(continued)
Cataracts
If the lens of the eye loses its transparency, for whatever reason, one can speak of a cataract. Please understand that this is quite distinct from the normal increase in opacity that occurs in older animals.
Scientists tend to classify everything. So they have differentiated various types of cataracts according to (i) age of the animal at the onset of the condition (newborn, juvenile, senile), (ii) location, (iii) cause, (iv) degree of opaqueness (incipient, immature, mature, hyper-mature), and (v) shape. Well, all of this differentiation is quite fine, but also quite meaningless to the practical owner of a pet stricken with cataracts.
Similarly, the cause of the cataract is only of marginal importance to the pet owner (dogs seem to have cataracts more than any other species, with the possible exception of the horse). The process starts with the coagulation of plasma in the cells of the lens, followed by a further degeneration and