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Floaters! (1 Viewer)

SUPPRESSOR

Well-known member
England
When I joined birdforum 15,years ago I was a youth of 57 and floaters were something you looked down on!! The floaters I now refer to are much more annoying and for someone who cannot stand even the smallest spec of dust or imperfection to spoil the image in their chosen binocular or spotting scope they are a curse that even the finest optic manufactures are powerless to do anything about.
Until 3,years ago I was blissfully unaware of such things then in a display of flashing lights floaters were born and here to stay. A simple explanation of course, jelly coming away or shrinking from the retina. Eye doctor said only one treatment and that is to ignore them.

Anyone else find them annoying when looking through their optics and can you ignore them?
 
I find that the occassional flushing and using of an eye wash in the morning can help reduce the frequency of these - only really notice them against a white or grey sky. My irritating annoying physical problem is a right eye that weeps if there is the slightest breeze..... I blame that on years staring down a scope, rather than being type II diabetic!

Old age sucks.
 
I find that the occassional flushing and using of an eye wash in the morning can help reduce the frequency of these - only really notice them against a white or grey sky. My irritating annoying physical problem is a right eye that weeps if there is the slightest breeze..... I blame that on years staring down a scope, rather than being type II diabetic!

Old age sucks.

Thanks for that will give it a try and yes cold winds and weeping eyes.

Old age does suck ,but, better than the alternative. Well at this stage it is!
Pete.
 
I've started to get the floaters occasionally. Thankfully, not all the time but they are so annoying.
 
I've started to get the floaters occasionally. Thankfully, not all the time but they are so annoying.

Yes, they are annoying I have one in particular that I see just in the lower left side of my otherwise perfect SF view. Don't see it at 20x in my zoom lens ,but, at x60 looks like a large black teardrop in fact looks quite sinister .

Pete.
 
I've always had floaters. (Like Pyrtle, I also have a 'weepy' eye, usually Hylo lubricating eye drops sort this out, weirdly enough). I think I mentioned on BF years ago that as a schoolkid, I amused myself in maths class by looking out the window and moving eyeballs up to watch the floaters 'float' back down (thereby exacerbating my already atrocious maths grades). My eyesight is very good otherwise, so I've always ignored the floaters, and when birding I kind of see 'past' them as my attention is diverted anyway. But I'm 58, so things could worsen....like my tinnitus...:eek!:
 
Pete, post #5.

Are you talking about floaters or a small bubble or small cataract in the eye.
If something is always in the same place it may not be a floater.

The black teardrop may be a sub millimetre occlusion of some sort.

Perhaps you have a bit of both?

Regards,
B.
 
When I move my head the floaters float more than when I keep my head still, so when looking for bird movement in the foilage I keep my head still to allow the floaters to settle.

I seem to notice that small exit pupils (< 2.5 mm) make it more difficult to look 'around' the floaters. With small exit pupils they become more obvious and intrusive to me.

George
 
I seem to notice that small exit pupils (< 2.5 mm) make it more difficult to look 'around' the floaters. With small exit pupils they become more obvious and intrusive to me.

Yes, indeed. Though I don't own an astronomical telescope I have played around with various astronomical eyepieces on my birding scopes and, terrestrially and on the moon's surface, floaters become a problem at exit pupils under 1,5 mm.
This has quashed any ambitions to obtain an astronomical refractor. With high magnifications and a minimum exit pupil of 1,5 mm it would be neither portable nor affordable.

John
 
I've always had floaters. (Like Pyrtle, I also have a 'weepy' eye, usually Hylo lubricating eye drops sort this out, weirdly enough). I think I mentioned on BF years ago that as a schoolkid, I amused myself in maths class by looking out the window and moving eyeballs up to watch the floaters 'float' back down (thereby exacerbating my already atrocious maths grades). My eyesight is very good otherwise, so I've always ignored the floaters, and when birding I kind of see 'past' them as my attention is diverted anyway. But I'm 58, so things could worsen....like my tinnitus...:eek!:

Sancho,
Yes, I had those when I was a sprog and on non school days I would sit in bed and watch them move up and down. Apparently they are quite normal and are just left overs from when your eyes were being formed a bit like when the stars and planets were being formed and the bits left over are your asteroids and meteorites only on a slightly smaller scale!!

