My friend's black Lab, Quincy had Progressive Retinal Atrophy. His started when he was about 4 years old - he started bumping into things and eventually went completely blind. I don't think there is a cure or any way to reverse it, and I believe it's genetic.
Quincy adapted, though - in the beginning my friend would lead him around with a leash, teaching him where the 2 steps were to go outside, etc. She made it a point not to change the furniture around so that he could have a mental map of where things were in the house.
Quincy seemed a little depressed at first - but then one day my friend took him over to my mom & dad's to swim, and when he found out he could still swim, his whole outlook seemed to change. He loved to retrieve a duck decoy in the pool and found out he could still do that according to the sound when it hit the water.
After that day, he seemed to adapt to his blindness. The weird thing was that after he went blind, he'd bite out all of the eyes of his stuffed toys! It was as if he was saying , "If I can't see, they can't either"!! He lived for another 7 years and died at almost 11 years old from renal failure.
Quincy adapted, though - in the beginning my friend would lead him around with a leash, teaching him where the 2 steps were to go outside, etc. She made it a point not to change the furniture around so that he could have a mental map of where things were in the house.
Quincy seemed a little depressed at first - but then one day my friend took him over to my mom & dad's to swim, and when he found out he could still swim, his whole outlook seemed to change. He loved to retrieve a duck decoy in the pool and found out he could still do that according to the sound when it hit the water.
After that day, he seemed to adapt to his blindness. The weird thing was that after he went blind, he'd bite out all of the eyes of his stuffed toys! It was as if he was saying , "If I can't see, they can't either"!! He lived for another 7 years and died at almost 11 years old from renal failure.
