Human & Animal Health

“Case of the Month” – April 2020

Cooper, a 16-year-old quarter horse gelding, was brought to the UC Davis veterinary hospital after his owner, Robyn Armstrong, noticed spooking behavior over the past few months. Her normally friendly horse was not letting her near him. The hospital’s ophthalmologists noticed an obstruction in Cooper’s vision, but also noticed an unrelated abnormality on his face. The two separate conditions initially concerned Armstrong and set Cooper back a few months, but ultimately, he emerged a much healthier, happier horse.

“Case of the Month” – June 2019

It’s fitting that Dr. Sara Thomasy is an ophthalmologist. Her eyes light up when she talks about the breakthroughs being made at UC Davis thanks to recent acquisitions of state-of-the-art imaging equipment. Eight new pieces of imaging equipment and one new piece of laboratory technology, made possible by grants from the Center for Companion Animal Health (CCAH), now allow the Ophthalmology Service to provide new levels of care.

The discovery of a naturally-occurring mutation that caused impaired vision in four rhesus macaques at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, holds promise for restoring vision in the animals, and eventually, in humans.

If there is one thing that all of us who are in and around these buildings have in common, it’s that our animal companions are critically important to us, whether they are huge (like the Great Dane puppy I saw in the main receiving area five hours ago) or tiny (like the ancient, doddering Pomeranian wearing a cone who just hobbled out of another exam room in the ophthalmology department).

The National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded grants to five multi-disciplinary teams to develop new disease models for a range of eye conditions. The program, which will award $30 million over 5 years, is part of the NEI Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI) for Regenerative Medicine. The AGI seeks to catalyze new treatments for blinding conditions like glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, and other degenerative eye diseases.

The MRT Vision Research team was invited to the San Francisco West Highland White Terrier Club meeting on September 22, 2018 where we performed ocular examinations and blood collections to further our knowledge of keratoconjunctivitis sicca or dry eye in this breed. Keratoconjunctivitis sicca is a disease whereby the aqueous portion of the tear film decreases causing irritation to the ocular surface and discomfort to both human and canine patients.