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Dealing With An Older, Blind Dog
Hello--I apologize if this has been asked before. I have a 15 year-old
Bichon who is still in fairly good shape except that he is losing his hearing and he is almost blind due to cateracts. He has lived in the same house for about four years, but he gets "lost" and doesn't make it to the dog door in time. So, is my only option to crate him or limit his movement to one room near the dog door? He was not crated as a puppy as far as I know--he was an orphan--so could I get him used to large crate at this time in his life? My other Bichon is doing fine and I don't want to upset him. I guess I am prolonging the ultimate decision here, but Toby is still able to move around and is only on low dose Butz for joint swelling. Any ideas? Any experience in this area? Thanks, Fred |
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In article EuuHe.7221$r12.2247@trndny04,
Janet Puistonen wrote: A friend of mine has a Bichon who developed cataracts at the age of 12 or 13. They thought he was too old to remove them. As it happens, he lived to be 18, and they often wished they had had the cataracts removed, since it would have greatly improved his quality of life. Maybe. I've got a 9-year-old with cataracts and I've decided not to have surgery done. He's nearly completely blind in one eye and got about 25% in the other. He gets around pretty well, including negotiating stairs and going for long walks (although he likes to walk along the edge of drainage ditches, and that's obviously not a great idea). If this dog used to be able to make it to the door quickly enough but can't now, it's either not his eyesight that's causing him to mess in the house or else there's some reason why he's not learning his way around without being able to see. Without knowing more, a few possibilities for the latter case might include age-related cognitive problems (which might also go to peeing in the house), things are being moved around inside the house, or there's little guidance within the house towards the door (open floor plan?). I have an old farm house that's pretty easy for Saber to find his way around because the hallways are narrow and the top of the stairs is easy to find (there's a post next to the top step). The blind dogs website is very helpful, and in particular this is worth checking out: http://www.blinddogs.com/tips.htm -- Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - Let's start racial profiling tax cheaters. |
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Melinda Shore wrote:
In article EuuHe.7221$r12.2247@trndny04, Janet Puistonen wrote: A friend of mine has a Bichon who developed cataracts at the age of 12 or 13. They thought he was too old to remove them. As it happens, he lived to be 18, and they often wished they had had the cataracts removed, since it would have greatly improved his quality of life. Maybe. I've got a 9-year-old with cataracts and I've decided not to have surgery done. He's nearly completely blind in one eye and got about 25% in the other. He gets around pretty well, including negotiating stairs and going for long walks (although he likes to walk along the edge of drainage ditches, and that's obviously not a great idea). If this dog used to be able to make it to the door quickly enough but can't now, it's either not his eyesight that's causing him to mess in the house or else there's some reason why he's not learning his way around without being able to see. Without knowing more, a few possibilities for the latter case might include age-related cognitive problems (which might also go to peeing in the house), things are being moved around inside the house, or there's little guidance within the house towards the door (open floor plan?). Well, yes, good point--and I should add that by the time my friend's bichon was 17 or 18, he definitely seemed to suffered from such cognitive problems, as well as deafness and arthritis. It was unclear to what degree being mostly blind and increasingly deaf had to do with his disorientation, of course. But also no one knows if he would have survived the surgery at age 12 or 13, or how good the outcome would have been. It's a hard call. He was an apartment dog, which presented its own challenges. |
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