New here -- some questions, soiling concerns

[brismom]

My 6 year old border collie/Australian shepherd mix has previously had severe "collie nose." I noticed a few weeks ago that her pupils were extremely dilated even in sunlight. We took her to the vet who ran blood tests and then sent us on a 4 1/2 hour drive to see a canine ophthalmologist (silly me, I didn't know there was such a thing!) He said it was most likely SARDS altho the only way to be sure was a $350 test. Since he said there was no treatment, we passed on the test.

Brianna still has some vision, but it's hard to say how well she sees. I notice a little less dilation in sunlight. Hubby and I are preparing for her eventual blindness, mostly by educating ourselves. She is already a very high-strung, nervous dog, so I ordered her a Thundervest to see if that would calm her. We are getting bells and making the house and yard safer for her.

She seems to be doing pretty well, but has begun soiling and peeing in the house, She often pants heavily. Are the toileting accidents related to SARDS? Any advice for how to deal with them? This is stressing me out, b/c hubby yells at her when she poops, but I think it may have a medical component and I have been unable to find out on the Internet.

I am glad to find this group. I don't feel so all alone with so many people dealing with blind dogs all helping each other out. Thank you for reading this and I hope to get some responses.

Bri's mom, AKA Linda

[Blinddogs.net]

Welcome to the forum Bri & Linda

Our Jack Russell Terrier (Lucy) went blind in 2004 from SARDS. For a very brief period of time Lucy started going potty in the house, though she had she never done this before going blind. She also panted a lot, and started getting up during the night at 2 or 3 AM wanting out to potty outside (she used to sleep through the night just fine) but most of this stopped within a month or so after the blindness. She still (years later) does get up to potty now and then during the night, but never has accidents in the house. Hopefully Bri's potty issues will be just a temporary thing while she is adjusting. If you continue to have problems with this, there is an over the counter supplement called Phosphatidyl Serine (or PS for short) that was often used for SARDS dogs, and said to help with assorted symptoms, as well as confusion. The PS might be worth a try to see if it might help Bri. I know over the years there have been other supplements/med used with SARDS dogs, but I have no experience with any of them. I know there are several SARDS dog owners groups on Yahoo groups: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/SARDSdogs/ or http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/SARDSdogs_AE/ and a general blind dog list: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/blinddogs/ where you might get some additional ideas if the indoor potty problem continues. Please keep us posted on how Bri is doing, okay?