Posted by Dinah on April 1, 2004, at 15:03:40
Harry's sister appears to have lost the vision in her "good" eye and is now completely blind. She got relatively aggressive when she became partially blind because she was afraid everything that moved was a threat to her. Aggressive towards the other dogs, not to people of course.
She wasn't terribly happy partially blind, and I guess it's too early to tell how she'll deal with being totally blind. Maybe it will be better for her in a way, because she won't see threats everywhere. :(
My regular vet really doesn't like to use Prozac on dogs, as he says it doesn't significantly increase their quality of life. But he was gone today and the vet today gave me a prescription for it. He says, and I think he's probably right, that it can't do much harm (except for doggie withdrawals) considering the current quality of her life.
Does anyone have any familiarity with helping an old dog acclimize to blindness? She's almost fourteen now. The vet suggested keeping her enclosed in a small space so that she will know where everything is, but she *hates* that. She wants to be with her person. So today she's sticking close to me but I'm constantly stepping on her and she's walking into walls and doors and everything else. She's terrified whenever there's a loud noise. Or even not so loud noises. And of course the dogs "talk" to tell each other to get out of the way of the food bowl or whatever and she's jumping a mile.
I'm hoping when they get the inflammation down they'll find out that her sight can be saved, but he was noncommittal.
Any ideas?
poster:Dinah
thread:331386
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040331/msgs/331386.html