Furcamper going blind. Your $0.02 to help next trip?

[portscanner]

Unfortunately, Claire is loosing her sight. She makes it around the S&B just fine - most the time. Ocasionally will miss a doorway and walk into the wall. She has some sight, but if a room is semi-darkened, she cant see a thing. She has been diagnosed with epelipsy and acording to the doctor, this is the reason for the loss if sight. Fortunately the drugs have stopped the grand mal seizures.

She still likes taking walks and riding in the car. I have blocked off the couch to keep her from jumping up on it (so she wont misjudge the distance going up or down and get hurt). I am going to spend a bit of time to make sure she learns the couch is unavailable to her any more. We already use a ramp to get in and out (as the entance door has always been an unsafe distance from the ground for the dogs) so she is familiar with going up and down it.

We have not been camping since the onset of her problems. We are going to try to go on a trip to Camp Driveway this evening and see what happens.

Any suggestions or items we should be thinking about before our next big trip?

[rockhillmanor]

portscanner wrote:

Unfortunately, Claire is loosing her sight. She makes it around the S&B just fine - most the time.

I have blocked off the couch to keep her from jumping up on it (so she wont misjudge the distance going up or down and get hurt). I am going to spend a bit of time to make sure she learns the couch is unavailable to her any more.

I have a 14 year old who no longer sees very well either. He has seizures that are now under control without drugs.

The couch is his be all end all favorite place to sleep so I would not be so quick to block off the couch for your pup you can help her with that.


Here is what I have done to assist him and it works very well for him.

1. I ALWAYS leave a light on. Day and night.

2. I bought 2 different height hassocks and put them up against the couch. This gives him a two step up to the couch.

Once he learned this way of getting up to the couch I encouraged him to use it going down also.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and the old boy with disc problems, eyesight problems is running up and down his hassock ladder to get on and off the couch without any problems. Of course he feels secure sleeping there just like he did before he lost his eyesight and ability to get up on it. :C

[toedtoes]

I think you'll find that she won't venture onto the couch, etc. as her eyesight worsens. She'll want to stay close to the ground. As another poster mentioned, she won't enjoy unfamiliar places much anymore. But she will quickly figure out getting around in the house and in her own yard (or portion of it).

You might try using a halti collar with her. Some dogs find it less stressful because the halti points their nose in the right direction and they can easily follow (rather than having to reorientate when you pull a harness or regular collar).

In unfamiliar territory, she will take mincing footsteps. There isn't a lot you can do but to stay right with her and encourage her - touching her often in unfamiliar settings and talking to her will help a lot.

And be careful when she's sleeping, just waking, or has had a seizure, etc. She is likely to be more confused during those times and might snap out of fear.

[portscanner]

OP Here.

Two weekends ago we too Claire and Rocky to Four Paws Kingdom. If you ever get the oportunity to go there, you should. We had a very good weekend. We have been there several times before.

Saturday afternoon we walked the furcampers down the the swimming hole. I dont know if she could see it, smell it, or hear it, but Claire knew and remembered where she was at. She cut loose with her "I want to play" bark - something we had not heard in some time. I had brought along a 25 foot training lead, so we hitched her up and cut her loose. I had the lead so that if she had problems in the water - getting lost or having a seizure, I could pull her out fast.

She spent over a half an hour swimmming and running around in such a fashion we have not seen in weeks.

She finally got worn out (she gets tired easily as of late) so we started heading back to the camper. The entire way back she held her little stub tail high in the air.

She now spends time like she is absent - wanders aimlessly into things, then running in circles, does not respond to her name. Sometimes you can snap her out of it by calling her or touching her, but those times that she is lucid are becoming shorter and less often.

We are afraid that Claire has made her last camping outing.

