Border collies are made for the herding of livestock. This breed is the most intelligent and active as compared to all other dog breeds. The question that arises here is also that do Border collies have poor eyesight or whether is it better than other dogs like their intelligence. Moreover, how’s their eyesight at night? What are the problems and diseases related to the Border collie’s eyes?
All healthy dog breeds have strong eyesight. Border collies are very good at spotting things. They can spot sheep as far as 1000 yards away. This breed is specially made for herding. Border collies are very active dogs and healthy breeds.
If you notice any kind of itching, redness, or any other abnormality in the eye of the Border collie, it is an alarm for you and you must take him to examination immediately.
Do Border Collies have poor eyesight?
Border collies have very good eyesight. They sometimes get confused in detecting constant objects but they have good eyesight and detect objects in motion very fast. It means they are very good at spotting moving objects but not so good at noticing constant objects.
Border collie’s eyesight at night is much better than the of humans because of the choroid present in the retina of their eye. Border collies are herding dogs. Their eyes are placed on the head in such a position that gives them a wider view and so good eyesight. The vision range of dogs varies from 240 to 270 degrees.
Border collies are short compared to humans. From an experiment, it is defined that a Border collie needs to be at a distance of 20 feet to see the object clearly which can be seen by a human at 75 feet. Border collies have a lack of confidence and sometimes you may need to call them twice. It doesn’t have any concern with their eyesight.
Some important facts about Border collie’s eye-sight:
- Dogs can see color but very dills like blue-violet and shades of gray. This vision is known as a dichromatic vision. Less percentage of cones means that they have less color absorption.
- When the light shines, the dog’s eyes glow green in the dark, and this helps in good eyesight. This is because of the tapetum lucidum which humans don’t have.
- The position of a dog’s eye on its head also gives them a wide view which ranges from 240 to 270 degrees.
- The smell is the most basic and primary sense to navigate the world for dogs, not eyesight.
- Dogs have a vision of 20/80. It means if a human can see an object clearly at 80 feet then a dog can within 20 feet.
How is the eyesight of Border collies at Night?
It’s a fact that healthy dogs see better in the dark as compared to humans. Although cats can see better than dogs. Border collies are active, intelligent, and fond of exercise daily which shows the signs of the healthiness of this breed. It means Border collies have better eyesight at night.
The main reason behind Border collie’s better eyesight vision at night as compared to humans is that they have a large amount of light-sensitive rods that collect light. These rods are present in the retina of the dog’s eye.
The retina collects the light and by using a thin tissue tapetum lucidum, reflects the light to the camera like a lens which then focuses on the object dog is looking at. It is recommended not to leave your dog in a dark room because dogs also see as little as a human in the pitch-black area.
What helps Border collies to have good eyesight at night?
There is not a large percentage of cones in the retina of dogs to capture the color and brightness at night. Although some other features help Border collie’s better eyesight vision at night, these features are given below:
- Light sensitivity
- Color Perception
- Visual perspective
- The visual view field
- Detection of motion
- Depth perception
- Form/ shape sharpness
- Visual acuity
Difference between Human and Border collie’s eyesight:
Dog’s eye is similar to a human eye. Dogs can see objects in the dark as humans. Healthy Border collies can see in the dark much better than humans.
There are rods present in the eyes of the dogs, which help them in the collection of light and focus on the objects. These rods are present in the retina of their eye. Light also enters the dog’s eye through the cornea and then the pupil like in humans. Further, it expands and contracts to control the amount of light.
Human eyes have three different types of cones from the red to violet spectrum whereas Border collies have more rods and fewer cones in their retinas. They have just two types of cones. More rods mean better eyesight vision at night. Border collies have a layer of eye tissue known as tapetum lucidum which lacks in humans. The function of these tissues is to reflect the light into the retina and provide clear eyesight vision.
Collie Eye Anomaly (eye disease):
Dogs like Border collies have very good eye-sight. All other herding dogs also have good eyesight. There are some blood vessels within the layer of the retina which is known as the choroid. The choroid helps in the absorption of light.
Collie eye anomaly is a genetic disorder that has affected Border collies as well as other dog breeds. This disease is also called Choroidal Hypoplasia. Border collies as well as smooth collies, both breeds are affected by this disease.
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Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment of CEA:
Cause: Due to chromosome mutation, abnormal development of the eye occurs and which to the Collie eye anomaly (CEA). This may cause result in the loss of eyesight and complete blindness.
It is a genetic disease so present at the birth of the dog. Breeding of dogs that are infected by the CEA should be done with caution.
Symptoms: The symptoms vary from dog to dog. Sometimes symptoms don’t occur until the vision impairment begins. The dog may lose a mild or leads to complete blindness. Sometimes in most cases, CEA is detected earlier and defective thin choroid is visible in small collie puppies.
Thin, poorly developed choroid can be detected in younger puppies as younger as 5 to 8 weeks. Therefore it is necessary to take your puppy for examination at a younger age.
Treatment: There is not any proper cure for this disease. But there is a way through which you can minimize the effect of collie eye anomaly (CEA).
Different types of surgeries can be performed to minimize the effects of CEA. Laser surgery, retinal reattachment surgery as well as cryosurgery can be performed in which defective cells and tissues can be destroyed after freezing them in liquid nitrogen. This process prevents retinal detachment in most cases.
It is better to take advice from your veterinarian about this eyesight problem. He will determine which treatment is possible and which can be appropriate. There are very few couples of cases in which complete blindness of eyesight vision occurs.
How to Prevent Collie Eye Anomaly?
This is an eyesight disease. There is not any proper cure for this disease however different surgeries can be performed to minimize its effect.
The best way to get through this is to take your dog for examination as he arrives home and avoids dogs with genes of CEA. Different tests can be run to check the presence of collie eye anomaly in your Border collie and other dogs. Good eyesight of your border collie is very important.
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Final words:
Border collies are very good at spotting moving objects. They have good eyesight. A single Border collie can control a pack of sheep just by his eyes. They can get into your mind just by staring at you. If you throw a ball and ask your dog to pick it up while it’s under his nose he won’t be able to, this is because their eyes are in such a position that they could not be able to see that. I have seen many people at the park calling their dogs things like stupid and pick up, it’s right there. So there is not any problem with their eyesight or they have poor eyesight in this case.
