Sudden Blindness In Mini Schnauzer

[Mum to Emma]

My parents' 10 year old miniature schnauzer has lost much of her eyesight over the space of a month due to retinal inflammation. She is under the care of an eye specialist and they will find out next week if the treatment is working.

The most difficult thing to accept, however, is how the loss of vision is affecting her. She is extremely depressed - won't play, won't go for walks (will get as far as the front gate post and refuse to move), won't leave her crate in the morning when the door is opened, although she still barks at the doorbell and wolfs down her dinner. She will follow people around and occasionally wag her tail but that's it. The rest of the time she is just flopped down on the floor.

I, myself, have a blind dog and perhaps because her vision loss was slow due to PRA, she copes extremely well and is as happy and confident as she ever was. I try to tell my parents just to treat their dog as normal and not 'molly coddle' her - to encourage her to play and speak to her in happy tones. Essentially, behave as if nothing is wrong.

Does anyone have experience with their dog going suddenly blind? How long did it take for them to adjust?

Also, does anyone have experience with a dog that has been diagnosed with retinal inflammation? I'd be interested to hear of your experiences. For us, the first sign that something was wrong was the depression which the vet initially put down to arthritis and put her on cartrophen. Later we noticed that she was walking into things ...

[oakway]

You could try this site

http://www.eyevet.ca/sards.html

[_PL_]

No experience with retinal inflammation.

But blind and partially blind yes.

Firstly she is unlikely to want to go for walks like she used to. She needs to learn to rely more on her nose and ears. And to trust her feet.

Take her into the garden when the sun isn't very bright, sit in a chair with a book and sprinkle some tiny liver treats through the grass, let her find them herself with her nose. Could take a while but it'll get her moving and interested in something.

You can put a couple of drops of essential oil like lavender into a water spray bottle and make trails to things if she is getting lost.

Don't move the furniture around and don't over-clean (for the time being) the 'known' paths she will make so she can follow her own scent. So no bleaches or carpet sprays etc.

Stand with your eyes closed and it's very scary to take a few steps forward without hints. :) So I also use pieces of those grippy non slip rubber things (you know the ones that come on a roll and you can cut them?) and place them on important places. One at the feeding spot and at the water bowl etc. I'd put one outside her crate and anywhere you see her balk at stepping onto. She may never feel 100% comfy with surfaces like tiles or smooth lino.

(I also wear an anklet that jingles a little so the dogs know where I am LOL)

Not much help I know but in some ways you can't carry on as if everything is normal. And for a while she's going to need a bit of fussing. Best wishes for her. xx

[schnauzer]

My older schnauzer (at the bridge now) went totally blind at 10 with SARDS and his vet was Mark Bilson at SASH. I haven't heard of retinal inflammation.

Luckily he was a well trained dog and had another dog to follow, so was still happy :) He went on his daily walks to the beach and the park and just trotted beside me. Having another dog to follow helped him enormously - I never took him out of his own environment, so he managed very well.

I also used scent to mark where his water bowls were and down the three steps at the back of the house. I never used to leave anything laying around or move any furniture. When he was 12 I did have to carry him outside and back inside - he seemed to lose his judgement with the steps. If your parents can take her for a walk with another stable dog, she may follow? There is a great website for blind dogs. Hope it all goes well for her.

[Boronia]

These halo vests for blind dogs may help---> http://www.halosforpaws.com/

[Pretty Miss Emma]

I will come back and write a proper reply when I'm on a computer. My old girl went blind in the space of a month or so, but due to cataracts. My eye vet was telling us schnauzers were what their clinic was built around! But let's be honest any dog can end up with a problem!

Anyway, I'll come back later and tell you about my experience.

[Dogsfevr]

You need to treat treat them as normaly as possible BUT make allowances .Don't spoil tough love will make it better for her

Walks & the likes may happen down the track but you need to get her adjusted to her home environment .

That may mean laying carpet runners to & from water bowls or the back door .

She will fear the unknown & they will bump into things but they way you react to this will decide how easy it becomes to adjust.

Also watch her when moving our blind dogs where very methodical on there routine & if disturbed often went back to the start so if she is on a journey don't disturb unless its dangerous.If she looks lost & distressed then help but don't fuss,calmly go back to pint A & let her settle.

