What is PRA?

This is a disease that slowly erodes the cone of vision for a dog.  The age at which the dog is affected depends upon the breed .  In the ACD is may begin at the age of 4 years old or can occur at any age after that.  What occurs is that the dog will start to have some night blindness, then the peripheral vision will begin to be less and less, until finally blindness in both eyes. 

Some dogs proceed through this transition with ease and live long lives.  Other dogs seem to have difficulties coping with the loss of sight and can become stressed.  Especially with the side vision which means that people/animals coming from the side can cause them anxiety.

This disease has more than one form, however, currently, the only form known in ACD's is  prcd.  This form of PRA's mode of inheritance is autosomal recessive and there is a DNA test developed and currently processed by Optigen in the U.S.A.

This test involves sending the blood of your ACD to Optigen and through markers in the DNA it can be known if your dog is Normal (A) does not carry the gene, a Carrier (B) will not develop the disease but can pass it on to its offspring, or Affected (C) may develop the disease at some point during it's lifetime and will pass on the gene to it's offspring.

Please see Alison Skipper and Kimberly Jebson's  articles for more information on how the disease is inherited.

Return to PRA or for further reading follow the below links

BVA Article - Generalised Progressive Retinal Atrophy

Alison Skipper's Article - PRA where do we go from here?

Kimberly Jebson's Article - PRA DNA test - Don't Shoot The Dog!