Shadow Update April 30/08
Published April 30th, 2008
This picture was taken a couple of summers ago by a friend at my parent’s house up North. I look at this picture, because it’s Shadow at his best. The little guy’s had a rough week. Last Tuesday he collapsed and had a neurological episode where he lost his balance and was feeling very dizzy, so unable to right himself for a couple of days. The symptoms closely match something that happens commonly in older dogs called Idiopathic Geriatric Vestibular Syndrome. The Idiopathic part stands for “we don’t know why this happens…” The Vestibular part is referring to the part of his nervous system that keeps his balance and helps keeps him upright. When we think about vestibular and balance deficits, we need to figure out whether the problem lies outside or inside the brain. Last week’s signs seem mostly outside the brain, but we can’t be sure where this fits in since he has so many other things going on. For Shadow’s whole story, read these posts: Good Thoughts Needed for Shadow the Dog and Update on Shadow April 2/08.
He has mostly recovered from that episode, but has now started pacing, doing some different circling, and bumping into things during the last couple of nights. I’m not sure if it’s his dementia acting up or if another neurological problem is presenting itself. At this point knowing that his tumour has already spread, I’m worried that it may have spread to his brain. He still walks normally around the block and in a straight line, hangs out with everyone, and is eating and drinking well. Sometimes he just seems perfectly normal, and other times he acts like he can’t see at all and doesn’t know where he’s going . During the night I gave him some Gravol, which helped him to settle down and have a good sleep.
He has another acupuncture session on Friday, and then we are going to try him at home with my parents for the weekend. We need to see if he does much better in his home environment. Shadow loves my husband and I, but this isn’t the house he’s lived in for the last 12 years. I obviously can’t explain to him why he’s been spending so much time with us down here (where he gets his treatments), so I need to try him at home and see if it’s easier for him.
We really are doing everything possible to help him that’s not going to hurt him. We are trying to remain positive and give him all of our help, love, and attention. His happiness and comfort are the most important thing right now, so if he doesn’t continue to improve, or gets continually worse, we may have to make a tough decision. I love this little guy, and he has a family that will do absolutely anything to help him. The only test we haven’t done is an MRI, but unfortunately, that wouldn’t change any of the things we’re already doing, provided he could even tolerate general anesthesia at the age of 18 for a couple of hours while they do the test.
I feel frustrated because I’m running out of things I can do to help. I know that other people would have given up, or put him down once they figured out that he had an aggressive cancer that’s spread and can’t be fully removed and a back problem, but we were able to successfully manage his back pain and he was quite happy before this neurological episode. I am confident that he is pain free, am monitoring him and his quality of life very closely, and I pray that he improves day by day.
We are all rooting for Shadow, any positive thoughts for him would be appreciated–he needs them now more than ever.
pam on May 1, 2008
Keeping a good thought for Shadow!
My girl Tess [since passed] had a bout with Canine Vestibular -it was scary as heck until we found out what it was! Hang in there, Shadow!