Our little Hayley has had a rough couple of months. She was
diagnosed with canine diabetes and then just a few weeks later, Cushing’s Disease. It has been a long and continued battle to get her blood sugar levels down to
an acceptable number due to the fact that her Cushing’s Disease (stemming from
a pituitary tumor) has her endocrine system going haywire.
After months (and several weekly vet visits), I took her in
to have yet another two-hour blood test performed to see if her cortisol levels
and endocrine system were working any better since increasing her Vetoryl
(Trilostane) from once daily to twice daily.
I always feel bad before she gets bloodwork done because she
usually has to stop eating and drinking at midnight, and for Hayley this is an
immense task. Due to her diabetes, she is constantly hungry and thirsty and not
just, I could use a treat hungry, but ravenous to the point of eating anything
from the floor, and almost crawling on our lap if we are eating something. The constant drinking means there is constant
need to go out in the yard, of course. Two days before her last test, she went
out and sort of slip-slopped her way down the four steps of our porch, but it
had been snowy and slippery. She wasn’t hurt and I didn’t think much of her
misstep…until the next day.
I put her food down in the morning. She came out but seemed
not be able to find it. I motioned it’s over here Hayley, and she heard me and
came over. Just a week ago she was methodically watching my every move awaiting
mealtime, but now she didn’t. Then later on that day, she ran right into a
kitchen cabinet and the foot of the couch and the wall. My first thought was
that she had too much insulin (although this never happened before). Her vet,
Dr. Beverly, always clues me in to what to look for concerning her diabetes
management so I have been on guard. But she wasn’t dumpy or too sleepy; she
wasn’t just laying around or listless. It seemed like she just could not see.
The next day we got good news and bad
news. The good news is that after months and months of fine-tuning her
medication and insulin, she was responding to the medication for Cushing’s. Her
blood sugar was down to the low 300s after remaining in the high 500s even with
increasing doses of insulin. However, she was going blind from diabetic
cataracts. I was told a thick cataract is covering her eye inhibiting her
vision quite distinctly. In young and healthier dogs, a quick surgery can
easily remedy it but between her heart murmur, advanced age, and health
conditions, Dr. Beverley and I both feel that it is not safe to put her through
any type of surgery.
It was something I never expected and it happened so, so
fast. We don’t think she can see anything. She can’t see a hand in front of her
with food, but can only smell it and try to locate it. She can’t see an opened
door or a tree, so we have had to accompany her outside multiple times a day to
the yard. She walks funny on her leash because she’s so unsure of where she is
going.
Now we are learning how to care for a blind dog. The most
important part of it is just keeping her safe. She tumbled down the basement
stairs last week and now we are vigilant in keeping all doors closed at all
times. I am reading how it is a delicate balance of teaching her to remain
independent and not carry her everywhere but provide her help when she needs
it. With the recent snowstorms in NYC, we have been extra protective of letting
her out because we have a back porch that she will fall right down if left to
her own devices, particularly with the icy mess it has been. My kids and I take
turns caring for her everyday. It is like another job so taking shifts helps. At
night, we put her bed in her crate and make her sleep in there so she will not
get hurt, and she doesn’t seem to mind it at all, even after years of sleeping
out in the open wherever she wanted.
I have said it before, she is still as spunky and free
spirited and even happy as ever, despite her never-ending challenges. She’s the
strongest lady I know, and quite the inspiration.