At Penn Vet This Month, Free Eye Exams For Service Dogs

By John McDevitt

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists is sponsoring free eye examinations for service dogs throughout country during the month of May.

More than 20 service-dogs-in-training got their eyes checked today at Penn Vet's Working Dog Center, in the city's Grays Ferry neighborhood.

Part of the eye examinations were done in the dark, and many of the patients were under one year old.  So, like four-month-old Nero, some whimpered out of nervousness when the examining light shined into their eye.

But Nero was just fine, according to Dr. Gus Aguirre, who specializes in animal eye diseases.

"We want to check the puppies before a huge effort is spent in training, which would then lead to a dog that would not be a working dog.  It might be a perfectly good pet," he notes, "but not a working dog."

Also, he says, it's important that established working dogs maintain healthy vision.  Also there today for a free eye exam was a FEMA search-and-rescue dog that took part in last week's Amtrak train derailment in Frankford.

Penn Vet says its effort is being done to help keep service dogs and their handlers safe.

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