SARDS - my dog is suddenly blind

[earsup]

One month ago, we were at an agilty trial and now my dog is completly blind. My Mini Schnauzer Cooper was diagnosed wtih SARDS last Wednesday.

The information I can find is limited and sometimes conflicting. Apparently the veterinary community isn’t completely aligned on treatment??

Has anyone had experience with this condition and/or dealing with a dog that goes blind suddenly? He navigates really well around the house and yard–if you didn’t know him, you probably wouldn’t realized he couldn’t see. We’ve been going on walks through the neighborhood and he does really well. I’m trying to meet this head-on and treat it as a new training challenge so that he doesn’t loose his confidence.

When we travel–to shows & trials–I’ll want him to go too since it’s the life he’s used to. I wonder how to deal with getting him comfortable in hotel rooms, etc.

Interested in your advice and experiences–though I hate the thought of others going through this, I know you are out there.

[Hej]

My 8 yr old JRT went blind from a genetic condition last winter. Like your dog, he does very well in familiar surroundings, navigating steps (and on/off furniture!!) with ease. For travel and new places he has a halo that touches objects before he runs into them - he does fine with it. It’s from “Halos for Paws” - website has all measuring and ordering info. Good luck with your guy!

[StGermain]

I’ve never heard of SARDS before this. How scary! I wish you the best of luck.

StG

[earsup]

[QUOTE=Hej;8071016]
My 8 yr old JRT went blind from a genetic condition last winter. Like your dog, he does very well in familiar surroundings, navigating steps (and on/off furniture!!) with ease. For travel and new places he has a halo that touches objects before he runs into them - he does fine with it. It’s from “Halos for Paws” - website has all measuring and ordering info. Good luck with your guy![/QUOTE]

Sorry to hear about your dog.

I found the Halos for Paws site last week and was considering it. Good to hear a positive report–I think I’ll order one!!

Thanks for your feedback.

[Hej]

[QUOTE=earsup;8072307]
Sorry to hear about your dog.

I found the Halos for Paws site last week and was considering it. Good to hear a positive report–I think I’ll order one!!

Thanks for your feedback.[/QUOTE]

Thanks! My little guy is not NEARLY as bothered by his blindness as I am; when it happened it just broke my heart. He, on the other hand, said “got nose, got ears, got paws and whiskers, let’s go!” There’s a lot to be said for living in the moment!

[tallyho392]

sorry for your situation!..I just looked up the HALO product and it looks marvelous! I had a blind JRT who was blind for most of her life. She was fine in the house and yard,as long as I didn’t re=arrange furniture, and waitied to be carried up/down steps. But the hardest thing,which she NEVER adjusted to, was going places she had previously enjoyed because the noises scared her. I recall taking her to my DD hockey game, and she would jump and shiver with every crack of the hockey stick,even while being held. Going for walks was terrifying whenever a car went by. I got a sling to carry her in for walks, and that was better for her, but stll nerve wracking.
I hope your fella does better,especially since already accustomed to the noises involved in your travels with him…
good luck!
oh, and just in case some stupid person laughs ,and asks “WHY would you keep a BLIND dog!!!”…ask them what glasses -wearing family members THEY would like to dispose of, just for having impaired vision…yeah, I got that question all the time

[Hej]

Another thought: I taught my JRT that the command “wait” means he’s about to run into something. Now, when he hears “wait” he stops and feels around with his nose and paws for the obstacle/step/whatever.

[shayaalliard]

I have a blind kitten and I had a blind dog who lost her sight to glaucoma and was blind from about 9 until she died at 14. Other than needing to “show” them if furniture gets moved, neither of them seem to mind one bit. It is really cool to watch how they have adapted their behaviours to cope.

