Monday, March 8, 2010

12 Year Old Mystery Solved?

What a contrast between the bright-eyed Sunny in the picture from yesterday's post to the "blind" dog that greeted me when I came home last night. He was his usual happy and energetic self, but he couldn't or wouldn't open his eyes. After placing a call to the emergency vet, the 3 of us jumped in the car and headed out across town.

Suddenly this all felt too familiar. Flashback. 12 years ago. Network at a year or two old. I woke up one morning to find my young dog sitting up like an old blind man, eyes closed. The regular vet sent us to the eye specialist. My most acute memory of the incident is that she did not see what a handsome and wonderful dog he was. Of course, I have to give her a little slack - she was a shepherd lover and floppy eared dogs probably just didn't float her boat. But she did eventually, on a follow-up visit, acknowledge his beauty, once his big, expressive eyes were open again.

Eyes are the window to the soul.

I was reminded of that again this morning, driving my second "blind" dog to the eye specialist. The diagnosis on Network was never clear - possibly tetanus or strychnine was the most she gave us. But sometime between the 3 1/2 hour wait in emergency last night and the drive across town this morning, I started to wonder if this could be a stress-induced event, and if the introduction of an energetic new dog into the calm waters of a spoiled mama's boy's life wasn't possibly the culprit.

Why did I think this might be so? The exact situation accompanied Network's episode - I had brought home a kennel-stressed but very loving Border Collie mix named Yule, in honor of his Christmas arrival at the shelter some 6 months earlier. He was my first attempt at fostering, while volunteering at the shelter. Even without considering that he might be the cause, I had to take him back to the shelter because Network needed a more peaceful setting for his recuperation.

Shortly after all this took place, Yule was chosen by a family with a female just like him, and at last report, they were living happily ever after, romping together through the vineyards in Sonoma County. I hope by taking him out of the kennel for at least a few days, I was able to buy him the extra time needed for the right family to come along.

The nice but efficient vet today did NOT think my idea was crazy, and in fact noted that it is not at all uncommon for this to happen to cats when a new one is introduced into the household. Better yet, today's vet noticed immediately what a great boy our little Sunny is. In contrast to all the big scary possible diagnoses thrown out by the emergency vet last night, as she attempted to cover all the bases, this morning we were told that we would start with conservative treatment with eye drops and pills, and come back in 3 days and he will probably be looking much better. He does already with the eye drops.

And he snored all the way home . . . after I relocated him to the passenger seat.




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