Belle the Blind Cavalier

[apc0243]

Hi there everyone!

I have a 9 year old cavalier who two years ago lost both her eyes to keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Since then she's adapted tremendously, but there's still a lot of problems that we've yet to overcome. I've joined this forum because I'd love to hear from, and to talk to, like minded individuals in similar situations! I'm hoping to find some answers and to lend some advice when I can!

The largest hurdle that we've yet to overcome is her temperament. When we rescued her four years ago, she had been a breeding dog in a puppy mill for five years. When we first got her, she had never stepped on grass before (It was the funniest, but also saddest, thing we've ever seen). The following year we trained and helped her adapt to her new environment. She made good progress, but after a year we started to notice excessive discharge coming out of her eyes. Shortly, we were on a regiment of three different eye drops, each three times per day. Our schedules worked well enough that we managed this surprisingly successfully, our hope was to repair the damage done and to get her to a steady state with an easier dosage schedule.

Unfortunately after about 9 months her right eye developed an ulcer that quickly started causing immense pain. Our veterinary ophthalmologist extracted it and we began working hard to save the left eye. But alas, five months later the same ulcer scenario started playing out. We had just moved to North Carolina at this time, and the vet in Durham tried performing a third eyelid repair (or something of the sort). But once again, this failed and she quickly descended into a state of resting pain. And with that, concluded her journey of vision.

When we rescued her, there was a clear indication of her rescue date, and her "available for adoption" date - 3 months between the two. Furthermore, when we rescued her she still had stitches from being neutered. So she was bred and caged for five years right up until her rescue, and then walked directly into eye-care ####. Because of this, she is incredibly timid, unsure of herself, and now insecure of her surroundings. This was further exacerbated by the fact that my girlfriend and I broke up about six months following Belle's second eye removal. Belle went to stay with her while I completed my graduate studies, and now finally she's back with me. After about 6 months of trying to work with her, I've found myself here.

We've mapped the apartment and she can get around just fine. While consumed with her eye problems, we ended up neglecting her dental care, which meant she just had to have 9 teeth extracted. Brushing her teeth always seemed negligible compared to saving her eyes...

But she still has problems. She has very bad anxiety when I leave. She's now on Prozac for her anxiety since she would consistently pee on my things when I'd leave her for more than 3 hours. I'd love to get her off it, but I still see the anxiety shine through sometimes which makes me weary.

Another thing, her eating is incredibly difficult to manage. Because of her puppy mill past, she's developed scavenging habits. She takes a mouthful of food and walks away with it and hides in a corner to eat it. This always happened, but her lack of sight often means she can't find her way back to the food fast enough before she gets distracted. This means I have to leave food down all the time, but the other dogs in the apartment (I live with roommates) means she has to be confined in my room with the food.

Also, she pees on my things! This has become manageable since the prozac, and I had to remove access to my bed (I had built a staircase with railings for her) because she would climb on my bed and pee right where I sleep. It's absolutely a response to being left alone, since she can go 10+ hours if I'm there without any need to pee. I think this is a result of 2 things. First it might have be a result of her eye care. We had to be near there at least every 6-8 hours for her eye drops. With a reasonable schedule, that meant a lot of coming and going, which then became associated with the horrible eye drops (she hated them). Second, it could be that while she lived with my ex-girlfriend she was exposed to extended hours of isolation. My ex is a high school teacher and has very long days (11+ hours), which meant the act of leaving was also associated with extended isolation. So she now has this terrible association of anxiety, compounded by the sensory deprivation and general insecurities.

Lastly, "playing" with her or "taking her for a walk" is insane. She's never been particularly been interested in either and now her age compounds that lack of interest. But now she's rather strange. While walking, she often suddenly stops and starts insisting we turn around. I've tried all sorts of harnesses and collars. We have a good system where she understands "step down" and "step up" and I guide her with the leash almost flawlessly (thank you very much). But she still is very strange, often insisting we change direction. When we do, she sniffs around for a few seconds and then will just sit at my feet. It's so strange. Her playing is also not really playing, more like eating rope and cloth. She loves to eat the ears off of cloth rabbits, or eat the frayed ends of a piece of rope. I try not to let her do this since her digestion already has issues from her eating habits, but I also hate taking away what she gets enjoyment out of!

Overall, we do fine. My schedule is almost entirely devoted to taking care of her. I take an extra long lunch to go home and take belle out, else she pees in her crate (keep in mind that if I was there she would have no problems). Her stomach is always growling because eating takes her so long (half a cup will last an entire day just because she scavenges it so slowly). She sleeps with me in the bed so that she isn't wandering the room at night all alone. She loves my current girlfriend and just generally wants to be held or touching someone.

We definitely need some help though. I've brought her to pet-co training, I tried hiring a personal trainer for her (far too expensive and ineffective to continue). So I'm hopeful that slowly the team here at handicappedpet.net can help me sort out some of these issues!

