I just found out that my 6 month old GSP pup has juvenile cataracts. I never heard of such a thing. Going to see a surgeon tomorrow. I'm looking at spending $2500-3000 for surgery.

A few questions:

1) Has anyone had experience in this and can you offer any advise?

2) The dog came from a very high end breeder that most of you would reconize the name of. Not wanting to hurt anyone's reputation but what's the likely hood of something like this happening? 1 in a million? Or should the breeder have been aware of this as the depth of the pedigree goes pretty deep... eye certifications, numerous litters over the years etc. This can't be the first time that this has happend to the breeder (as I was told)..

Any insight to a confused, concerned and heartborken puppy owner would be appreciated.

I don't have any personal experience with juvenile cataracts in dogs, but i went to the CERF website (http://www.vmdb.org/aug01.html#dxspot).  This article is from their Aug 2001 newsletter.

This is what it said:

Genetic cataracts are also called "juvenile cataracts" in dogs. This terminology refers to the age of presentation with this abnormality which is usually in young dogs. As was discussed in the last article (CERF Newsletter -February 2001), these cataracts may progress to blindness or remain small and not interfere with vision. The type of cataract affecting different breeds may be found in the following table. Included is breeding advise.

And specifically for GSPs:

Breed: German Shorthaired Pointer

Characteristics: Posterior subcapsular

Severity: seldom impairs vision

Age at onset: .5 to 1.5

Inheritance pattern: na

Advice to breeder: Affected dogs should not be bred, examine close relatives

Also, a good website (these docs are in the area where I live and are considered good vet eye doctors)  with an overview is http://www.animaleyesite.com/cataract_surgery.html. Notice if you look under Home>About Us one of the doctors has a GSP.z

Good luck and keep us posted.

Don't be so fast to put her down.  Dogs do not have nearly the problems with blindness that we humans do.  Remember their sense of smell and hearing are infinitely better than ours and can do allot to compensate for the loss of sight.  I have had two dogs that have gone blind due to retinal atrophy (neither were GSPs).  The point is they both lived to a ripe old age and most people did not know they were blind.  The only thing you have to watch our for with a blind dog are things like stairs, sharp drop offs, pools, etc.  I also left furniture in the same place and picked up things that they might trip over.  Other than that, my dogs walked around the house and their yard fine.  They would even go after balls as long as the ball had a sound associated with it.

When we went for walks, they were on leash and they would keep the leash just tight enough so I could direct them if they were about to bump something. 

Anyway, give it a thought before you make a final decision.  You might also consider giving your baby to rescue if you decide you can't handle a blind dog.

Hopefully, you won't have to make this decision.

Good Luck and keep us posted.

Whoa definitely don't put her down! In rescue I have had experiences with many blind dogs. rescue doesn't have 3000 for surgery so often dogs just learn to compensate and they do AWESOME. A new house/set up takes a couple days but if you walked into my pack with a blind dog there you'd be hard pressed to know which was blind b/c they compensate SO well, even better with another canine around. I agree with the above post, sometimes stairs, unexpected drop offs etc can be difficult but as for a general routine of life in a home it's no problem.  I'd take a healthy blind dog into rescue over any behavioral issue!

Ok you convinced me.. That and my wife wouldn't stop crying.. Surgery is on Tuesday 5/13. Hope all goes well...

Question: is there a specific eye test a breeder can do on 6 week old puppies to identify any that are at risk? I'm not ever going through this again.. It would be worth it to me to pay for the test on a pup versus the $4000 I'm going to have to spend now.....

I had a dog I bred (not a gsp) get a cataracts in one eye due to a puppy eye infection he had before his eyes opened - no he did not pass CERF and I just kept him

Even reputable breeders can not gaurentee that nothing will never show up - you just can't all you can do as a breeder is breed the healthiest dogs and stand by your puppies.

I had a blind dog in my training class once - awesome dog! I even had a deaf dog trained all on hand signals no reason to put her down.

Well surgery took place yesterday and she's back home... 6 different medications to give her  constantly and she goes back in 2 weeks for a followup.  The next few days are critical and we have to watch her so she doesn't "paw" at her eyes. To keep a close vigilance on her she slept in our bed last night. Good thing because at 3 am she wanted to paw and scratch at her eyes. A little restraint and smooth talking and she fell back to sleep snoring away..

Total bill to date is about $3600.. She'll always be at risk for glaucoma and retinal detachment. I hope things will go our way and we can be hunting grouse this fall in the woods and pheasant in the fields of Michigan and she leads a long and happy live doing what she loves and was bred for.

Thanks to all for you comments and well wishes..

Wishing you and a very special furkid the best.  I know things will work out.  Keep us in the loop as we care.  Gotta love those GSPs. 

5/28/08: Update Niki is doing well. We have to go back to the vet next week. Her sight is "ok" she can now function without running into things, however she does have some limitations. Toss her a "cookie" and it'll bounce off her nose as she can't see close up (far sighted).

She's quite happy with a big smile on her face.  It'll be a challenge but I plan or starting training once I get the "ok" from the vet. She's ready, the other day I let her outside and the next thing I heard was a "splash" in the pond. She was off going for a swim...

I tried to post a photo but couldn't figure out how to do it.. I'll have to get one of my kids to help out the "old man"...

I am so happy to hear she is doing so well.  It is amazing how dogs recover so quickly and adapt to whatever life throws at them.  She is very lucky she has someone who loves her so much.  Keep us posted on her progress.  She won't have any problems with the training.  Someone posted a link to a video on the forum that showed a blind dog hunting.  It was amazing, and your kid can see now. 

I'm glad she is doing well!  In order to post photos you need an online hosting site I believe.  I think most use www.photobucket.com on here.  Just upload there and you can copy/paste them onto here.  Good luck with both, but especially with the pup!

-J

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll215/dgrracing/P1010390.jpg

We'll see if this old man can make this work....