My boyfriend got a Boston terrier puppy, only ten weeks old. She was attacked by a jack Russell and the other dog bit out her eye ball, causing trauma to the optic nerve in her remaining eye.
I know that since she’s a baby she will adapt easier but I still worry about her. I’m on this site asking for advice on how to take care of a blind dog or if anyone has heard of any surgeries to help get her sight back in her other eye. Please, I’m just a lost mom looking for some help.
I personally don’t know of any surgeries to get her sight back, but I do know that if she has lost sight in both eyes she will cope beautifully with it all. As you say, she is still a baby and she will adapt best of all.
The one thing I always tell people who have blind dogs, is to let them be. In other words, don’t try to help them get around. The learn by mapping their way around the house and yard, so they will edge their way around and sniff around and learn each time they do that. If you pick up your pup and help them get to their food bowl, or help them to get around the yard or whatever, then it is going to take them longer to find their way. The only time you want to help them is if they are about to put themselves in some sort of danger.
Once the optic nerve is damaged, there really is nothing that can be done to restore sight. As Paula says, she will adapt, and more quickly if you let her navigate around herself rather than picking her up, unless she’s about to put herself in danger. I’m sorry this happened to your little sweetheart. Mine lost her sight in one eye when another dog pulled it out of the socket, just as happened with your puppy. She’s got glaucoma in the other and I expect she’ll be blind in that eye soon. We just have to cope as best we can; our dogs will probably do better than we will!
How awful for your baby, she’ll get through it! And so will you.
In addition to what the other ladies said, she has to have added training cues. I have a 5 year old lab who was born with cataracts in both eyes and last year he had an eye removed due to glaucoma . Koda knows all your normal training cues (sit, down, stay etc..) But i added Street (he sits when i say it) Step (for curbs) Slow down (when he’s going to run into something) and Wait. When Koda was a puppy i walked him off leash until he was about 4 or 5 months old. Then he was leashed, unless we were in a wooded area or the dog park. He doesn’t stray from me when his leash is off (if we are in the city) You can’t move furniture around too often as they get used to the map of the room. Food and water should remain in the same area if possible. I also talk to Koda all the time and especially while walking. If his ears perk up, i tell him what hes hearing and reassure him if he seams uneasy. His nose has become a super nose so I always watch in case he finds things in the grass to eat. Stairs were hard for him. I think he was 7 months old before he would go down the stairs and he was 3 when he went up the stairs for the first time without me behind him. I also have a specific whistle if i have walked too far and he can’t find me, it also means “come now”
But i think the hardest thing is, leaving them to find their way AND not feeling sorry for them. You want to help them, to make it easier. But that doesn’t actually help them. You watch closely but at a distance and step in, of course, if they are going to get hurt. I wanted Koda to be independent but more importantly, confident. Yes, he has a disability but he is still capable of so much. I just needed to let go a bit and let him be.
Hi
I have only just joined this site and your dog is beautiful, my baby Ringo was attacked when he was 2 years old and he is now blind in his left eye, totally and utterly devastating like nothing else.
The eye vet in Frodsham luckily managed to save his eye ball but he is blind. So now almost 3 years on Ringo is doing great but I am now very worried about his eyes in general, he has the dry eye condition in both and just this week knocked into a wall on his blindside Injuring his eye lid. Also there is the protection of the good eye.
I want him to enjoy walks and myself keep calm I was considering either Doggles or optivisor?
Thanks