Tag Archives: blind

Good morning Everyone!

Last week, Tyra went completely blind in about two days.  You may remember from earlier posts that she was already blind in one eye due to canine glaucoma.  Last week, the retina in her good eye detached.  The name for this is something like Sudden Retinal Detachment Syndrome, which just means that her retina detached and no-one knows why.

The effect, though, is obvious.  Our sweet, loving, smart, obedient Tyra cannot see.  At all.  And while she does not appear to be grieving or upset, rather instead focusing her energy on learning how to get around, the human contingent of our family is quite sad about it, even while we also work on what we need to do to help Tyra and the other two dogs adjust.

The purpose of this post, though, is not to make you sad, either, but to point out that even in sad times you can find things that, if not funny, at least make you smile.

For example, there was my casual observation that while I wouldn’t want this to happen to any of the dogs, at least it happened to the smartest one of the bunch who is able to figure out ways to cope.  If it had been Mandy, she would have spent all weekend in a standoff with a wall.  She doesn’t move for anything she collides with, but rather expects it to move for her.   Convincing her, with her combination basset hound/husky stubbornness  that she would ultimately have to yield for a wall, would be nigh impossible.

One of the things we have to do is teach Tyra how to find her water bowl, since water is difficult to smell.  After she refused to drink even when we put plain water in a coffee cup in front of her, I suggested we at first give her a glass of sweet tea.  The sweet tea innovation was very popular.

All of the reading I have done about dog behavior and characteristics finally paid off, too, when I remembered that a dog’s sense of smell is a billion times (or something like that) more acute than ours, so we then took the next coffee cup of water and laced it with just a splash of sweet tea, which also was popular with the blind dog contingent of the household.

It is also nice to finally have a use for all of the coffee cups that come with every set of china that we buy beyond those we reserve for visitors.  We don’t drink coffee, so they get very little use.

Mark had Tyra up on the couch beside him Sunday evening, and he was drinking sweet tea in a large class.  She could smell it and started trying to lick the side of the glass, clearly believing that she is now entitled to sweet tea, too.

She found the water bowl by herself Sunday afternoon, and the whole family stood up and cheered. at least metaphorically.

The vet said that steps would be the one thing that she would have a hard time handling, and since the back yard is only accessible through a steep set of stairs down from the porch, we have been walking her on a leash in the front of the house.  She loves it.  The other two dogs were not happy the first time we took her out on a leash, leaving them inside (and folks, I am just not up to the crazed Hittite charioteer routine two or three times a day), but over the next couple of days they seem to have mellowed out about it.

There has been the pride Mark and I feel as parents in Kayla, who has been as sweet and loving to Tyra as anyone could wish.  The only problem is helping her understand that she can’t keep Tyra 100% safe; Tyra has to be allowed to explore her surroundings, which means she does bump into furniture once in a while, and the other dogs have to be allowed around her so they can adjust.  Kayla  also has been a great help with the other two dogs, giving them extra love and attention to help keep them from feeling left out.

Mandy and Darwin haven’t quite figured things out yet.  I think they know something has changed but they’re not sure what.    They do not harass Tyra in any way, although Darwin got a little confused when Tyra didn’t respond to his play bow Monday morning.  Dr. Mitchell said that one of them eventually will take over as sort of a guide dog for Tyra.  No sign of that so far, but then it is early days yet.

Blind or not, Tyra still expects (and gets) elevator service onto our bed at night.  The only difference is that she also gets lifted back down when it is time for her to get off.

And then there is Tyra herself.  Dogs can mope just as humans can, but there has been no moping in Tyra.  We can’t explain to her what has happened, but she knows that she can’t see and rather than waste time feeling sorry for herself, she is, instead, working on learning what she needs to learn to carry on.  If she looked miserable or sad all the time, we would be hard pressed not to be ourselves, but she wanders around the house happily, then finds somewhere comfortable to lie down, and as soon as she hears our voices starts to thump that tail of hers.  She follows us when we lead her on the leash with absolute trust, and even got a couple of walks around the neighborhood this weekend which she really enjoyed.   We still see her laugh quite a bit.

It is these small blessings that make adjusting to this new phase for all of us  possible, and we are grateful for them.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy