mangey mutt...

So Gracie has had this red spot on her right temple for over a month, now. I just thought it was where she was brushing against the corner of the brick when coming in the back door from the yard. I've seen her do this quite a bit. We 'padded' the brick with duck tape and assumed it would heal and go away. About 2 weeks ago, a red spot similar to the one on her temple appeared on the top of her back foot. It is kind of up by her toes so I thought again, she must have scraped her foot. Well, last week one of the spots appeared on the back of her head. Since I'm fairly sure it would be difficult for even her to scrape the back of her head on something, I knew it was time to see the vet.
We've gradually transferred her care to Dr. Kevin Marcum in Frisco. We love him and he is so good with her and 'the twins', Maggie and Miley. He took one look at it and said that '4 letter' word that I was afraid of...mange. It just sounds ugly! The good news is that it is demodex and not sarcoptic. For those of you not educated in the matters of mange (as I was prior to our introduction to sarcoptic mange with Tucker, another weim puppy we fostered), demodex is the the lesser of two evils. Sarcoptic is contagious and makes the dog miserable...at least it did to Tucker. That poor little guy's tummy was bright red, had bumps all over it and he just scratched and whined all weekend til we could get to the vet. Then we had to treat M & M and worry about the girls because it's apparently transferable from dog to human.
Anyway, demodex is fairly easy to treat and not contagious. Dr. Marcum invited me back to see 'them' in the microscope following him scraping the red spots on Gracie. Really? I'm game...I've always been interested in the weird and gross stuff. I love the Discovery Health Channel and this can't be any worse than that. I go look and as I'm walking back to the exam room, I notice I've begun to itch...
So Gracie is on an antibiotic and another med that we apply topically (much like Frontline) to her back between the shoulder blades and lower back. The topical goes on once a week for 3 weeks and it really smells! My car smelled like that for several days.
Other than that, she's doing great! We weighed her and she is now 32.6 pounds! Which explains why my arms were asleep by the time I got her out of the car and into the vet's office. We are definitely going to have to get going on her training. I can't keep carrying her if she is unsure of the surface she is walking on. And we are definitely going to have to figure out a way to get her comfortable with jumping into the car on her own. But again, not sure if she would be able to do this considering the weakness in her back legs. We'll see... Anybody know of a trainer or behavioralist that has actually worked with a blind dog? I'd love to talk to them.
That's it for now...Gracie sends sloppy kisses to all of you! :o)

video of gracie playing...

This is such a cute video of Princess Gracie. She got out in the rain and just started running circles around all of us. She was prancing and splashing in the puddles and just jumping around. Plus, this shows how she picks up her hind legs together when she is running full speed.
Remember too, she is blind and manages to not run into one thing in our front yard...and they say my gray girl has brain damage. My dogs with sight run into things all the time!
...talk to the hand...

the inevitable...

Well, I've used about every excuse possible to get out of writing this post so I guess I just need to get it over with. We went to the neurologist a couple of weeks ago and had Gracie evaluated. This was a much less emotional visit than the ophthalmologist and David was with me so I was well-prepared. I think I knew in the back of my mind what the results would show. Gracie does have neurological damage. It's not so much the fact that she has the damage...that I can deal with. We know Gracie and how she is. We are fine with the way she is and wouldn't change a hair on her. It's more the fact that we don't know definitively what happened to her before WRNT rescued her. That is the truly frustrating part. The doctor would ask us a question about Gracie and at least half of them we couldn't answer because we just don't know. When we were talking about the seizure that her former owner said she had but we aren't even sure if she had one. The doctor asked if she has had any more...no. Well, that is apparently good. The longer she goes without one, the better. Plus, the fact that she has steadily been improving since we got her is also good. However, apparently some seizures don't start until after they turn 1. So, long story short, we just wait and see. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that since having Gracie. David and I were told "wait and see" when she was first pulled from the shelter and we didn't know if she would be able to make the trip from Houston to Dallas. We were told "wait and see" when we didn't know if she would make it out of her anemic state of weakness and just survive. We were told "wait and see" if she has neurological damage until after she regains her health and strength. We were told "wait and see" when we were unsure if she would regain any of her sight. I'm such a solution-oriented person and this does not compute! Give me a problem and I will figure out a way to solve it on my own or 'google' an answer. But God gave me a lesson in humility and acceptance when he plopped that scrawny gray puppy in my lap. I can't fix Gracie. I have nursed her back to health and shown her what a good life can be in a loving family. But there are problems that I can't solve. I can't make her see again although the thought of her being able to put faces with voices brings tears to my eyes. I can't fix the damage done in her brain. These are the things that I have both accepted yet still hold out hope that something will change. On the one hand, I can accept that she is blind and has the symptoms that go along with neuro issues. What I can't accept is that, in this modern world, there isn't something that can be done to help her. Or why something wasn't done to prevent this from happening in the first place. Both of which I had/have absolutely NO control over! Remember, the ophthalmologist said that he was sure she wasn't born blind. If only... I won't even go there.
Enough lamenting...
Here are the facts from neuro: her circling, weakness in hind legs, clumsiness/falling over are all attributable to the brain damage that she sustained early in her life. We can't tell she has an abnormal gait until she runs full speed. She will start pulling both hind legs up at the same time when running fast. I think she looks like a jackrabbit. She will more than likely not regain her sight, although she does have some ability to distinguish light from dark and is responsive to light. We are unsure of the weakness in her hind legs. I would love to say that we can build her strength but we just don't know. She will probably always do, to some degree, her 'Gracie Circles'. But then again, would she be Gracie without the Gracie Circles?

gracie's weim tail debut...

Video of Princess Gracie's newly docked tail. She looks like a real Weim now!

gracie singing video...

Now that Gracie has discovered here 'voice', she is using it all the time. She barks when the big dogs bark at something. She can be in the back part of the house and Maggie and Miley are at the front of the house barking at someone on the sidewalk and she will start barking just to be part of the group. Obviously, her hearing is more sensitive since she is blind so sometimes she hears things that M & M don't and she will start her barking. David will make noises and she just cocks her head to the side with her 'gracie stare'.
Recently, she has started to howl and it is the cutest thing! Her little mouth makes an 'o' and she just sticks her head straight up in the air. LOVE IT!! This video is just a sampling of the 'music' we hear in the Walker home every day.