Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog breeds prone to congenital lack of tear production
By Westermeyer, Hans D et al.·Published in Veterinary ophthalmology·2009·Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Breed predisposition to congenital alacrima in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of young dogs under one year old was found to have congenital alacrima, a condition where they don't produce enough tears, leading to dry eyes. This issue was particularly common in Yorkshire Terriers and Bedlington Terriers. The affected dogs showed very low tear production on tests and did not respond well to standard treatments for dry eye. Because of this, veterinarians may need to be cautious when treating young Yorkshire Terriers for keratoconjunctivitis sicca (dry eye), as the prognosis can be poor.
People also search for: why is my dog’s eye dry · Yorkshire Terrier eye problems · treatment for dog dry eyes
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical characteristics and breed predisposition of congenital alacrima in dogs. Animals studied Dogs with congenital keratoconjunctivitis sicca. PROCEDURES: A search of the medical records of the University of Tennessee Veterinary Teaching Hospital from 1974-2005 and the University of California-Davis Veterinary Teaching Hospital from 1986-2006 for dogs under 1 year of age with a diagnosis of keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) was performed. These cases were further reviewed for dogs with a Schirmer's tear test I of <or= 5 mm/min before 6 months of age, with no known causes for KCS, which did not respond to appropriate KCS therapy; these cases were considered to have congenital alacrima. These breeds were compared to all other breeds using the Fisher's exact test with correction for multiple comparisons. RESULTS: Congenital alacrima was identified in 19 dogs representing 11 breeds and mixed breeds. Yorkshire Terriers and Bedlington Terriers were statistically overrepresented compared to reference populations (P < 0.01 and P = 0.04, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Yorkshire terriers are significantly at risk for congenital alacrima compared to other breeds. The significance of the increase in congenital alacrima in Bedlington Terriers in this study may not be clinically relevant and may be due to the small total number of dogs of this breed that presented to the both hospitals. Based on the poor response to therapy in humans with congenital alacrima, it may be prudent to offer guarded prognoses for KCS in juvenile Yorkshire terriers.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19152591/