Mouse has white dot on eye

Question
My sister has a mouse called "Piper" and when she was holding him she showed me his eye. On his eye is this white dot and he keeps moving that eye around a lot.I don't no if he scratched his eye or if he's going blind.. I'd like to know..
Thankyou.

Answer
Dear Ashley,

That sounds like a cataract. That means Piper will have less vision in that eye. It may grow and make him completely blind on that side. However, that's not as horrible as it sounds. Mice don't rely on their eyes nearly as much as we do. They use their sense of smell and their whiskers. Albino mice are close to blind and they get along great. And he will have the other eye. Actually he really only needs one eye, because the main thing he needs to see is movement. He doesn't need to see a lot of depth, living in a safe mouse cage. I would, however, not set up his cage so he has to jump down. That's the only thing he really needs his depth perception for.

Another point is he has no idea that every mouse doesn't get blind in one eye. He won't feel bad about it. He'll just go about his daily life as usual.

By the way there are mice who are born with no eyes. They can have happy lives with restrictions on the cage setup.

Sorry about Piper's eye. But he'll be fine.

However-- if anything else happens on that side, like redness or swelling of the skin around his eye, then write me again.

squeaks,

Natasha