This three month old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is presented as the onwers want to know if its eye problems are inherited. What would you say?
There is a substantial cortical cataract in one eye and a small posterior subcapsular cortical circle in the other as you can see here. In this breed the two cataracts known to be inherited are a congenital cataract with multiple ocular defects (ultrasonographic biometry here showed the eyes not to be microphthalmic) and a progressive opacity occuring at two years of age. So neither of these eyes show opacities recognised as inherited ones, but my feeling is that until proven otherwise any cataract in a young animal should be considered potentially heritable. What do you think?