We all love our pets and are constantly concerned about their well being, we do consider them part of the family after all.We all enjoy playing ball or taking them for walks, but have you ever thought of how our pets would behave if they didn’t have one of their senses? I spoke to a friend of mine whose dog has a disease and has noticed changes in his daily routine.
Diseases in pets come in many forms such as rabies, influenza, and cataracts. My friends dog suffers from cataracts and she has shared with me some differences in her dog’s daily routine.
Cataracts: what is it?
Cataracts is a condition where the eye lens shows signs of cloudiness and creates blurry vision. Cataracts can occur in a couple of ways; it can be inherited and experienced as early as birth or as a pet gets older; or just like humans, pets older age leads to more disease such as being more vulnerable to cataracts; Excessive exposure to UV light could cause trauma to the eyes which can lead to cataracts in an animal’s later life. There are two types of cataracts,incipient and mature. Pets with incipient cataracts is when the cataracts covers less than 15% of the lens. Mature cataracts, as is the case with my friends dog Rex, covers the entire lens. Both these cases may need to undergo surgery and although the cataracs itself doesn’t hurt the dog other factors such as inflammation around the eye can cause the pet some pain.
How does Rex deal with his Cataracts
Rex, a 13 years of pug/beagle,has been showing signs of mature cataracts for the last several years. Since Cataracts limits Rex’s sense of sight he had to learn to adapt to his living conditions and to get around in his home by staying on the ground floor and not going upstairs. Rex’s has lost most of his ability to fetch a ball, go on long walks, and detect where his food or treats might be solely by sight. He had to learn to rely more on his sense of smell to know where the food is and with the help of his family to put his food in the same spot.Rex’s cataracts has led to less walks because of being vulnerable to the enviroment which makes him prone to danger. Rex, just like other animals might do, has been able to learn and quickly change his way of life to help him get around.
What has not affected Rex
Rex can still perform simple dog activities such as going outside to use the bathroom although relying only on smell. Rex is still like any other dog and likes to bark at the mailman, and loves to get all sorts of affection. This disease may have taken control of Rex’s eyes but not his spirit and his affection for his family.
Cataracts as we know impacts the sight of pets who have the disease,but after learning of Rex’s situation I now understand that a dog spirit and love stays with them. He had to adopt changes to his routine in order to live a happy lifestyle give his condition.He seems to be more dependent on others for certain things but in the end it’s his family and they are happy to do it.
