Murphy is a 7 year old male Dachshund. He is so full of life! I have two Dachshunds and by far, Murphy was my favorite! (Sorry Guiness).
Murphy wasn’t like a regular Dachshund. He ran and played and jumped to catch Frisbees and his treats. He rustled with me and my son on the floor.
One day, I noticed that he wasn’t able to catch the treats in his mouth. they were smacking him on the face. Similarly, I noticed that he wasn’t playing with us or his mate. I watched him for a few days and tried to understand what might have happened. I took him into the vets office and they confirmed his was blind. Nothing was wrong with his eyes, they said. They were perfect. It could be something back in his brain however. Finding out would only tell me that he could possibly have a tumor – and that would kill me because I could never afford that kind of surgery.
So on his word, we just started making him more comfortable and use to functioning blind.
Backstory – one week before I noticed his blindness, my 3 year old son overfed Murphy to the point that Murphy developed bloat. Not once but 2 times I had to take him to the vet for him to have fluids and be monitored. Bloat, I was told, could kill him.
Now, forward to the blindness, I suggested that there was a relationship between the bloats and his blindness but the Vet reassured me there was not.
I am looking to help Murphy re-gain some of his spunk. He was so happy go lucky but now is depressed and sad.How do I help my little angel re-gain his vitality?
I would seriously look at his diet. If you are feeding him any store bought food I take him off it and go with a homemade raw food diet. I bought a book on Amazon all about it called Raw Dog Food: Make It Easy for You and Your Dog and it is excellent (see link at the very bottom of my reply).
Also, take a look at this. Could this be the cause?? – http://www.ward49.com/site/epage/137180_322.htm
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1929242093/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1929242093&linkCode=as2&tag=blind-dog-support-20
Im not a vet – so take this as a grain of salt. My sydney slowly lost his sight about 4-5 years ago. I noticed at times he too was withdrawn and did not want to socialize. I asked my vet and he said dogs can go through depressive episodes as they lose their sight – especially if they lose it suddenly. Syd came around up until the last few months when he first had a slipped lens (lenses had cataracts. He then developed painful pressure in his eyes. —glaucoma. He became very lethargic, stayed in his crate all day, non social – squinted a lot. Basically wanted to keep his eyes shut as much as possible. The vet checked the pressures and it was 39 – anything over 30 is painful – in the eyes and causes ongoing headaches. He had his eyes removed last Thursday. Although he is still recouping and on meds – he is actually more alert – longer than he was prior to surgery. Long story short – it could be natural depression and adjusting to blindness – or has your vet checked for glaucoma? Hope maybe this helps.
Oh – yes one more thing – Paula is right – his diet may be part of it. Syd also acted last year the same way when he developed pancreatitis. He ate high fat canned food and I hate to admit – table scraps at times. One day he just layed in his crate and also outside in the cold – in a little ball. I took him to the vet after hours and she diagnosed the pancreatitis. He stayed at the vet 4 days on IV fluids and antibiotics and they weaned him off all the fatty foods. His diet now is boiled chicken, rice with smashed carrots and low sodium chicken or beef broth. Lately I have been mixing that up with prescription canned food from the vet – low fat gastrointestinal sensitive (Royal Canin).
Hi guys,
Thanks for your comments. While I think I have done a good job on the dogs primary diet, SD low fat food, its surely not a raw diet. I probably wont be able to do anything like that. I didn’t even make my sons food when he was a baby so chances are…
The vet did a thorough work up in looking at his eyes. We didn’t talk about Glaucoma. He did look for cats and Murphy was clear.
I too think a slow diet change may prevent further bloat issues. My Tina had pancreatitis and almost died. That was 4 years ago. We went to the low fat type diet but she HATED it – even boiled chicken! and she was losing weght- only weighs 12 lbs. So with the vet we worked out a slow process of placing her back on what she was used to- like over a year, Has done very well, but if diarrhea pops up or she won’t eat, she gets downgraded for 2 weeks plus adding a holistic powder of probiotics.Good luck!