Vision Loss After Strangulation

[Naveed00]

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum and am looking for some encouragement regarding out 10 month old puppy. Four days ago we had my mom look after him for a couple of hours while we were at a wine tasting. My mom went to put his leash on to take him outside and somehow managed to get her fingers tangled in his collar. They were so tight that he ended up passing out and my grandpa had to give him mouth to mouth. According to my mom, he was out for about a minute. Later that night when we brought him home, he appeared disoriented but was walking normally and appeared to be seeing normally so we did not think to contact a vet. However, the next morning we noticed he was afraid to jump off the bed and he also had difficulty seeing things (like his ball when we tried to play fetch, or a snack I would hold directly in front of him). My husband brought him outside to go to the bathroom and he tripped over the stairs and ran into a pole in the yard. It was then that we became concerned about his vision and brought him to the vet. The vet looked in his retinas and did not see any signs of detachment or petechiae. She also did a crude vision test (leaned him toward the exam table to see if he would stick his left and right paws out). Based on this, she had no concerns about his vision but believed he may have experienced some hypoxia. At this point, I thought maybe he was just dizzy and perhaps that was why he was having trouble with seeing the snack, ball, stairs, etc. However, as a few days passed I became convinced he had peripheral vision loss. While the vet could neither confirm nor deny this when I took him in again for a recheck, I am certain he has some significant visual impairment (blindess, depth perception, and possibly balance). Although he can maneuver around the house relatively well, he repeatedly runs into bookshelves, door frames, and searches for snacks that are right in front of him, among other things. Naturally, the vet said to give him a couple of weeks to see how well he recovers. And naturally, I am worried about what the extent of his recovery will be. So my question is for anyone who has had experience with a dog suffering from hypoxia or vision loss from a stroke (as I imagine these insults have similar effects): Given that he is only 10 months old, what is the likelihood that our little guy will regain some (or ideally, most) of his vision back? How long will it normally take to see significant improvements? A week? A month? 3 months? I must say I am grateful that he can eat, drink, walk, and run MOSTLY normally. However, with his seemingly signficant vision loss, I am concerned about the toll it will take on his quality of life. Any words of encouagement are appreciated, especially those regarding his chance of a significant recovery. Thanks.

[critters]

Even if he doesn't get vision back, I'd expect him to eventually do well, especially since he's young. It has happened that critters with brain damage can get vision back; I'd just watch him and see what happens. In the meantime, you can keep an eye out for toys that make noise so he can play.