Blindness in Pets: Meet Featured Pet, Stevie!

Blindness in Pets: Meet Island Animal Hospital Featured Pet, Stevie!

Stevie is Island Animal Hospital’s latest featured pet! A 14 year old Bichon Frise, Stevie was born with malnourished eyes. Due to the condition of his eyes, Stevie has lived his life without vision.

Animals can have the same health conditions that humans have, and blindness is no exception.

There are many causes of blindness, some of which include:

• Deformities at birth
• Diabetes
• Cataracts
• Kidney failure
• Hypertension
• Trauma
• Glaucoma
• Infection

Glaucoma, diabetes, hypertension, trauma and infection all have the potential to be managed. Most conditions associated with vision loss are permanent and managed through adaptation at home.

Pets with vision loss are not much different than visual pets, but can be daunting to care for.

For Stevie, named after music legend Stevie Wonder, Blindness has been a part of his entire life. Blindness, however, has not stopped this featured pet from living a fulfilled life. Although it took him a little bit of acclimating to his home, his owners worked diligently with him to teach him commands to help his day-to-day life. Commands such as “down” and “up” help Stevie to navigate stairs and to join them on the couches. For playtime, Stevie has Mylar balls that make lots of noise as they roll, so he can still play ball.

Stevie also has a housemate calico kitty named Emma who is also blind. When their owners were asked to share some advice, they offered an easy tip to remember:

“Treat them as normal pets- they don’t know that they are handicapped.”

More Facts about Stevie:

Stevie is very sweet to everything and everyone he meets. He gets a special haircut to hide his eyes, so his celebrity look alike is the music artist, Sia. He loves going to the park and riding in his wagon!

If you see Stevie around Island Animal Hospital, feel free to come and say “hi”!