Cataract surgery for dog - anyone been through this?

[44bookworm]

Our dog has quite severe cataracts and is a candidate for surgery. She is 8 years old. Without surgery she is very likely to end up blind as it’s deteriorating. Just now she’s almost blind in one eye and very poor sight in the other according to examination. However she acts like she’s seeing better than she is - probably because she’s used to it. She is a very happy dog. We need to decide whether to go for surgery.

Downside is the risks - we were told that 1 dog in 10 has horrible complications which can mean having to have eye(s) removed. This increases to 2 in 10 a year or so after surgery.

Cost is another factor - insurance will only cover part of it so we will have to pay a chunk ourselves. If the risks were lower we’d pay without hesitation.

I don’t know if it’s worth putting her through the operation only to risk losing her sight anyway. Do dogs suffer hugely from loss of sight? She is so happy now despite her cataracts. We adore her so want to do the right thing. Anyone got any experience of this?

My dog went blind at 6 through a genetic disorder and he adapted very well. Dogs don't do as well as humans with cataract surgery, even though their eyes are a similar structure. I wouldn't be doing it.

Did you have to change how you cared for the dog when they went blind? I’m assuming all walks will need to be on the lead but wondering about moving around in the home too. Can they manage day to day ok?

My one-eyed dog has very little vision in her remaining eye. If it wasn’t impossible I’d swear her eyesight is returning because she has adapted well. I don’t let her walk near kerbs because she can’t see and so can stumble into the road and I have to make sure other dogs don’t unexpectedly approach her but other than that she’s a happy little dog.

Thank you for sharing - I’m so torn as just want to do the best thing for her.

I had a dog that had cataract surgery, this was over 20 years ago. He responded brilliantly, op was a huge success. It gave him a new lease of life.
I remember lots of eye drops and after care but still worth it.
I’m sure he’d have adapted if we didn’t have it done and if he was older, we may not have gone ahead.

I’m a vet and I’ve known/treated a fair few blind dogs. The vast majority have coped very well at home as long as the layout of the furniture isn’t changed. One very dedicated owner had a contraption called a halo for her dog that was a hoop attached to her collar going over her head that would bump into things before the dog did (kind of similar to how cats use their whiskers!) and she put a different scent in each room as a cue for the dog to know where she was.

Outside in public obviously you need to be a bit more careful, keep them on the lead and consider getting one of those yellow warning sign leads so other owners don’t let their dogs run up to yours. The temperament of the dog is quite important - dogs who are fear reactive will struggle more with feeling vulnerable in those kinds of situations.

Most of the dogs who lose their sight are older, and I think sometimes this works in their favour as they aren’t necessarily as active / agile, they’re quite happy to pootle about with the owner. With a younger very active dog, I’d be more likely to lean towards surgery because being blind would be more impactful on them doing what they love to do.

I think as well as considering how your dog might cope, it’s worth thinking about the effects on you as owners and what would be feasible for you to deal with - surgery is expensive, it’s quite labour intensive in the short term as there will be eye drops, specialist appointments etc - but on the other hand not going for surgery means you will be dealing with a blind dog and her increased care needs for potentially many years.

Its also worth being aware that some dogs with cataracts will require the removal of the eye (even if they don’t have surgery), so avoiding the cataract op doesn’t necessarily mean she wouldn’t need surgery eventually.

I had a dog who had to have both his eyes removed and he was happy as Larry. Lived to 17. Fell in the odd stream here and there. They adapt so well.

"Its also worth being aware that some dogs with cataracts will require the removal of the eye (even if they don’t have surgery), so avoiding the cataract op doesn’t necessarily mean she wouldn’t need surgery eventually."

This- lenses with cataracts can eventually leak lens protein into the rest of the eye - the eye hates this and gets inflamed within (lens associated uveitis) and all the inflammatory crap produced can clog up the drainage angle of the eye (like a gunked up plughole) causing the pressure to rise (glaucoma). Sometimes the pressure can be controlled, for a time, with drops but if it gets out of control the eye is painful and needs to be got rid of.

Or (less commonly) the lens with the cataract can break loose from its moorings and fall face down in the front chamber of the eye, again obstructing the drainage with the same resulting increased pressure.

With cataract surgery, "hurry up and decide" if you can. As with people, the longer you leave a cataract, the more mature and chunky and sticky it gets and the more difficult and higher risk the surgery becomes. So "just leave it alone unless and until it's causing a problem, then do the cataract surgery" is not a great option in a lot of cases.

Our dog had cataract surgery when he was 10 in 2022. Cataracts had formed shortly after he’d been diagnosed with diabetes, he lost his sight completely and he shut down, he couldn’t cope with being blind.

He lost his sight in the January, there was a delay in his referral as the first specialist vet he was referred to didn’t respond and we were then referred to Eye Veterinary Clinic near Leominster who were absolutely amazing. He had the surgery in the April, was discharged the same day but we had to book into an Airbnb nearby in case of any problems overnight (as we lived nearly 2 hours away) and for him to have an early check up the following morning.

The change in him was remarkable. We walked into the Airbnb, somewhere he’d never been before, and he didn’t walk into any furniture.
Initially he needed to have three types of drops four times daily and we had to go back to the clinic weekly for the next two weeks, then two weeks later followed by a month later. His drops were soon changed to two drops twice daily and clinic visits were every 6 months. Drops were inexpensive (around £10 a month total) as the clinic gave us a prescription (free of charge unlike our usual vet) and we could get the drops from our local chemist. Good really as we’d maxed out his insurance and also paid some out of our savings for him to have the surgery. It was around £5500.

We sadly lost him in the Summer of 2024 but he had two more really good years. I really do think that we’d have lost him well before that had he not had the surgery as he seemed to have given up on life. I will always be grateful to EVC for giving him his happy life back.