Vision loss can be surprisingly tricky to spot in pets. Thanks to their impressive hearing and sense of smell—not to mention an excellent memory for the layouts of their homes—dogs and cats can compensate fairly well to early changes in their eyesight.
This means that obvious signs of poor vision, like bumping into furniture or difficulty finding food and toys, may not pop up until complete blindness, leaving owners only subtle tip-offs of early vision changes, including:
Many of these symptoms are also commonly seen with other diseases, like arthritis or canine cognitive dysfunction, making it even harder for owners to detect an issue with eyesight.
If you’re uncertain whether your pet is losing vision, try these easy ways to test your pet’s eyesight at home:
Throw a cotton ball. Sit your pet facing away from you, then throw a cotton ball over their head so that it falls in their field of view. The motion should catch their attention, and they should track its fall (if they pounce on the cotton ball, make sure they don’t eat it!).
Rearrange your furniture. Even completely blind pets can navigate around their homes just fine from memory. Move a few key items around, and see if your pet suddenly starts bumping into things.
Create a dark maze. Certain types of vision loss are worse in dim lighting. Create a mini maze with chairs or other obstacles in a room, and then dim the lights, leaving just enough light for you to see. Pets have much better night vision than we do, so if you can still see, your pet ought to be able to navigate your maze with no problem.
If it seems your pet is in fact losing vision, a visit to the veterinarian is in order. Blindness in pets can have many causes, including some serious conditions, like diabetes and high blood pressure, so a check-up is the best way to catch these diseases before they cause any more problems.
