Hey everyone,
Just have a story and guess I want to know if anyone's had a similar experience with their husky. My pup is only 11 weeks old and we got him from a breeder.
So Thursday night, Mikko was playing and we noticed one of his pupils was completely constricted. It was as small as a pinpoint, and the other one was normal. His pupil was not reacting at all, and we got really worried. However, he was acting like his usual hyper self. We called the emergency clinic as our vet's clinic was closed. They told us to come in right away and we started to get ready to go out (we were in our PJ's). In the time it took us to get ready, his pupil went back to normal.

So we called and they said it was up to us to bring him in or not. After talking with my friend who is a vet tech and being sure that he hadn't gotten into anything, we decided to wait until the next day to bring him in.
We brought him in to the vet on Friday and she did say his pupils were still different sizes. She did some eye tests and noticed his intraocular pressure was unusually low. She was also concerned about his eyes being red (in the white part of the eye), and said he has uveitis which is basically inflammation of the iris. She said it can lead to other more serious eye diseases and should be treated. She gave us anti-inflammatories and steroid eye drops to control the inflammation and pain.
Then she looked into his retina with an ophtalmoscope (spelling?) and said she had never seen anything like it. She wasn't able to see the optic nerve or any blood vessels leading up to it. She also said she had never looked at a husky puppy's eyes and was unsure whether this was typical of them.

She was a bit concerned/intrigued and decided to call the ophthalmologist and see what he said. He said that we should not be medicating him for it as it is typical of blue-eyed huskies to have this and she took away the meds. He said that he still wanted to check his eyes to make sure the retina and vessels were okay and that it could wait until early this week.

After this, our vet said she just wanted to check something because it was bugging her. She checked his blink reflexes because she noticed he didn't seem to blink from the left eye much when she was doing the tests. It was hard to tell because he was so distracted, but it seemed like he wasn't flinching when we'd quickly move a finger to his left eye. So....basically we aren't sure if he can see out of his left eye.

I was relieved at the time, but I've been thinking about it and I'm concerned for a number of reasons.
Is he in pain? Why did they give us pain meds and then take them away? He is acting like his usual self, but this still worries me.
It can lead to more serious problems, but they are not treating it like it is serious and we have to wait until Wednesday to find out what's really going on. Also we haven't gotten around to get pet insurance yet and feel like this is going to get expensive...but this will be considered a "pre-existing condition" so I don't think it will be covered if we get insurance anyways...does anyone know about this?
Has anyone else had this problem with their dogs eyes? It seems weird that such a young dog has eye problems doesn't it?[img][/img]

I would firstly contact his breeder... that's my first thought. Have they had any other issues with any other puppies? Have his parents been eye tested? Ect. ect. ect....

Have you noticed anything weird/off/funny with that eye prior to this?

Not sure about the pet insurance, we don't go down that road.

I definitely agree with Kristina, call the breeder and see if the parents had eye testing done at all. It could be something genetic.

Thanks for the replies.
We contacted the breeder right when it happened then again after seeing the vet. He hasn't seen anything like this before with any of the puppies....the parents haven't been tested though. This is their 3rd litter I believe.

So we are getting his eyes checked out by the ophthalmogist tomorrow...will let you know what he says. The breeder wasn't much help...he just said that vets tend to overreact with huskies' eyes...not too sure what that means...ugh.
This was the only weird thing we noticed with his eyes, although every now and then we can notice the pupils are different sizes, just not completely constricted like the one was before.
I will let you know how the appointment goes.....

Mikko'sMum wrote:

Thanks for the replies.
We contacted the breeder right when it happened then again after seeing the vet. He hasn't seen anything like this before with any of the puppies....the parents haven't been tested though. This is their 3rd litter I believe.

When u say the parents have not been tested do u mean the eyes or they have had NO testing what so ever? Please let us know how the apt goes.

I hope everything goes ok with Mikko! Please do keep us posted!

Their eyes has always been some thing that really scares me! One of my co-workers has a 7 or 8yr old male who has Glaucoma and is now blind =(

Mya actually gave me a scare with her eye the other morning. She had like this clear thread looking thing over her eye, but it was hard to tell what it was. After closing her eye and moving it around about it moved and it was a only an eye bugger. Whewww talk about relief! It was scary looking!!

Mikko'sMum wrote:

Thanks for the replies.
We contacted the breeder right when it happened then again after seeing the vet. He hasn't seen anything like this before with any of the puppies....the parents haven't been tested though. This is their 3rd litter I believe.

HUGE red flag. I'd never go back to this "breeder" again.

I'm sorry for what you are going through! Hopefully the testing goes smoothly and he continues to not have pain. Keep us posted.

I would definitely see what the specialist says. This sounds very similar to what someone went through on a chihuahua forum that I'm on. A lot of the symptoms sound the same. The chi owner I know took her dog to a specialist and it was determined that her dog had partially detached retinas in both eyes. Luckily her dogs case was treatable.

Does Mikko appear to have trouble seeing or pinpointing the location of objects visually?

I agree with Tori, the breeder does sound rather questionable.

Thanks for the input everyone!

So...apparently he is fine! The specialist did a bunch of tests, everything was normal. He did notice that his pupils were slightly different sizes, but said this is within normal range especially for puppies. He's thinking he probably hit his head, had a bit of swelling/trauma and nerve damage which just went away on it's own and is typical for puppies he says. Also the retina that our regular vet was concerned about is different looking from other dogs, but is typical of arctic puppies he says.
So...300$ later....he is fine.

I'm starting to think the breeder is questionable too. In his health guarantee it says we are obligated to get the puppy tested for eye disorders and hip dysplasia and yet he has not had the dam or sire's eyes checked?! I just assumed that he had, but I guess one should never assume. At least their hips have been checked. He did offer to take the pup back and refund us if there was a problem, but of course we would want to keep him regardless.

Thank goodness everything is fine. At least you have that peace of mind to put the questions to rest. Stinks that it cost $300 though.

glad he's okay!

hi i have a 4 month old beautiful girl husky, she has blue eyes and i have the same issue with her eyes.
very rarely her pupils change size and i freak out . about a week ago her left pupil was very small and today again the right eye is very small. my brother threw a soft toy by mistake and knocked it on her eye. do you think i should take her to the vet or is it just a husky thing?

Did anything ever come of this? We have a 4 month old red husky puppy that this has happened to twice. Once in each eye.

When it comes to eyes, among many other things, every case is different. there are many things that can cause eyes to dilate on their own from serious growth defects, to neurological damage or defects, to basic growth or a bump on the head. It's always good to have eye oddities checked out by a vet to determine your individual case. Especially if they have gone on for an hour or more or your dog is trying to rub at the eye.