Thanks everyone,
David

[critters]

Hi there everyone!

I have a 9 year old cavalier who two years ago lost both her eyes to keratoconjunctivitis sicca. Since then she's adapted tremendously, but there's still a lot of problems that we've yet to overcome. I've joined this forum because I'd love to hear from, and to talk to, like minded individuals in similar situations! I'm hoping to find some answers and to lend some advice when I can!
Have you read the "sticky post" at the top of this board?
The largest hurdle that we've yet to overcome is her temperament. When we rescued her four years ago, she had been a breeding dog in a puppy mill for five years. When we first got her, she had never stepped on grass before (It was the funniest, but also saddest, thing we've ever seen). The following year we trained and helped her adapt to her new environment. She made good progress, but after a year we started to notice excessive discharge coming out of her eyes. Shortly, we were on a regiment of three different eye drops, each three times per day. Our schedules worked well enough that we managed this surprisingly successfully, our hope was to repair the damage done and to get her to a steady state with an easier dosage schedule.

Unfortunately after about 9 months her right eye developed an ulcer that quickly started causing immense pain. Our veterinary ophthalmologist extracted it and we began working hard to save the left eye. But alas, five months later the same ulcer scenario started playing out. We had just moved to North Carolina at this time, and the vet in Durham tried performing a third eyelid repair (or something of the sort).Probably a Third Eyelid Flap. We've had great success with them here. It doesn't fix anything, but it lets the 3rd eyelid act like a bandage, to hopefully let the ulcer heal. But once again, this failed and she quickly descended into a state of resting pain. And with that, concluded her journey of vision.

When we rescued her, there was a clear indication of her rescue date, and her "available for adoption" date - 3 months between the two. Furthermore, when we rescued her she still had stitches from being neutered. So she was bred and caged for five years right up until her rescue, and then walked directly into eye-care ####. Because of this, she is incredibly timid, unsure of herself, and now insecure of her surroundings. This was further exacerbated by the fact that my girlfriend and I broke up about six months following Belle's second eye removal. Belle went to stay with her while I completed my graduate studies, and now finally she's back with me. After about 6 months of trying to work with her, I've found myself here.

We've mapped the apartment and she can get around just fine. While consumed with her eye problems, we ended up neglecting her dental care, which meant she just had to have 9 teeth extracted. Brushing her teeth always seemed negligible compared to saving her eyes...And it all could well come down to her former puppy mill status, including bad genes.

But she still has problems. She has very bad anxiety when I leave. She's now on Prozac for her anxiety since she would consistently pee on my things when I'd leave her for more than 3 hours. I'd love to get her off it, but I still see the anxiety shine through sometimes which makes me weary.

Another thing, her eating is incredibly difficult to manage. Because of her puppy mill past, she's developed scavenging habits. She takes a mouthful of food and walks away with it and hides in a corner to eat it. This always happened, but her lack of sight often means she can't find her way back to the food fast enough before she gets distracted. This means I have to leave food down all the time, but the other dogs in the apartment (I live with roommates) means she has to be confined in my room with the food. Yes. I have a similar problem trying to feed somebody up, and I use feeding crates or feeding cages. Is she crate trained? Maybe she'd even like a cozy den of her own (crate). Spunk, my blind punk, will put herself into a crate at ANY opportunity.

Also, she pees on my things! This has become manageable since the prozac, and I had to remove access to my bed (I had built a staircase with railings for her) because she would climb on my bed and pee right where I sleep. It's absolutely a response to being left alone, since she can go 10+ hours if I'm there without any need to pee. I think this is a result of 2 things. First it might have be a result of her eye care. We had to be near there at least every 6-8 hours for her eye drops. With a reasonable schedule, that meant a lot of coming and going, which then became associated with the horrible eye drops (she hated them). Second, it could be that while she lived with my ex-girlfriend she was exposed to extended hours of isolation. My ex is a high school teacher and has very long days (11+ hours), which meant the act of leaving was also associated with extended isolation. So she now has this terrible association of anxiety, compounded by the sensory deprivation and general insecurities.

Lastly, "playing" with her or "taking her for a walk" is insane. She's never been particularly been interested in either and now her age compounds that lack of interest. But now she's rather strange. While walking, she often suddenly stops and starts insisting we turn around. I've tried all sorts of harnesses and collars. We have a good system where she understands "step down" and "step up" and I guide her with the leash almost flawlessly (thank you very much). But she still is very strange, often insisting we change direction. When we do, she sniffs around for a few seconds and then will just sit at my feet. It's so strange. Her playing is also not really playing, more like eating rope and cloth. She loves to eat the ears off of cloth rabbits, or eat the frayed ends of a piece of rope. I try not to let her do this since her digestion already has issues from her eating habits, but I also hate taking away what she gets enjoyment out of!If she's not happy socializing, I think I'd stop it, at least for now. She has so much stress that can't be helped, but that's one that isn't really "necessary." She probably didn't have much contact with humans or critters in the puppy mill. Could she chew rope toys, Kongs, or other non-shreddable stuff? I agree about what she shouldn't eat, but maybe you can shift her enjoyment a little bit, to something that isn't as likely to hurt her?