Dogs can adjust well we had one that was blind for 4 yrs & ran the acre ,did the doggy door etc etc She was PTS when her smell & hearing went

[MarieEvans]

Awww, poor dog. Maybe you could use some of those techniques that families of blind people use like don't move around furniture, give them food and point them to the right direction. Loss of sight may be a challenge at this point but give your dog a few months and he'll get used to it. :)

[persephone]

She is extremely depressed - won't play, won't go for walks (will get as far as the front gate post and refuse to move), won't leave her crate in the morning when the door is opened,

absolutely understandable poor thing- her world is no longer reliable.

behave as if nothing is wrong.

To some degree yes.. but SUDDEN onset blindness means that their dog has not had time to adjust .. to train herself to use her nose & ears in locating things which were so easily seen .. all of a sudden there is no differing light to help her subconscious , either.

rescue remedy or a D A P diffuser may help her at present , poor girl.

if she likes food/treats .. then liver treats , or her kibble , can be used to get her to be more mobile :) Introduce treat balls with liver treats / a few smelly cat food kibble bits in .... give her bones outside .

Get her to sniff some vanilla/lavender on a cloth from a little distance, and treat her ..so she associates it with good stuff :)

then

Drip or spray vanilla or lavender at around 35 cm distances to help her navigate .

maybe place little bells /winchimes around the yard boundary , and take her and show her teh fencelines again .

use texture a LOT ... she will then be able to confidently follow 'paths' by what it feels like underfoot ....

if she has dog friends ..some gentle socialising may help - as long as your folks remember she can no longer see body language/hackles, tail wags ....

Edited December 22, 2012 by persephone

[Mum to Emma]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I guess she just has to learn to rely on her other senses. I noticed last night that she's starting to use her nose when climbing stairs to judge where the next step is, so the learning process has started already.

As for thoughts to cheer her up, I particularly like the idea of sprinkling liver treats through the grass That can be her Christmas Day present!

[Pretty Miss Emma]

I did a lot of filtering through this website when Emma first went blind. It's based in the US, and you do have to trawl through what's useful and what's not, but there is some good info on there.

My Em went blind within a month, she ran a full agility trial on 4 October 2010 and was diagnosed as completely blind in early November of the same year. Neither of us coped very well with it at first. I cried a lot. But then I had to get over it as that wasn't helping her at all, it freaked her out even more than she was. At first she shut down completely when things went wrong for her. So I did try to manipulate the environment so that things would go right as often as possible. Nothing left on the floor that wasn't already there, making sure doors were fully open if it was a space she would want to get to, etc. But lots of teaching commands. I taught her step up and step down, they were probably 2 of the most useful commands. And I would tell her these for every step up and down she had to take including biggish cracks in the footpath. I also taught her careful (which meant that something out of th ordinary was ahead). Everyone else here has given you good advice in terms of helping her manage, I didn't use scents but I did use sounds - bells. I carried bells when she needed to know where I was. I also bought her a ball with a bell in it and she was able to chase that and if she was close I could bounce it to her and she could catch it!

Something that was very useful to me was that I bought her a bandana that said "I'm blind" and she would wear it when we walked or if I took her somewhere and there were people who weren't used to her being blind. It's just useful because they can't see what is coming ahead and when they wear the bandana (or whatever) I found that people would move out of her way or if they could see she was stuck in a corner they would help her out, etc, etc.

I think the thing that helped Em and I cope much better with her blindness was when it just become matter of fact. Instead of fussing over her if she tripped and fell I started saying "whoopsies, up you get" (sometimes I had to help her up because she was either a bit scared or her arthritis was playing up) and we'd just keep going. Thins take a bit longer with a blind dog, at the start you definitely have to slow down a bit, but they still have so much quality of life and they love spending time with you that bit more (you do become their security blanket a bit!).

[becks]

Is retinal inflammation the diagnosis from an eye specialist or just your normal vet?

Some good advice has been given. Assist from the background, so the dog learns to use their own judgement about how to proceed in their surroundings.

Watch around dogs who don't know her, they can react in a negative way which could lead to fights.

The more they learn to do for themselves, the more confidence they will get, as others have said, start with the home and garden and then progress to familiar walks.