Question:
There is a black spot, below the pupil on one eye. The dog is a lurcher, and is about 10 years old (human years). She is fine and healthy but I`m concerned about the black spot. What could it be?

Answer:
Black spot in the iris can be a no big deal unless it's a foreign object/sign of disease. People get them too, I actually have a couple.

Is this something 'new' you are noticing or something your dog has always had but you just wonder about now?

What do you mean your dog is a lurcher..is that the breed? Would you please post a picture This is somewhat of a sighthound dog then if you mean Lurcher is the breed and not the dogs action.

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What do you mean your dog is a lurcher..is that the breed?
A lurcher is a sighthound crossed with a working breed.

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I know, but I want to be sure thats what was meant, identifying the breed not the 'action' of a breed.

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Rommel's got one of these too---I just noticed it last night, and as far as I can tell, it's something new for him (I don't know, though--I've been wrong before!) You can see it in his eye on the left:


Anyone else have any thoughts/information about this?

Answer:
Quite possibly pannus which can lead to blindness if not treated , quite often seen in shepherds and shepherd crosses(heriditary disease) but also can occur in greyhounds
ask the vet to refer you to a veterinary Opthamologist to have it checked out


http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/H...20/pannus.html

Answer:
I found this too on pannus:
http://workingdogs.com/doc0087.htm

I also found a thing on iris melanoma... Not sure if it's pertinent.. And I really, really, hope this isn't it, even though it looks like it...
http://www.eyevet.info/iris_melanoma.html (cats only)
http://www.animal-eye-specialists.com/iris.htm (dogs and cats)

Either way, I think you need a veterinary ophthalmologist...

Answer:
I agree, a veterinary ophthalmologist would be a good idea to get a definite diagnosis. However, it may not be so dire--we have a dog with a similar, though slightly smaller, pigmented spot in her iris. It's benign. But an ophthalmologist will be able to tell you for sure.

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Hazel, how did you know it was benign? What did they do?

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Originally Posted by Prin
Hazel, how did you know it was benign? What did they do?

They just looked at it. Evidently some spots are just spots and they could tell? That was 4 years ago now and they were evidently right!

Having an ophthalmologist look at it, even to tell you that it's nothing, is well worth the cost of the visit. If it's something bad, you want to catch it early and get it treated--if it's nothing, you get peace of mind! (A win-win situation )

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I hope everything works out for you

thoses eyes are beautiful !!!!!

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Starting with a trip to the regular vet to see what he has to say. I'm pretty sure I've seen this sort of thing in other dogs before, but if there's even one diagnosis that it could potentially be, then we'll investigate it. Thanks everyone.

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I hope Rommel is okay. Good luck.

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Good luck, Shannon! I hope Rommel is ok.

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