Overall, we do fine. My schedule is almost entirely devoted to taking care of her. I take an extra long lunch to go home and take belle out, else she pees in her crate Ah, I see that she does crates. Hmm. At least the pee is contained in the crate, and you can use disposables or washables to catch the pee. I understand that you prefer she NOT pee in the crate, but that's a toughie. (keep in mind that if I was there she would have no problems). Her stomach is always growling because eating takes her so long (half a cup will last an entire day just because she scavenges it so slowly). She sleeps with me in the bed so that she isn't wandering the room at night all alone. She loves my current girlfriend and just generally wants to be held or touching someone. I, too, have a peepot that is perfectly capable of doing better, and I feel your pain! Frankly, it makes me a bit crazy because I KNOW she's capable of doing the right thing, or at least a better one! Crates are my friends...

We definitely need some help though. I've brought her to pet-co training, I tried hiring a personal trainer for her (far too expensive and ineffective to continue). So I'm hopeful that slowly the team here at handicappedpet.net can help me sort out some of these issues!

Thanks everyone,
David

You SURE have a full plate, and my hat's off to you for taking such good care of her!

[apc0243]

Yes she has a crate, though she HATES to be locked in one. I think her years of being in one totally ruined that. I haven't locked her in a crate since her prozac, but it was never pretty. She barks and scratches and hurts herself, it's so sad.

But also, being locked in a small crate for so long, I think, contributed to her peeing problems. Logically, if she was in a crate all the time, where she peed mattered then, right?. She couldn't pee anywhere, otherwise it would get on her, so she would seek out anything absorbent. Now, with her sight gone, I imagine she often wakes up and finds herself locked in my room and then reverts back to this "survival" state and seeks out absorbent materials to urinate on. It used to be my bathmat (I close access to the bathroom now), then it was my bed, now it's the pillow in her crate. Like you said, I don't know if theres any way to fix that. She loves to lay in her crate on a feather pillow, but cleaning that pillow is tough!

About her walking, she actually LOVES socialization. She loves to smell and meet other dogs, and part of me thinks that's why her walking is so poor - because smells catch her and she wants to follow it, but quickly loses it. Which brings me to another thing I've forgotten, I don't think her sense of smell is very good. She can't find treats or her food without me making a noise near it. I think that might be the cavalier in her - she snores something awful too (always has).

For the toys, she has absolutely no interest unless it is a rope or something not very fluffy. Plastic toys don't interest her at all. She loves to rip apart a cloth toy, but only so that she can eat the material! Not so much the stuffing, in fact she avoids the stuffing and prefers to eat the ears (like I said earlier). Are there any rope toys or cloth toys that are edible (non-toxic might be a better word)?

[critters]

Yes she has a crate, though she HATES to be locked in one. I think her years of being in one totally ruined that. I haven't locked her in a crate since her prozac, but it was never pretty. She barks and scratches and hurts herself, it's so sad. Hmm. Makes sense, but it's too bad.

But also, being locked in a small crate for so long, I think, contributed to her peeing problems. Logically, if she was in a crate all the time, where she peed mattered then, right?. She couldn't pee anywhere, otherwise it would get on her, so she would seek out anything absorbent. Now, with her sight gone, I imagine she often wakes up and finds herself locked in my room and then reverts back to this "survival" state and seeks out absorbent materials to urinate on. It used to be my bathmat (I close access to the bathroom now), then it was my bed, now it's the pillow in her crate. Like you said, I don't know if theres any way to fix that. She loves to lay in her crate on a feather pillow, but cleaning that pillow is tough! I'd leave only easily washable stuff in the crate. Old mattress pads are preferred in my house, and they're easy to wash and dry.

About her walking, she actually LOVES socialization. She loves to smell and meet other dogs, and part of me thinks that's why her walking is so poor - because smells catch her and she wants to follow it, but quickly loses it. Which brings me to another thing I've forgotten, I don't think her sense of smell is very good. She can't find treats or her food without me making a noise near it. I think that might be the cavalier in her - she snores something awful too (always has). Makes sense.

For the toys, she has absolutely no interest unless it is a rope or something not very fluffy. Plastic toys don't interest her at all. She loves to rip apart a cloth toy, but only so that she can eat the material! Not so much the stuffing, in fact she avoids the stuffing and prefers to eat the ears (like I said earlier). Are there any rope toys or cloth toys that are edible (non-toxic might be a better word)?

[critters]

I wonder if she'd like one of those "halo" devices?