14.6 and counting...

First of all, let me apologize for this post coming so late after the last one. I really intended to get this up yesterday but time got away from me and now my house has been invaded by 'The Stripes'...you may know this as Strep Throat. That's the name Sydney gave Strep when she was 4ish. Anyway, things are never dull around here, that's for sure!
So yesterday, Gracie and I made our weekly trip to Dr. Carroll's office. The news was all good this time. Gracie weighs 14.6 lbs now. That's another 2 lb gain in 1 week! Yay for our tiny girl! She was awake when we went yesterday, which is new, so they all got to see how pretty her eyes are. Dr. C said she looked so good that we can stop the prescription canned food, which is great because it was starting to give her some REALLY smelly gas! She was rivaling her sister, Miley, and that is not a good thing. I finally found out what the 'prescription' part of the canned food is; an appetite stimulant. That makes perfect sense, too, because Gracie is RAVENOUS at every meal! If she misses a piece of food, it's best to just put it back in the bowl because with her blindness and the 'feeding frenzy' she gets into when eating, you do not want your fingers anywhere near her mouth! Anyway, she's on just Eukanuba lg breed puppy now and we are working our way up to 2 cups per day.
Gracie is a big girl now, too! She got more puppy shots and her rabies vac. We will administer the Advantage (heartworm/flea preventative) in a couple of days. He didn't want to overwhelm her body with the shots and the Advantage all in one day.
We were talking about her vision and I told Dr. C about how we really think she can distinguish changes in light. Thursday afternoon, she was out roaming in the house and I had left the front door open (we have a glass door, too, that was closed) which lets in a ton of light. She made it up to the front door from the kitchen which is about a 20 foot hallway. I was talking to a friend and half watching, but then I noticed she kept bumping into the glass door. She would walk around a bit and then try to walk through it again. I jumped on the chance to experiment with her and shut the door, cutting off the light. She immediately turned from the door and started to wander back down the hall! I really think she saw the light and thought it was a way out. She always migrates to the back door and will wander around in front of it. The back door is mostly windows and lets in a ton of light, too. Plus, she goes out that door to relieve herself all the time. I'm telling you, she is getting smarter and smarter every day!
I've been leaving her in our bathroom with doors shut and she is doing great in there. She's not confined by the crate and can wander. I leave her food/water in there and her bed. She knows where they are, too. David left her in there to get some water yesterday and he went back into the kitchen. Shortly after that, he said she came wandering into the kitchen! She had made it out of the bathroom, around a few corners to get out of our bedroom, through the living room and hall into the kitchen! She is amazing!
Anyway, I digress...again! Dr. C wanted to see her walk and said it didn't look like she was doing her high-stepping as much. He checked her eyes again with all the lights off. He said they are responding to light and a few other things about her retinas (don't ask me what, I was still euphoric from them telling me her weight and wasn't listening too closely) which I took to mean they didn't look extremely damaged. Maybe she might recover just a tiny bit of vision??? We will see. She definitely needs to see an opthamologist just so we will know. Then he had her walk around and left the door open to the back area of the office. She walked right through the doorway and around the hall. He commented on how she doesn't bump into everything like most blind dogs and she would walk up to a wall and stop. She did that a couple times until she came to a doorway and then went through that doorway. I'm not getting my hopes too high and I don't want you to, either, but it's SO hard not to!!! Please just keep praying that she continues to heal well.
I asked him about what kinds of toys we could get for her since she is definitely acting more like a puppy and starting to play more. You'd have to know Dr. C to really get the hilarity in this but he is so straight-faced all the time that I didn't catch it at first. Anyway, he said, "Well, I know there is a piano that they have for blind dogs...". My mind is making mental notes on where to get this piano made especially for blind dogs and then I'm thinking 'how do they play with that? it's not like they have fingers, etc'. Then it dawns on me that it could be a Stevie Wonder reference. Very funny! We stopped at Petsmart on the way home and got her some puppy chews and a puppy Kong in the shape of a bone so it can't roll away from her. We are really trying to key in on her sense of smell and hearing with everything we do with her. So far, so good. Miley, again, looked like I stabbed her in the back when I brought home new toys for Gracie and none for her. She just sat in front of Gracie watching and waiting for her to leave the new stuff alone long enough for her to snatch it.
We also talked about Gracie's pads and her slipping when she walks. She continues to get stronger every day and this helps, but her pad are so soft and smooth. Dr. C thought maybe the slipping was actually smoothing her pads, too. He didn't really know of anything to put on the pads and cautioned us about doing that. He mentioned booties, too, but then agreed that might make her more stressed when trying to walk and having something foreign on her feet. So, he suggested walking her more on sidewalk/pavement than the grass and hopefully that will roughen up her pads enough to give her some traction.
We got her scheduled for her spay surgery in one month and he will dock her tail at that time, too. We discussed removing the dew claws but he said that was really more for high energy dogs and he didn't think that Gracie was going to be that much of a high energy dog due to the blindness. So, that was nixed. He really felt the tail would be a safety issue for her. Again, due to the blindness. She could get it caught in something or knock things over. Good point, I hadn't thought about that. There goes my idea for attaching a little OU flag to it in the fall!
Well, that's about it for the vet visit. Good news all the way around! She is still really tired and sleeps alot but we are moving in the right direction. She knows us and is giving puppy kisses! She will rub her face on your face if you are holding her and give kisses (with tiny nibbles here and there). I thank God for getting Grace to us and watching over her. She is truly a blessed little Weim!