Anyone ever?

[perk]

2 questions....
Any one ever raise a blind puppy, how much trouble was it?

Any one ever raise a puppy off a blind gyp and how much trouble did you have?

[david]

Perk, I had a pup and it took me a long time to figure out he was blind. It really was no trouble at all until I got him in unfamiliar settings. A blind dog in a familiar kennel will have no trouble at all. There was no way I could hunt the dog or use it, although he wanted to go. It was a perfect dog otherwise, and it broke my heart because I drove him all the way home from North Carolina and he was as beautiful a hound as I have ever seen. He made all my other dogs look frumpy by comparison.

But blindness/ early blindness can be a genetic trait, (can be linked to hearing problems also) so I am trying to think of a reason to knowingly raise a pup like that. Can't hunt it, and I would not want to breed to it except in some extreme situation where he was the last of his kind on earth or something. But it might do ok as a house pet or always in familiar settings.

[perk]

Was out an old gyp, she had some trouble having pups, and some issues 1st few days, I have hunted these dogs forever and never know blindness to affect them even in old age. On either side of the cross. I Think the blindness may be caused by external factors. And I want to breed pup right back to her father. I have litter mate puppy that is just fine out the litter, but there ain't no more of this breeding around much besides what I raise so, I'd hate to not try it. Worst case I have a litter of pups that were blind and destroy more than 1 a year from now??
Just wondered if anyone ever raised off a gyp that was old went blind.

[pegleg]

If you have a yard to keep them in they do fine. And get around all right in slow and as long as you don't add things or move things in their space. I've never had one blind from birth but have had one loose its sight later on. They do real well with a buddy and can follow along at a good clip. I think he figured out the other dog didn't run into stuff or maybe just liked being close and benefited from it.

[david]

If the blindness is not genetic should be no problem. I think raising a litter off a blind gyp would be no harder than raising a litter off a sighted gyp. I hope it goes well and the line is preserved.

[driftwood blue]

a good many years ago I had a pup that the eyes did not open when they should (about 10 days)
she had a bit od matter in both eyes.. one eye was blind and she did make an exceptional good cooner for the fellow I gave her to-- he was planning on breeding her but some lowlife jerk stole her off the chain.
since then I make sure the eyes are opening as scheduled.
there is a good chance that is what happened.

[driftwood blue]

by the way-- do you have a bunch of barn cats around?? had a male that got mixed up with a cat at a young age and the cat got one of his eyes..it looked ok but he was blind in one eye. the vet said it punctured the cornea.. had no problem in the woods.

[Mike Leonard]

I bred two of my top young walker females one is 4, and the other coming 3 to a young male who was just 18 months but so outstanding at an early age I wanted to try it.

First litter out of the younger female I got 6 pups all males, 100%. Ten days later second female whelped and she had one live male that looked perfect one still born male who was deformed and a female that was also deformed and died quickly. The one pup that did survive got all the milk and he was a tub and was just as pretty a pup as you have ever seen. He grew but we noticed he was very inactive and when his eyes opened they looked fine but he would really use his nose when you came around or when he was looking for his mother. He finally got where he was crawling around and setting up a little but he slept a lot. Even though he was nearly 2 weeks younger than the older litter of pups he was outsizing them although his mother is only about a 35 pound female and the other female is close to 50 pounds. I suspicioned that he was blind and did some tests on him and he would not blink from even bright light when it was dim and he would not blink. I have an excellent vet and I took him in and he carefully examined him and the report was stone blind. Although it hurt we put him down because it was going to be a hard go for him being out of a line of extremely hard hunting dogs to just be a yard ornament.

Both of these females were in excellent health and under great conditions and good care. This was first litters for both of them but the male was closely line bred in their same line and most of the time this works out fine but some genetics don't link up so well and this male throwing all males in one litter and blind and deformed pups in the other stopped any plans for future breeding of this cross.

I had a dog many years ago out of Dale Lee's last really top hound, Joe. This was a great looking English type dog, and he seemed fine. I was still doing quite a bit of night hunting back then and old Bawldy would trip over rocks and logs and fall into washouts, so I took him to the vet. He wasn't completely blind but had what the vet called night blindness. in bright light he could see some but shadowed, but at night he was blind as a bat. The Vet said often this type of condition is caused by an infection or problem in the womb although other pups in the litter may have been unaffected.

[perk]

Thanks for the responses guys!