[TrueColours]

We have a product we are selling specifically for blind dogs, cats and horses that can be seen here:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/True-Colours-Products-Equivizor-Optivizor-Novaguard-product-line/553856588124461

If you check out the pictures of Captain Jack Simpson (chocolate lab) his Optivizor allows him to hike, swim, rummage around on the beach, grab big branches, etc - everything he could do once upon a time with full sight he is able to do with no sight, by wearing the Optivizor

Good luck!

[hastyreply]

My herding dog went blind from SARDS (which just means we don’t know the heck why) the summer of 2013. It happened as quickly as yours. He had no symptoms of some of the other problems that are some times linked to it - obesity, diabetes.

Gus does very well. I don’t go out of my way to make things different for him. He comes in and sometimes he bumps into stuff and sometimes he just glides around things. He comes outside with me and the other dogs and he sniffs around and does his own thing. I have a 40 acre hay field that we walk in and he runs and sniffs and does very well. I can walk him on a leash anywhere.

I would think your dog would do quite well because of the agility training. Mine will come directly, straight line, to me when I call. He is very obedient and if he’s heading somewhere I can down him from as far away as he can hear me.
If you keep him on a lead and put him in a crate when he’s not with you I think he would just fine.

The only time I see any confusion for Gus is when there are a lot of people here in the house (family visits) and lots of different people talking and he wants to try and greet them all. If your dog has a crated that is his safe place I think he should just fine.

[earsup]

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories and advice.

We tried a stout dose of steriods for a week to see if it would help, but when we went back to the eye doc Wednesday, she couldn’t find any evidence that it helped.

The good news is that Cooper starting to perk up and act more like his old self. It must have been a littly scarey and I think he was stressed and a little down. But, he seems to be adapting.

Again, thanks for sharing!

[ponygirl]

Yes, I’ve also dealt with this. My husky went blind from SARDS in a matter of two weeks. He was later diagnosed with diabetes. He did extremely well and I taught him “wait” and “up” which helped immensely in navigating things. They rely upon their other sensory organs more so than we do so they seem to adjust better.

[Houndhill]

Thank you OP and all who have contributed. I had never heard of SARDS, so am glad to learn a little about it when I Googled it. Truly heartbreaking!

I have a six week old Irish Wolfhound puppy who has little functional vision due to a congenital small optic nerve. She has never had vision, or very little, so she does not have a basis for comparison.

I appreciated the lead about the Halo, haven’t decided if it would be helpful for her.

Anyway, just wanted to thank all who have posted, express sympathy for those dogs who have lost their vision, and support for their owners. I know it is a hard thing.

[hastyreply]

I found having mats/rugs in front of door ways helpful for Gus. He will also follow runner rugs through the house. He had trouble finding the dog door from the outside of the house until I nailed a small mat in front of it. There is a yahoo group for blind dogs and they have some good suggestions about how to make life easier for their dogs. A lot of them use scents to teach the dogs where certain things on. My dog doesn’t wander around the house when he’s inside, he has dog beds in each main room I’m in that are his home base. He did have a small issue with one of our other dogs who would greet him and it would surprise Gus. So I put a jingle on the other dog and he knows when he’s getting close. I’ve heard of several dogs who followed a buddy dog who had a bell or jingle on them.

[Houndhill]

[QUOTE=hastyreply;8081886]
I found having mats/rugs in front of door ways helpful for Gus. He will also follow runner rugs through the house. He had trouble finding the dog door from the outside of the house until I nailed a small mat in front of it. There is a yahoo group for blind dogs and they have some good suggestions about how to make life easier for their dogs. A lot of them use scents to teach the dogs where certain things on. My dog doesn’t wander around the house when he’s inside, he has dog beds in each main room I’m in that are his home base. He did have a small issue with one of our other dogs who would greet him and it would surprise Gus. So I put a jingle on the other dog and he knows when he’s getting close. I’ve heard of several dogs who followed a buddy dog who had a bell or jingle on them.[/QUOTE]

That’s a great suggestion about the dog door.

