Health
Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA)
An inherited disease in which the light-sensing cells of the retina die off gradually, taking night vision first and ending in blindness.
The retina's rod cells handle dim light, and in PRA they degenerate before the cone cells that handle daylight. So the first thing an owner notices is a dog that hesitates on stairs at dusk or bumps into things in a dim hallway while behaving normally outdoors at noon.
For many breeds the exact mutation is known, which makes this one of the cleanest cases for DNA testing: two carriers should not be bred together, and a test result costs far less than the disease. Dogs that do lose their sight usually adapt well, provided the furniture stops moving.
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