The ones I'm talking about are when you experience flashing coloured lights ,its quite strange. The wife had them a few years before mine, and I took her to the hospital as it can be an detached retina ,but, like mine just the jelly shrinking away from the retina .

All part of getting on in years.
Hard to explain, but, you will know if and when it happens.
Pete.
 
This may sound a bit weird but a few years ago I was on s low carb diet and I noticed a very distinct drop in the number of floaters I could see
I've got no science or reason to add to explain it but it was very noticeable.
 
This may sound a bit weird but a few years ago I was on s low carb diet and I noticed a very distinct drop in the number of floaters I could see
I've got no science or reason to add to explain it but it was very noticeable.

That might explain it I do love my carbs.
Pete.
 
Sancho,
Yes, I had those when I was a sprog and on non school days I would sit in bed and watch them move up and down. Apparently they are quite normal and are just left overs from when your eyes were being formed a bit like when the stars and planets were being formed and the bits left over are your asteroids and meteorites only on a slightly smaller scale!!

The ones I'm talking about are when you experience flashing coloured lights ,its quite strange. The wife had them a few years before mine, and I took her to the hospital as it can be an detached retina ,but, like mine just the jelly shrinking away from the retina .

All part of getting on in years.
Hard to explain, but, you will know if and when it happens.
Pete.
Thanks Pete! I begin to understand....I have, for about two years, had a few instances of weird flashing rainbow zig-zag crescent-shaped lights that grow in intensity for about ten minutes, then fade away for another ten. My older sister has them with accompanying headaches. The doc says they are 'optical migraines' (I think). I find them rather fun, but I don't get the headaches. Always in the left eye, and no, I haven't found a good Doors song to accompany them;)
 
When I joined birdforum 15,years ago I was a youth of 57 and floaters were something you looked down on!! The floaters I now refer to are much more annoying and for someone who cannot stand even the smallest spec of dust or imperfection to spoil the image in their chosen binocular or spotting scope they are a curse that even the finest optic manufactures are powerless to do anything about.
Until 3,years ago I was blissfully unaware of such things then in a display of flashing lights floaters were born and here to stay. A simple explanation of course, jelly coming away or shrinking from the retina. Eye doctor said only one treatment and that is to ignore them.

Anyone else find them annoying when looking through their optics and can you ignore them?

Yes, they're caused by PVD (posterior vitreous detachment) and yes there is no treatment other than ignoring them (very few doctors would recommend surgery as it can have very serious side effects). Floaters can indeed be annoying but fortunately their number decreases in time after a PVD episode, you just have to patient.
 
Yes, they're caused by PVD (posterior vitreous detachment) and yes there is no treatment other than ignoring them (very few doctors would recommend surgery as it can have very serious side effects). Floaters can indeed be annoying but fortunately their number decreases in time after a PVD episode, you just have to patient.

Good to hear about possible decrease over time as I have had an increase lately too, driving me slightly nuts as I too am ocd on optics cleanliness and the things I look with aren’t perfect, which is frustrating to say the least!
 
Yes, they're caused by PVD (posterior vitreous detachment) and yes there is no treatment other than ignoring them (very few doctors would recommend surgery as it can have very serious side effects). Floaters can indeed be annoying but fortunately their number decreases in time after a PVD episode, you just have to patient.

Well, thanks for that info and indeed I will. Be patient that is.
Pete.
 
A couple of years ago Bob (ceasar) recommended some Bausch & Lomb eye vitamins that he said, when taken regularly, helped reduce the number of floaters in his eyes. Let's hope he'll chime in and describe the details, but imo only time and patience can heal this.
 
A couple of years ago Bob (ceasar) recommended some Bausch & Lomb eye vitamins that he said, when taken regularly, helped reduce the number of floaters in his eyes. Let's hope he'll chime in and describe the details, but imo only time and patience can heal this.

This makes me wonder if my experience on a low carb diet was not a direct cause of low carbs but of eating way more vegetables in place of the carbs.
More veg = more vitamins = healthy eyeballs.
Simple.
 
This may sound a bit weird but a few years ago I was on s low carb diet and I noticed a very distinct drop in the number of floaters I could see
I've got no science or reason to add to explain it but it was very noticeable.

This sounds quite interesting.
 
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