Cataracts

Question:

My 6 year old border collie mix was just diagnosed with cataracts.  Can cataracts be cured without surgery?

Answer:

Cataracts often require surgery, though the timing of the surgery may or may not be urgent.  When a younger dog, such as yours, develops cataracts it is typically due to congenital issues and the cataracts often progress more rapidly requiring surgery sooner rather than later.  This is also true for cataracts caused by diabetes.  For an older dog, however, you may be able to slow the progression enough to delay or even eliminate the need for surgery – depending on the extent of vision impairment at the time of diagnosis and the age of the animal.

If your dog does require surgery, then prevention of future catarcts becomes a priority.  Prevention and treatment both begin with the basics – a very high quality diet supplemented with additional vitamins and minerals.  Diet is the foundation of good health and this is the most important thing you can do for your companion.  Many chronic degenerative diseases such as cataracts develop over time as a result of inadequate nutrition and exposure to toxins in the food and environment.  Please see What You Need to Know About Your Pet's Food and All About Raw Food in our Articles section. Some people are not comfortable with feeding raw food.  If this is the case for you, consider dehydrated or freeze dried food to supplement the diet, or a very high quality canned food.  Basically, the fresher the diet, the better it is for an animal’s health immune system.