I noticed Vanga, my seven week old IW puppy who is blind or visually impaired, was having trouble with the dog door. I thought it was too high for her, so just put a couple of slate slabs outside, and a platform covered with a rug inside, and that does seem to help her localize where the door is. It is a double flap soft plastic, and what she seems to have trouble with is actually making it open- she uses her paws to push it rather than her head as the others do. We are making progress though.

I’ll have to find that yahoo group, thanks for the suggestion.

[Sswor]

Oh my goodness, I read about the Optivizor, what a fantastic product! https://www.facebook.com/pages/True-Colours-Products-Equivizor-Optivizor-Novaguard-product-line/553856588124461

[Coyoteco]

I am going to throw something out that may be completely irrelevant to your situation. I have no idea what SARDS is. I have a very small cat who is blind. She was abandoned by her mother very early. Her eyes were strange and we took her to the vet. Vet said she was nearly blind. I took her to my horse’s ophthalmologist (animal ophthalmologist are all the same). He said to give her high doses of taurine and she might recover as much as 25 percent of her sight. My vet was skeptical but was interested in the outcome of using it. Six weeks later her eyesight was improved. She was still virtually blind but she could see some and still can. She is a cat and the effects of taurine deficiency in cats is well documented. I know you are talking about a dog, but I don’t know aobut taurine deficiency. BTW, the kitten just didn’t process it properly until it was given in large doses.

[TrueColours]

I am going to throw something out that may be completely irrelevant to your situation. I have no idea what SARDS is

SARDS is a sudden acute retinal degeneration. Your dog can literally be playing with you and running around just fine today and by tomorrow morning is bumping into walls and furniture and is completely and totally blind. It can happen that quickly - or it may take days or a few weeks to manifest. It can be in 1 eye or 2. The vets have tried various steroids but none appear to have any effect and there doesn’t appear to be any treatment or drug that halts or reverses it.

I belong to several SARDS and blind dog groups on FB. I’ll mention the results you had with the taurine. I also have no idea if dogs need or process taurine the same as cats do, but I guess for those with SARDS dogs, anything is worth considering and trying if it doesn’t adversely affect the animal

Thanks for passing that information along!

[TrueColours]

This is a terrific series of stories and pictures showing several dogs pre and post surgery, with different surgical procedures performed on their eyes.

It gives dog owners a very real portrayal of what they and their dogs will be facing post surgery …

https://oneeyedog.wordpress.com/post-surgery-photos/

[Coyoteco]

[QUOTE=TrueColours;8085463]
SARDS is a sudden acute retinal degeneration. Your dog can literally be playing with you and running around just fine today and by tomorrow morning is bumping into walls and furniture and is completely and totally blind. It can happen that quickly - or it may take days or a few weeks to manifest. It can be in 1 eye or 2. The vets have tried various steroids but none appear to have any effect and there doesn’t appear to be any treatment or drug that halts or reverses it.

I belong to several SARDS and blind dog groups on FB. I’ll mention the results you had with the taurine. I also have no idea if dogs need or process taurine the same as cats do, but I guess for those with SARDS dogs, anything is worth considering and trying if it doesn’t adversely affect the animal

Thanks for passing that information along! :)[/QUOTE]

Dogs definitely need taurine. With cats, they must get their taurine from food and their system cannot make it as easily as some other species. Many years ago, Purina noticed that cats were dying for no apparent reason. Ultilmately it was discovered that their diet lacked taurine and this was causing heart failure. The Purina Company sought to and succeeded in passing legislation that all cat food contain a sufficient amount of taurine. Dog food has taurine also, but not as much. With my kitten, it was more a question of her ability to properly process the taurine. Taurine deficiency causes eye problems (and I think it is related to the retina) decreased intelligence (though this kitten, now cat, is exceptionally smart) (One of her litter mates is not smart at all) It also causes heart problems, which she had a very fast heart beat. Not all symptoms occur in any one cat.

I am glad to see that you are going to investigate taurine deficiency in SARDS