Puppy Update

Little change from yesterday, although we’ve brought her upstairs, putting the gate at the top so she won’t try to go downstairs by herself, which certainly wouldn’t work yet. She mostly lies around, but occasionally stands up and gazes, looking lost. She ate some more cheese and crackers, won’t touch her food. Eyes constantly moving back and forth. It’s very sad. But, she responds to attention, and chased a tennis ball earlier, once. Enough petting and she smiles.

And this evening she lit out after a rabbit in the back yard. Like a bullet, she was. I was scared she’d smack into the fence, but the bunny took a quick right and Cinnamon lost track of it. Sheesh. Dumb dawg!

Cinnamon – The Next Day

For reassurance to folks who are worrying about the poor puppy, here are some pictures of her today. You can see her head tipped to the right, and in the standing up photo she has that right leg extended out. She tends to fall to the right. I’d guess the world is spinning clockwise in her head. The vet said she may retain the head lilt after she recovers. Makes me think “recovery” may not be that the world stops spinning, but rather that the brain adapts to it with new motor coordination. That would suck, but maybe animals wouldn’t know the difference.

Canine Geriatric Vestibular Disorder

When Becky got home from work today she found Cinnamon unable to walk without falling down and looking dazed and disoriented. She called me at the office, then took her to the vet where I met up with them. It was a very pitiful looking condition, you’re thinking it’s a stroke, and wondering if you’re about to have make the BIG decision. We have a competent vet, though, and he diagnosed Canine Geriatric Vestibular Disorder. He said she should start showing improvement tomorrow, and may be able to walk by Sunday. So, after getting her back home, we laid out a sleeping bag next to her regular pillow, for extra padding, and she’s been mostly lying there quietly all evening. Sometimes she stands up and just gazes, her head tipped to one side. I go down and talk to her and pet her a lot. You can tell just from looking at her that the world inside her head is spinning around. I hope she can regain some stability before she gets too starved or dehydrated, although she does seem to drink pretty well. She emptied her stomach on the vet’s floor, and doesn’t seem much interested in eating. I don’t blame her. We feel bad restricting her to downstairs, but we can’t take chances with the steps, and I assume we’ll still need to try to get her outside to do some “business”. Anyhow, a heartbreaking time for us, and certainly a confusing time for poor Cinnamon. It may be a long weekend, especially for puppy. She really is getting on up in years. She’s thirteen, but even the vet says she doesn’t look that old.

p>. :spin: