Pannus in German Shepherds - Page 2

i have a 1 year old gsd with pannus in both eyes. its just been diagonosed because the vet had no idea what it was. she lives in the canary islands so she is exposed to a lot of sun, which it is suggested is the reason behind her gettin it is early and aggressively. my vet has never heard of eye drops containing a uv blocking agaent so can anybody suggest the name of one so that my vet can get ot for me?

The important thing for you to do is to take the dog to a competent vet and let the vet diagnose the condition. It is not an emergency and you need not be nervous. Just let a vet see the dog at your appointment time. Based on your description, it is not typical of pannus. But it is always difficult to know exactly what someone means when making descriptions over the internet.

Further, it simply is untrue as stated above that pannus is rare in older dogs. It is most uncommon, if one wants to talk that way, in younger dogs, but one will see it in dogs generally 2 years and older. I have had hundreds of GSDs in my rescue program or  my personal dogs and I have seen it in all ages, except for young. I have also seen it develop in all ages, including older dogs. I live at altitude and the common thought for cause is UV light exposure. But in the end, like all things except for injury or acute illness, it is genetic. Some dogs have this problem, others do not. Yes, it is treatable and no, at this point, there is no cure for it, but there is some advanced surgery that I have seen advertised but have no experience with to know if it really makes a difference.

Finally, the correlation between altitude and UV is spurious. There is UV radiation everywhere, including at sea level. If one believes this exposure contributes, then the thing to do is minimize the dog being outside during times of the day or in daytime conditions (snow, water) which provide UV exposure and reflection.

Personally it sounds like calcium deposits on the eyes.  My black dog had those, took him to an eye specialist and basically said it wasn't anything to worry about, but to get a postivie diagnosis, the vet will have to have determine that...Good luck and let us know

Karmen

My vet prescribes two different meds for Pannus and is very familiar with this due to our high elevation.

The one i use is made by Falcon:   Neomycin and Polymixin B Sulfates and Dexamethasone Opthalmic Suspension

3 x daily one drop in each eye

It is elevation related, i live at 6400ft and definitely keep the older ones inside much more because of it.   

One of my mother's GSDs has pannus and she lives in Vancouver, BC (sea level).

I'm about 30 minutes from Fort Worth Texas.  I have a 4 yr old working line bitch with pannus in both eyes.  she started out as having a shadow, or the dusty look in her eyes.  She is now 40-50% blind in each eye.  I don't know if her's is genetic, or if it was caused by the morning after shot. 

Where did you get your dog?

Jennifer

Pannus is genetic. My dog is west german wk line and dutch

yep. mine is wg working line with a little czech.  3,4 linebred on Mink