A disease that is not common or hereditary and we are not sure what causes it is Coats disease. Other names for this disease are exudative retinitis and retinal telangiectasis. With this disease the blood vessels do not develope correctly behind the retina. With the research that has been done they do think that this disease has something to do with genetics and that people ar emost likely to have the disease when they are born.
This disease happens to males in the first 10 years of their lives. It mostly occurs in only one eye and happens gradually. They start to first loose site and then their retina can actually come unattached. Where normally the blood vessels do not leak, with this disease they do leak and then that slowly starts to destroy the retina. When the vessls are leaking they will leave cholestral depostits and that is what will, over time, detach the retina.
You know when you take a picture of someone and their eyes are red in the picture? With this disease, the kids eye will be yellow instead of red in a picture. I never knew that the redness is due to seeing the reflection of the blood vessels behing a persons eye.
If the disease is caught early and the bad blood vessels are not yet around the optic nerve then laser surgery or a surgery where they go and freeze the bad blood vessel (cryotherapy) can be preformed. This disease is not always go the same for everyone. Sometimes it may get better on its own or maybe just stop at a stage. If there is the total retinal detachment then they will most likely be blind and may even have to have thier eye take out.
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