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  Discussion on Treating cataracts
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Posted on Thursday, Mar 23, 2000 - 4:27 pm:

We have a 12 year old appaloosa, newly acquired, who has been diagnosed with early stage cataracts. The eye specialist saw him last night, and told us she feels that his vision is only about 5-10% impaired at this point. And she could see clearly in through the lens. And that their was only mild scarring in one eye. He has had intermittent redness in his eyes since we acquired him in January.
Since we do not know his history, she gave us two probable scenarios:
1) slow progression, assuming he develops redness episodes only 1-2X annually, and he will have reasonable vision for 4-5 years at least.
2) fast progression - he gets fairly frequent redness episodes and deterioration comes rapidly.
For now, after a careful exam, she has given us cortisone DrOps to administer to clean up the last vestiges of redness.
When we inquired about surgery, she totally ruled it out.

What are our options? We do live about 2-3 hours from two very fine vet school clinics (UGA and Auburn). Should we take Opie there for a consult?

Jeanne

Posted on Thursday, Mar 23, 2000 - 7:20 pm:

No, you may find the cataracts are not progressive or slowly progressive that old age occurs before they are significant, so at this time I think it would be a waste of time and money for referral. There are no treatments to help prevent them from worsening.

If the cataracts are progressive why does she rule out lens removal? If you don't know, ask her and tell us what she says. I would not contemplate surgery unless you can see that they are worsening, with just your eyes.
DrO
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