The spread of brachiocephalic breeds is a constantly growing trend, chosen for their happy and sociable temperament. These dogs seek and provide a lot of affection, characteristics very appropriate for a family unit. But having a brachiocephalic at home implies a greater responsibility, since they require special care and professional veterinary advice.
It is common to find these dogs in the ophthalmology waiting room, which have a great predisposition to developing pathologies in their eyes.
What does the term brachiocephalic mean?
First it is important to define what the brachiocephalic breeds are. The term is composed of “brachi” which refers to “shortened” and “cephalus” to “head”. That is, these types of animals have a shortened cranial-facial conformation, a characteristic sought for aesthetic reasons but which also alters vital functions such as breathing.
The most widespread breeds are: French Bulldog, English Bulldog, Pug, Boxer, Boston, Shih Tzu, Pekingese and Dogue de Bordeaux.
Central facial flattening results in ocular anatomical alterations such as shallow orbits, with bulging eyeballs. (exophthalmos) and excessive opening of your eyelids (macroblepharon). These morphological characteristics significantly lower the protection of their eyes against trauma, and an accident that may be minor in other races could have devastating consequences for them and their visual organs.(eye protrusion or proptosis).
It is well described that these breeds have less sensitivity in their cornea and that their blink rate is also decreased. Factors that can add complications to dogs that, due to their idiosyncrasy, have a greater surface area of eye exposure.
The existence of the “nasal fold” alters the function of your eyelids, contributing to irritation and the appearance of diseases such as entropion(eyelid inversion) among others.
This “cocktail” described notably increases the predisposition of brachiocephalic breeds to diseases of the ocular surface, such as ulcers, dry eye and pigmentary keratitis.
My dog shows signs of “conjunctivitis”. How should I proceed?
When we get to this point it is important to make a clarification: it is common to extrapolate human medicine concepts to our pets, but here there is a big difference and thinking that my dog was infected, or that it could infect me as a guardian, could be a mistake.
It would be rare to see primary infectious conjunctivitis (bacterial or viral) in dogs, unlike humans, where there can be contagion between people. In canines, inflammation of the conjunctiva and the appearance of mucopurulent secretions are usually associated with other entities. important to diagnose. Lacrimal deficiency, UV radiation, immunological processes, allergens and chemical substances can trigger conjunctivitis that does not respond to antibiotics.
More than 60% of the dogs that collaborated with the relief efforts after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 developed secondary acute conjunctivitis, NOT bacterial (Gelatt et al 2021).
This information is important since the dogs did not infect each other, but rather were exposed to common irritating factors, which triggered ocular processes in most of them.
The diagnosis of these diseases requires magnification and specific ophthalmology equipment.
DO YOU HAVE A BRACHYCEPHALIC DOG AND WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE TOPIC?
Contact information:
instagram: oftalmovet.vater
linkedin Alan Vater
1160060254
You may also like
by CEDOC