Eye Diseases in Bedlington Terriers

	Inheritance	Age of onset	Progression	Effect on vision	Effect on comfort	Treatment
Microphthalmia	likely autosomal recessive	present at birth	non-progressive	usually blind	usually non-painful	elective surgical removal of globe for cosmetic reasons
Distichiasis	highly likely (mode unknown)	usually before 6 months of age	new lashes emerge until approximately 2 years of age	vision is unaffected minimal; occasionally excessive tearing	usually non-painful	often none required, electroepilation can be used to remove lashes if tearing is excessive
Entropion	highly likely (mode unknown)	usually 6-12 months of age	may become more severe until one year of age	may result in secondary scarring of cornea	very painful due to eyelash contact with the cornea	surgical correction of the eyelid is highly successful
Imperforate nasolacrimal puncta	highly likely (mode unknown)	noticable after 3-4 months of age	usually none although amount of tearing may be variable	vision is unaffected none although the moisture around the eyes may result in secondary skin irritation	non-painful	surgical opening of puncta is highly successful
Dry eye	unknown	usually after 5 years of age	progressive without treatment	scarring of the cornea may result in blindness	painful due to dryness and secondary infections	medical treatment with twice daily eye drops is usually highly successful; rare cases require surgical treatment
Glaucoma	highly likely (mode unknown)	usually after 5 years of age	progressive	often ultimately results in blindness	painful even after vision is lost due to pressure elevation	medical and/or surgical treatment available; variable success
Cataract	likely autosomal recessive	usually after 5 years of age	variably progressive	variable depending on progression; often vision is not significantly impaired	may be associated with secondary glaucoma (see above); otherwise not painful	surgical lens extraction and replacement with artificial lens is highly successful
Retinal dysplasia	autosomal recessive	present at birth	non-progressive	variable; animals affected with mild forms (folds) have relatively normal vision, severely affected animals often have retinal detachment and are blind	non-painful	no treatment is available
Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA)	autosomal recessive	usually after 7 years of age	progressive over 6-12 months	dim light vision is lost first, affected animals are ultimately blind	non-painful	no treatment is available