A veterinarian last month said that cataracts in dogs arise for some of the same reasons that they do in people: hereditary conditions, diabetes or aging.
Vision Eyecare Center for Animals veterinarian Chang Ya-fei (張雅斐) said that the No. 1 reason for the eyesight-affecting condition in dogs is hereditary factors.
While some causes for cataracts are shared among dogs and people, dogs do not develop them due to excessive screen time, smoking or excessive alcohol consumption, she said.
Photo: Wu Pei-hua, Taipei Times
“In our experience at the clinic, more than 70 percent of cases in dogs are hereditary, roughly 20 percent from diabetes and about 10 percent due to aging or other causes,” Chang said.
In most cases involving hereditary preconditions, a dog will develop cataracts at about seven years old, she said, adding that her youngest case was a six-month-old puppy.
Dogs that tend to be at greatest risk are poodles, Maltese, miniature Schnauzers and Boston terriers, she said.
Dogs with diabetes often develop cataracts, because the lenses receive more glucose than normal, she said, adding that an enzyme in the lens converts glucose into sorbitol, which affects cells and makes the lens opaque.
“More than 80 percent of dogs that develop diabetes get cataracts within half a year,” she said.
Advanced age in a dog is above 10 years, and as they get older, their lenses grow increasingly turbid, she said.
However, in many cases, even if a dog’s eyes appear grayish in color — a condition known as nuclear sclerosis — their vision is unaffected, and they do not need treatment, she said.
Unfortunately, in many dogs with hereditary factors leading to cataracts there are no signs before the condition develops, meaning owners could easily miss the chance to treat the condition in its early stages, Chang said.
Pet owners — particularly those with higher-risk breeds — should have their dog checked by a vet once every six months, she said.
Treated early, most dogs recover fully from cataracts, she said, adding that surgery could be completed in an hour.
However, with older dogs, medicated eye drops to treat cataracts over a longer period is safer than surgery, she added.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,