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The Shih Tzu eye: Ophthalmic findings of 1000 eyes
Seyed Mehdi Rajaei1, Houman Faghihi1, Fatemeh Zahirinia1
1Ophthalmology Section, Negah Veterinary Clinic, Tehran, Iran.
Purpose:
To evaluate the frequency of ophthalmic disorders in Shih Tzus.
Animals:
Five hundred client-owned Shih Tzu dogs (1000 eyes).
Procedures:
Medical records of 500 Shih Tzu dogs were reviewed and ophthalmic examination data were collected and analyzed.
Results:
In total, out of 1000 eyes, 964 (96.4%; OD: 480 eyes, OS: 484 eyes) had at least one ophthalmic abnormality, and only 36 eyes (3.6%; OD: 20 eyes, OS: 16 eyes) were diagnosed as normal. A total of 1375 individual ophthalmic abnormalities were observed in 964 diseased eyes. Fifty-nine different unique diagnoses were made in the study population, and only three conditions [medial canthal entropion (10.4% of eyes; bilateral in 10.2% of dogs), caruncular trichiasis (21.1% of eyes; bilateral in 20.2% of dogs), and reduced tear film breakup time (17.6% of eyes; bilateral in 17.4% of dogs)] affected 49.1% of the eyes.
Conclusion And Clinical Relevance:
Findings suggested that the most prevalent disorders for the Shih Tzus were hairy caruncle, reduced TBUT, medial canthal entropion, keratoconjunctivitis sicca, pigmentary keratitis, lagophthalmos, and mature cataract.

