting a gate at the top, at least for awhile. If you do move the furniture, add anything new, etc, make sure you show him the changes. Also, make sure he is never off lead in unfamiliar areas. Even tho we had been able to have him loose out in the yard with us for years, our Siberian/GSD was never off lead after he lost his sight.

 

[Tommysmom]

You need to talk to Karen (JRT_Rattie_Mom). Her little JRT went through the same thing. She set up a website about it. You can contact her there and she will be happy to help you out. http://blinddogs.net

Her baby adjusted so well and so easily. They have an easier time getting used to their loss of sight than we do

Thank you... I'll definitely check that out!

 

[Tommysmom]

Has your dog gotten into anything excessively fatty lately or raided the garbage? I looked up SARDS when my nephew told me his Lab developed it after eating a buch of paintballs. Knowing paintballs are fairly harmless to ingest, I was confused about how they could have caused her blindness. Turns out SARDS can be triggered by a high fat diet (the coloring in paintballs is vegetable oil and food coloring). As for helping your dog to adjust- dogs adjust to handicaps a lot easier and faster then humans do. The best way to help him is notmake major changes to hissurrounds, keep the furniture in the same place, etc. If you have stairs, you might want to think about putting a gate at the top, at least for awhile. If you do move the furniture, add anything new, etc, make sure you show him the changes. Also, make sure he is never off lead in unfamiliar areas. Even tho we had been able to have him loose out in the yard with us for years, our Siberian/GSD was never off lead after he lost his sight.

I don't think he's had anything unusually fatty... his normal diet consists of Orijen 6 fish combined with either Solid Gold Just a Wee Bit or Natural Balance Venison. He has, however, a massive history of major digestive problems since birth - I wonder if that's related? I'll certainly have to check with the specialist about that, although from what they've told me so far I guess there's no cure anyway. I'll definitely make sure he's not off lead - he's not normally anyway, but we'll have to be super-vigilant about it now. Did your dog adjust quickly to the loss? That's the heartbreaking part about it now... he just seems so confused.