CHICAGO (WBBM) – If you have a pug, a University of Illinois researcher would like to give him or her a free eye test.

Researcher Amber LaBelle is looking for a cure for the canine eye disease, pigmentary keratitis, which causes brown pigment to form on the cornea of a dog’s eye.

LaBelle, a veterinary ophthalmologist, says pugs are especially vulnerable to the disease which can make them go blind.

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She needs 300 pugs, each of which would be given free eye exams, starting next year. LaBelle tells the Champaign News Gazette it is not known what causes the disease, which has developed in dogs as young as three months and as old as 16 years.

Any pug owners interested in scheduling an eye exam – can send an email to: pugs@vetmed.illinois.edu.