Well we went to the vet today, and not much to report.  There is definitely nothing wrong with Nova's ears.  Her hearing is great.  The vet agreed with me that perhaps she wasn't totally blind before, but now she is.  She did have one episode last week which reminded me of when her pressures were up in her eye (way back when). But I am confused because the opthamologist has told me since last April that Nova was 100% blind.  He also said that there might be a (remote) possibility of a brain tumor, not necessarily metastisizing from the osteo, but something that was already there.  But she's not having seizures or other strange symptoms. He said the only way to know for sure would be to have a CT scan or MRI which would be well over $1000.  It just doesn't make sense to spend all that money to "find out if" when the likelihood is remote, plus, if there WAS a brain tumor I wouldn't be able to do surgery anyway. So watch and wait is all I can do.

He agreed with me that Nova sudden confusion is troubling, but that Nova is pretty high maintenance so it might all just be dog drama from Nova suddenly losing what little sight she had (even though we didn't think she had sight). I guess we will never really know.  This is one of those times where you wish there was this magic button on the dog that you could just press to just have her answer one question in "human" rather than dog.  I know that sounds stupid, but dang, it would make it so much easier to figure out what's wrong.  Could you see a little before, Nova, but not now?  Does your head hurt? Are you forgetting things? Or are you just playing me to get attention? lol So many questions to ask that will never get answered.  If only I could speak dog.

Geeze, I wish I could have walked out of there with an answer that satisfied me.  I could go to the opthamologist now, but all they are going to do is check her eyes and say "Yep, she's blind." And I could go to the oncologist, but all she's going to do is say spend another few K to "find out" if there is a brain tumor.  If there is, then I can't do a thing about it, so what's the point?

I hope this is all just Nova not being quite blind, now is totally blind, and is just being her overly dramatic self.

The Worried, Stressed, Exhausted Queen Mum (Sue)

Pam, yes. Her pressures were fine.  But she has had pressure spikes way back when, that is what I was told originally caused her blindness.  There was one night last week when she wouldn't settle down, whining a lot, panting, etc. I didn't think of it at the time, but it really was similar to the time she first went blind last April.  Perhaps she had a quick pressure spike that knocked out the remainder of her sight.  That's the only thing that makes sense.  What doesn't make sense is that she has seemingly forgotten all of her patterns through the house... to the door, the water/food dish, outside, etc.  My vet seemed to believe that she should still be able to remember these.  I guess I will just wait and see how she does and if she adapts more.  She is sooooo happy all the time, so that helps.

Sue