PRA and night blindness - how can we help?

[SellyMevs]

Our two year old lab has been diagnosed with PRA and is suffering with night blindness. She can see just fine during the day hut at night this rapidly decreases. With the medication given to her, the vet is optimistic that her day time vision will not deteriorate any further.

We are looking for practical advice on how we can adjust our lives to make night times easier for her.

We also have to give her tablets which she isn't keen on! Can anyone recommend any tasty treats that will make it easier for her?

Was it me that answered you last time? I think it was you...

Sorry I've never lived with a dog with night blindness, I'd suggest floodlights in your garden, but I don't know if that is a good idea or not, lol.

My dog currently takes 14 tablets a day ... that's less than he was on, lol...assuming they're longterm I'd train her to do it rather than just put them in things. I use mouth, he opens his mouth and I stick tablets at the back of his mouth then after he's swallowed he gets his reward.

To start with it was very much a case of bribing him with the treat on display and sometimes he did spit it back out, but he only gets the treat once it's swallowed so he just swallows quickly now to get it faster.

He likes primula, but if you do it that way you can use anything she likes as you're not hiding tablets...so cheese, chicken, hotdogs, liver cake, whatever is her very favourite thing basically.

Yes I think it was you! We saw the specialist today and he confirmed quite quickly it was PRA. Apparently if both dogs carry the recessive gene, 1 in 4 of the litter will develop PRA. I think this is what he said.. I may have heard wrong, my memory is shot since DS arrived.

She's got anti oxidants which will prevent any further deterioration. Her night vision is minimal but her day vision is still pretty good so we should be able to prolong that and it shouldn't worsen with the meds.

We are looking for a decent floodlight got the garden, but it's evening walks she needs help with. We live in the country so streetlamps are far and few between. We've always left lights on when we go out in the evening so will keep doing that.

I'm impressed with your commands for taking tablets! We will need to work on that one! She's never been good with tablets.. she goes to great extents to spit them out. Even hiding them in food doesn't always work so your advice is great. Her favourite is liver so will invest in some for her tomorrow!

I feel so sad for the poor girl, but as the vet said, the prognosis for her vision is good. It wasn't so long ago that they would have just accepted that they would lose their sight.

Yes they can carry the gene and not be affected, it's not useful to you now, but there is a DNA test for it.

I remembered that some people wear bells so their dogs can find them...if that might be something worth trying?

I had to do something about tablets, he's a git, lol. I couldn't find anything that he couldn't eat and still spit them out and while he'd let me shove them in, he could seem to swallow them walk away and still manage to spit them all out...even when he'd been given them one at a time I began to wonder if he was in fact a giant hamster and had pouches, lol.

So I figured I'd treat it like any other training thing as he's only 2 as well and he'll be having them for the rest of his life.