Holding out Hope

Life's been busy with the dogs, and we have lots going on 'tis the season! I haven't written much about Agility, training, daily life hilariousness, our herding adventures, kaleb being bad, Gyp being cute etc - but I thought I should write this post as it seems important to share, and maybe there are more out there who can share their experiences.

 
It started like any other day. I took the dogs for their morning walk and run in the 'hood.

I came home and got a call that Pleat had thrown up and was laying with his head sideways. He couldn't stand. I went over to find him like this - already wrapped in a pretty tartan scarf :)



When I looked at him I knew right away (unless I was totally wrong) that he had had a Geriatric Vestibular attack. So much is unknown about this acute disease, but from all the nice emails I have received, support from Jenny, and the visit with our amazing Vet, that he should make a full/ or almost full recovery (he may have the cute head tilt permanently). Our vet has followed up with us a couple times already and the hardest part of the is disease is the waiting - it could take a couple weeks until he is back to normal or "near" normal.

He hasn't walked or stood up since Friday, though he has made small improvements - he now will shuffle his position on the floor, and the Nystagmus (rapid side to side eye movement) is WAY less severe that is was, and last night he was focusing for a small amount of time. He can now hold his head up to drink, and will eat small amounts of wet food. He has 2 more days of his motion sickness Meds and then like we've been doing ... we wait. He is comfortable, calm and not in pain - but it is so hard to see him just laying there ... and not being his usual cute moochy self spinning the kitchen for a cookie.

And I have to say, Pete has been totally AMAZING through this - he carries Pleat out to do his business for the last 4 days - we pretty much just wait to see if he will Pee, Pete stays outside with him and waits. Often he pees on his towels (which is over a tarp on the floor), so we change it when we need too. Pete even went over to my moms house at midnight to take the boy outside. Pete is always sitting with the boy giving him kisses and cuddling with him - texting me to see if he is OK. It's funny for me to be the one having to tell Pete it will be OK - he's rather smitten with the old guy ... we all are.  I might have even caught Pete crying, he feels so bad for him.



My mom sleeps in the living room with Pleat, and someone is with him pretty much all the time, he is one LOVED dog!! Though we haven't had him as part of our family for very long - he IS a part of our family.



Come on Pleaters ... we need you to get better!