Somewhere about age 40 your eyes start to change and your vision starts to deteriorate. You don't see as well at night. You have trouble driving a car in the dark even with the high beams which just serve to create more eye strain than illuminate the road better. As dogs age more quickly than humans, think in terms of 6 years for every one calendar year, a 7 year old dog is the equivalent of a 42 year old person, or thereabouts. A dog's eyesight begins to change as well at that age, and one should be on the lookout for things like cataracts in dogs which is a cloudiness that develops in the clear lens....just like in people. This is a more common problem than one might think. Cataracts can be caused by old age, genetics and diabetes which is becoming more and more prevalent in dogs as well as humans. Fortunately, there are things one can do about cataracts; there is surgery which replaces the lens in the eye which has become cloudy with an artificial, clear one. This surgery should be done by someone who has done a lot of them and ideally, has been trained by the same people that train surgeons that do cataract surgery on people. Dog eyes and people eyes are very similar; and the practices and procedures to repair cataracts and remove them are likewise similar. If you notice a cloudiness in your dog's eyes, it is probably the beginning of cataracts and you should have your dog's eyes looked at by your vet. If the cataracts are progressing slowly, then you have a bit of time before they really start to affect the quality of vision - just like with people. Eye supplements have been shown to be effective in slowing down the progression of the opaqueness caused by cataracts and if you visit the site on the link above, you can read about the new study which proves the effectiveness of Ocu-Glo for dogs. As for people, there is also hope that a nutrient rich supplement developed specifically for eyes will help people slow down the growth of their cataracts and postpone surgery for as long as possible. We are all very lucky that there are smart minds working on this issue as whether it is an old dog, or an old person, eye sight is a valuable thing and not something that you or your dog wants to lose anytime soon.
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AuthorHi, I'm Dallin and these are my observations on aging. Archives
September 2015
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