Looking for a dog forum (blind dog)

[Remy]

I just moved back in with my mom, and all of her pets. They include Spike, a 12 year old toy poodle; Scooter, a 10 year old corgie mix; Cousin and Ninety-Nine, tabby cats; 2 doves, a rock dove named Hobo (8 years old) and a ringneck dove (not sure of age, doesn't have name). Puck seems to do fine with all of them.

I need a dog forum though. Spikey has had all sorts of health problems. When he was a puppy he had to get pins in both knees, but he was fine after that until the last few years. He developed kidney disease (I don't know any more than that), which is being successfully managed with a kidney diet; he kept getting UTIs, and he had bladder stones (he had surgery for the stones a couple months ago). Also, for some reason most of his teeth needed to be pulled.

He also went blind from cataracts around the time the kidney disease started. He started peeing everywhere with the urinary stuff. It's gotten better since the surgery, but he seems to have abandoned any semblance of potty training he had, with both poo and pee. He won't go if he's on a chair or in bed, but anywhere else is fair game. My mom set up a pen for him with weewee pad, but he cries a lot when he's in it.

I want to find out an effective way of taking care of him, and perhaps re-potty training him in a manner he could do. My mom is also trying to train him out of crying so much when he's alone. He's otherwise happy and healthy now, so we don't think that he should be put to sleep. I think I may have convinced my mom to find out how much the cataract surgery would cost, at least for one eye, but I don't know how long it will take her to find out. It's kind of hard to get her to do things...

He still runs around and plays. He often gets around so well that it doesn't even look like he's blind, but it appears that he is totally blind. He snuggles, likes massages, and still plays with Scooter. He always used to bark and Scooter while we played fetch, and chase him around and stuff, and he still does it. Now he doesn't chase Scooter; he just barks (just as enthusiastically as before) in Scooter's general direction (or where he thinks Scooter is). My mom has gotten him some noisy toys that he likes. He has a couple of Babble Balls and some other things like that. There's another ball that shakes and makes music, which he loves to bark at.

Sooo, does anybody know of a good dog forum? Or any advice for poor Spikey?

 

[suncon97]

The Dog Forum - A friendly online community for dog lovers.

I've been a member for years everybody there is a great help.

 

[Remy]

Cool, thanks!

 

[roxynoodle]

My male Dalmatian had the bladder stones. In fact he was so bad with them Ohio State University used him as a research dog. They said he was the worst case they had ever seen that lived. Once he was on a special diet and Allopurinal he did pretty well. I just had to make sure he never ever got even a tiny bit of anything else to eat. It was a pain with 3 dogs, but I had to separate him from them during meal times. He did live to be 13 though.

My female Dalmatian mix had some of the other problems you dog has. She had several teeth pulled over the years and eventually had to go to canned food. She also peed and pooped all over the last 1.5 years of her life, but she had dementia. And she went deaf. Could your dog also have dementia? I figured it out because she was doing odd things like going to a wall instead of the door, and she was getting "stuck" in corners. She would walk to a corner and not be able to figure out that she could just turn around or back up. She also became very unpredictable with visitors and I had to crate her when people were here for fear of her attacking them. I did eventually put her to sleep when things got very bad.

I couldn't stop the pooping and peeing. No matter how much I took her out, she just kept doing it, and it was all mental. People with dementia do stuff like that as well though. People with Alzheimers become fearful of water and won't use a toilet anymore, and will poop in the middle of their beds.

As for the blindness, many animals seem to cope rather well. It's possible an animal opthamologist could remove the cataracts, but I bet it's expensive. I'm checking on that for Merlin right now. I also had a blind horse that did very well her entire (long) life.

 

[Remy]

My male Dalmatian had the bladder stones. In fact he was so bad with them Ohio State University used him as a research dog. They said he was the worst case they had ever seen that lived. Once he was on a special diet and Allopurinal he did pretty well. I just had to make sure he never ever got even a tiny bit of anything else to eat. It was a pain with 3 dogs, but I had to separate him from them during meal times. He did live to be 13 though.

My female Dalmatian mix had some of the other problems you dog has. She had several teeth pulled over the years and eventually had to go to canned food. She also peed and pooped all over the last 1.5 years of her life, but she had dementia. And she went deaf. Could your dog also have dementia? I figured it out because she was doing odd things like going to a wall instead of the door, and she was getting "stuck" in corners. She would walk to a corner and not be able to figure out that she could just turn around or back up. She also became very unpredictable with visitors and I had to crate her when people were here for fear of her attacking them. I did eventually put her to sleep when things got very bad.

I couldn't stop the pooping and peeing. No matter how much I took her out, she just kept doing it, and it was all mental. People with dementia do stuff like that as well though. People with Alzheimers become fearful of water and won't use a toilet anymore, and will poop in the middle of their beds.

As for the blindness, many animals seem to cope rather well. It's possible an animal opthamologist could remove the cataracts, but I bet it's expensive. I'm checking on that for Merlin right now. I also had a blind horse that did very well her entire (long) life.

Spike is on canned food, and his kidneys appear to be fine with it. He gets the occasional (tiny) treat, but that's it.

I used to work with dementia patients. Spike seems very sharp, except that he just goes potty right where he happens to be. Aside from that, he still seems smart. I know in humans, when Alzheimer's affects continence it's usually somewhat advanced (stage 2-ish), so you'd know they have it already. He really seems like the same dog, and since his other issues have been dealt with, he is relatively happy and in pretty good health. He copes very well, except for the potty part. I'm surprised at how well he navigates. To be honest, his potty training was a little weird anyways. We originally litterbox trained him, then we got cats, then the cats took over his litterbox so he started having to go outside only, and I think he may have become a little confused after that (this was 8-10 years ago though). I don't know how to identify dementia in dogs, but I haven't seen any other signs of it.

 

[roxynoodle]

I kept taking Jamie to the vet thinking there had to be some physical problem for her going potty wherever she happened to be as well, but there wasn't. And her other mental things were pretty obvious as well. She could see so there was no reason to walk to a wall and wait for me to open it up instead of the door. Or for her getting stuck in corners, or for her deciding suddenly to attack everyone who came in the house.

We developed some sign language for her deafness, but of course she had to be looking at me to know that I was calling her back or something. The rest was very hard to deal with though. She was my only dog that went potty all over as she got old, and the only one whose mental faculties waned. I actually had to tear the subfloor out of the kitchen after she died because of all the pee. I was taking her out every hour the last couple of months and she still kept going in the house.

I wish I could be of more help.

 

[Remy]

Poor baby.

I think my mom may get the eye surgery for Spike. We'll find out then, I guess. Even if he has dementia we'll still love him. I loved the old people with dementia, so a dog with dementia should be just fine. We may put diapers on him though.

 

[roxynoodle]

It was very sad. No one wants to see their loved ones suffer, including their pets. I did actually try diapers, but she ate them! I didn't put her to sleep until she became utterly miserable. I figured well, the kitchen hasn't been remodeled yet and the floor is already ruined so more doesn't matter much. But, in the end she was pretty much toothless, had a heart condition, was deaf, and her mind was completely gone, which was the worst thing. I don't worry about disabilities or health conditions as long as the animal is still enjoying it's life, at least more often than it's not.

 

[Anna]

Just be aware, when my dog started getting cataracts, I discussed surgery with the vet. He said it was indeed expensive and it worked, but that it was very possible that Tess would get the cataracts back again. So maybe just ask that question of the vet so you know either way.