[down_home]

I'm not making judgements or suggestions. My Mother gave my Nephew a dog 15 years ago. he is now near blind and you have to watch movements near him or he will get your hand etc. His rear legs are arthritic and it is pitiful to see him try to sit or lie down. he is dearly loved and he loves the family but he is suffering a lot. They can't tell us how bad it is.
last I saw him he pressed his body as tight as he could to me and I scratched his ears and chin until I was tired out.

[doxiemom11]

We had 2 dogs, 1 gradually lost her sight until a seizure gave her total blindness. The one who could see watched out for her and she walked on a leash, used her nose and did fine. That last seizure caused her death about a week later as her organs gradually shut down over the next week. She was 16, so age was against her, but she did just fine in the RV. The only thing we had to do was carry her in and out as she couldn't see the steps to judge distance for going up and down herself.

[HTALLEN]

My mini poodle went blind from PRA around 7 years old...she lived to only 13,but we took her everywhere without any major issues...when in the moho we would put big pillows in the stairwell so she wouldn't fall down and hurt herself. Most people never knew she was blind. gee I still miss her.

[portscanner]

The results of the tests are back. She does not have any tick-borne diseases.

[Pawz4me]

lasparrot wrote:
I wonder if putting a tiny bit of fragrance extract on her bed and on the stairs would help her?
i.e. a very faint lavender scent on the bed and something different on the stairs. The nose Knows.

I was thinking the same thing. It's a tip I read a long time ago on the Yahoo blind dogs group. They recommended using food flavorings (vanilla, lemon, etc.).

[lasparrot]

I wonder if putting a tiny bit of fragrance extract on her bed and on the stairs would help her?
i.e. a very faint lavender scent on the bed and something different on the stairs. The nose Knows.

[portscanner]

We just got back from camp driveway. Everything went reasonably well, the biggest problem was with DW jumping up every 5 minutes thinking that Claire had gotten up. She (Claire not DW) did have to get up in the middle of the night to take care of "doggy business" and appeared to be a bit confused, but we expected that. This morning she woke up perky and ready for breakfast.

BB_TX - thanks for the info. I am going to chase that down immediately. We had a friend (human) that gotten Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever a few years ago here in Georgia from a tick bite. It is possible she could have gotten it in the same maner.

She does have her big buddy Rocky for support (picture from Jekyll Island last year)


We have had several daytime outings since the problems started and she does well and enjoys being out, but she does tire rather quickly. Will update here as things progress.

thanks to everyone for their feed back

[lizzie]

Our 15 year old Toller has cataracts and is nearly deaf. She still holds her head to the side as a result of two attacks of Canine Vestibular Disorder, but she loves to camp! Her smeller is still A-OK and evidently campgrounds have wonderful odors. She is as comfortable in the TT as she is in the S&B (maybe more so)and we keep her on a short lease outside. I worry that every trip will be her last one but we keep on going. lizzie

[AZPops]

I don't have any suggestions, but Claire's a beautiful girl. Sorry she's having problems with her health.

Pops

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

I wasn't keen on taking Jack, our elderly Cattle Dog, on our 2+ week trip to Florida in January due to his dimmed sight (cataracts) and poor hearing. But he did fine - the RV park we stayed in had a fenced dog park, and he enjoyed ambling along the fenceline, marking as he wandered...LOL! But he seemed to be using it as his sight aid - he always kept it on his right side, and simply walked a "lap". I would never have allowed him to be loose in the dog park if there had been dogs other than my own in there, though - a strange dog startling him would have ended badly, I'm afraid.

Something I should have done for him, in hindsight: bright sun in his cloudy eyes blinded him 100%. If I could have taught him to wear some sort of hat/sunshade, he might have been able to see a bit?

If your dog loves to camp (which ALL of mine surely have) - take them along. In Jack's case, Florida was his last trip. I'm glad he had a fun time.

[donn0128]

Met a couple last month who had one blind from birth. They also had a companion for the blind one. They seemed to get along fine with the blind dog. So I guess you just need to spend more time with your pup on a leash.