Our poodle has a cataract but no vet to perform surgery

Our toy Poodle Sandy is eight years old and she recovered from a brutal pitbull and doberman tandem attack over a year ago. She's energetic and feisty so I guess the bigger dogs sensed that that's why they just suddenly attacked her. She may be a dauntless little diva but the cataract on her right eye is becoming a problem. She'd have to get up close to a family member to realize that he or she is not a stranger then she'd stop barking.

We're afraid for her really, that her other eye will get a cataract also and she'd become totally blind. There are currently no vets in our country that can perform eye surgery on pets. And even if there are, I doubt that we can afford it. The best thing we can do is to bring her to the vet for monthly check ups.

*You can easily spot the cloudy dot of cataract on her eye

It's sad to hear the story of Sandy being attacked by another dog. Gee, she's only 8 years old and that cataract already needs surgery. I think it will be a good gamble if you have the cataract removed while the other eye is still functioning well. But you have to be sure to find a specialist for that operation because it is the sight that is involved. Even in humans, there are failed cataract surgeries so you have to be very careful in choosing the vet.

The kneejerk reaction when people think of cataracts is to take the animal to the vet for cataract removal but the procedure is costly and likely to have a host of detrimental side effects. It is also costly. A simple alternative is to use eye drops which counter glycosylation (oxidation of glucose proteins) which cause cell damage in many tissues including eye lens. Acetylcarnosine eye drops confer notable vision improvement within 3 to 4 monotis at the application rate of 2 to 4 drops daily. Optimal results are obtainable within 6 months. A vet might recommend a maintenance dose of 1 drop daily.

(05-11-2016, 11:54 AM)Corzhens Wrote: It's sad to hear the story of Sandy being attacked by another dog. Gee, she's only 8 years old and that cataract already needs surgery. I think it will be a good gamble if you have the cataract removed while the other eye is still functioning well. But you have to be sure to find a specialist for that operation because it is the sight that is involved. Even in humans, there are failed cataract surgeries so you have to be very careful in choosing the vet.

That's just it. We've already asked five different vets in the city and they cannot recommend any vet who can perform surgery. Still, she's already an old dog and we're not sure if she can handle it. We are just relieved that she's not in any pain whatsoever and her right leg has healed as well and she's almost not limping anymore. She's a really small dog, like a puppy almost so we were really amazed she still survived the attack from two very large dogs.