I have an 11-year-old Border Collie who is very fit and healthy. However, recently I have noticed her eyes clouding over. Could this be cataracts? It doesn't seem to have affected her sight in any way, but it is concerning me.
Chris Whitehead, by email
Claudia Hartley, Animal Health Trust senior clinician in ophthalmology, says…
As dogs age, like us, their lenses harden. We call this ‘nuclear sclerosis’ and it is the reason that we need reading glasses as we get older. In dogs, as they don’t have the visual acuity to read, even when in their prime, it doesn’t have any observable visual effects for them. It can make their lenses appear slightly grey or blue though, and this apparent cloudiness can be mistaken for cataracts. Your vet can distinguish between the two for you as nuclear sclerosis will still give a clear view of the retina whereas cataracts obstruct this view so to be sure it would be wise to book an appointment with your vet. Some dogs will develop senile cataracts so this is a possibility, but as your dog appears to be seeing normally I would suspect that this may be nuclear sclerosis.
