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Some of you may remember my thread from last summer that described how I had to jump in the pond and save my old Yoda from drowning. Well I brought 13 1/2 year old Yoda down to Texas with me last month to camp out and hang around while I train his two younger brothers Gus and Alex with Rob Erhardt and his group. It was a great idea bringing Yoda as all the excitment of being in a training atmosphere jacked him up and seemed to give him a new lease on life as compared to just sleeping all day at home, but the "other shoe" dropped last wednesday, when he had a serious stroke. I opened up his kennel to air him after about three hours and he couldn't even stand up without falling over.
This was beyond devistating, all I could think was having to call my wife to tell her I was going to have to put him down. But I was super blessed to have Ron Ainley and Wayne Skochenski training with us these past few weeks and Wayne, who is absolutely the hardest working, most generous and nicest guy ever, recognized the symptoms as a stroke and encouraged me with the story about his own dog and how she went through the same thing at Yoda's age, recovered and lived another couple years. Rob called his vet to set up an appointment, and I raced over with Yoda on the front seat.
The vet verified Wayne's diagnosis, gave me a prescription, encouraged me to walk Yoda and said anything could happen from him staying the same, getting worse, improving modestly or a lot. Well, after a couple bad days; Yoda not being able to eat food out of a bowl, even though he was hungry and would gulp it out of my hand, Yoda not being able to stand up on his own, head tilted hard right, a couple more siezures (very scary watching your dog struggle and panic, then arch up like he's dying), walking after being lifted down to the ground, but walking like a drunk sailor on land. But, little by little he improved, until he is almost back to normal, or at least compensating for some brain damage. He still has a slight head tilt, I think he's blind in his left eye, his back end is definately wobbly but he makes it work, overall I'm ecstatic but scared about another episode.
I and our whole training group are very much appreciating each day with Yoda as he steals birds off the bird rack, watches dogs launch off line almost like he's thinking about breaking for that bird and racing them to it. I'm taking lots of pictures and just enjoying his company. I just wanted to write this for those of you with nice old senior dogs at home, please don't take them for granted as they tend to fade in the background like an old piece of furniture.
Here's Yoda from today, I wish I could post the video to show how animated he is...
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This was beyond devistating, all I could think was having to call my wife to tell her I was going to have to put him down. But I was super blessed to have Ron Ainley and Wayne Skochenski training with us these past few weeks and Wayne, who is absolutely the hardest working, most generous and nicest guy ever, recognized the symptoms as a stroke and encouraged me with the story about his own dog and how she went through the same thing at Yoda's age, recovered and lived another couple years. Rob called his vet to set up an appointment, and I raced over with Yoda on the front seat.
The vet verified Wayne's diagnosis, gave me a prescription, encouraged me to walk Yoda and said anything could happen from him staying the same, getting worse, improving modestly or a lot. Well, after a couple bad days; Yoda not being able to eat food out of a bowl, even though he was hungry and would gulp it out of my hand, Yoda not being able to stand up on his own, head tilted hard right, a couple more siezures (very scary watching your dog struggle and panic, then arch up like he's dying), walking after being lifted down to the ground, but walking like a drunk sailor on land. But, little by little he improved, until he is almost back to normal, or at least compensating for some brain damage. He still has a slight head tilt, I think he's blind in his left eye, his back end is definately wobbly but he makes it work, overall I'm ecstatic but scared about another episode.
I and our whole training group are very much appreciating each day with Yoda as he steals birds off the bird rack, watches dogs launch off line almost like he's thinking about breaking for that bird and racing them to it. I'm taking lots of pictures and just enjoying his company. I just wanted to write this for those of you with nice old senior dogs at home, please don't take them for granted as they tend to fade in the background like an old piece of furniture.
Here's Yoda from today, I wish I could post the video to show how animated he is...
