Puppy Cataracts

You met the fat boy here - no, not me, you dolt, the 4-legged one - the other day.

He has worked out that dinner time is 6:30pm and if we don't have it ready for him, he puts on quite a performance (nothing bad, very amusing in fact). If events hold us up and his food isn't served until, say, 7pm he will ignore it completely.

Good to hear your pup is working with you in the new routine.

Yes and when I got home my pup knew I had been playing with (more like mugged by) strange dogs - I got a good sniffing over.

you got a picture of this well loved pet Garry?

Here she is helping me test drive the 101

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...4082009002.jpg

Just an update - doggie is no longer peeing on the carpet.

I started taking her outside at 5.45 for a pee and then feeding her within 1/2 hour. Now when I call her to go outside she gets all excited, I guess she has learnt that she will be fed soon. Indeed there have been a few times when right on time she has gone outside herself and has come back in a waited by her food bowl.

So who said you cannot train new dogs new tricks :).

Thanks for all the advice.

Garry

Doggie had a little turn today - like a stroke - head tilted, looking at the sky, loss of coordination, disorientation, walks like a drunken sailor.

Straight down to the vet - diagnosed as Vestibular Syndrome and is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and is quite common in both geriatric dogs and people. She also has faulty heart valves and rear molars are heavily tartared (mainly because she does not chew on them - she uses her front teeth to eat her daily chicken wing with. So there is a concern she could have a bacteria infection from either her teeth or heart valves that could have triggered this.

So doggie in on some steroids and anti-biotics but the vet indicated that it might be close to having to make that decision that we all do not want to make - a bit hard when 30mins before hand a had a 14 1/2 yo dog running around the house at full speed annoying everyone.

Anyway looking up Vestibular Syndrome on the net I found that it generally corrects itself in about 2 weeks but there may be a residual head tilt.

So has anyones doggie had Vestibular Syndrome and how did it work out for you.

Thanks

Garry

sounds exactly like Burleigh,,
very lttle vision, no indication the dog knew you were there, no interest in food, aimless wandering around the house bumping into things,
this happened at around 4am, I hugged him and talked to him till the vets opened,,
:BigCry:

Doggie still has major balance issues but while completely disorientated at the start she is slowly relearning her environment. He head is still tilted and stares at the sky but she has learnt where her food and water is but still falls over a lot when she walks. My house has three levels with three lots of internal stairs - it has taken her five days to relearn how to climb up and down but she has done it - no issues coming up but going down is more problematic as she falls over sometimes but now seems to have it sussed.

However she has relearnt her environment but is not actually getting better so we will have to see. She cannot be left alone for more than a couple of hours.

I think the end is not far off but not just yet.

Garry

so sad

Hang in there mate. Best wishes for doggie.

Doggie just turned 15 and seems to be doing well - is now almost blind and can only hear higher frequencies so aural communications is by whistles. Her sniffer no longer seems to work too well but can still find Smackos hidden around the house.

She is able to take herself outside (three lots of steps - my house is tri-level) and when bored in the morning before I get up she takes great delight walking up and down the steps outside my room until I get up and give her some food. That vindictive streak is still there.

No longer pees when waiting for dinner, her balance is back and she seems happy - she sleeps most of the day except for mornings but gets very stressed when out of her known environment.

While there have been a couple of scares she seems to be coping with her twilight years reasonably well.

Garry