Living with Blind Dogs
A truly excellent book on blind dogs is Living With Blind Dogs by Caroline D. Levin R.N., which can be obtained at a number of places on he internet, including Amazon.com.:This book should be in every vets office and in the hands of all owners of visually impaired dogs.
The author was charge nurse of Ophthalmology Surgery (people) at a large metropolitan hospital and assistant to a prominent ophthalmologist. She later was practice manager of an ophthalmic veterinary clinic. She is also an award-winning dog trainer.
There are even excellent suggestions for training regular dogs as well. Excellent descriptions and illustrations of the way eyes work and the major problems which can cause blindness, including PRA. In the page-long bibliography are included papers from the Cornell folks (Drs. Acland, Gregory, Aguirre, and Gustavo), who have been working on our genetic marker test for Basenji PRA.
Incidentally, according to the book, there are seven known types of Progressive Retinanal Degeneration/PRA. Main classifications for our purposes are “early onset” and “late onset.” All are thought to be recessive and heritable. I am told that Basenjis are one of the two top breeds which had been tested by the folks at the Baker Institute of Cornell Veterinary College in New York.
Article copyright © 2013 by By Betsy Polglase.
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