thank you all

so... I've had some time to cry and think and watch Cora. I knew she had brain damage. It was sort of implied in the medical records I got after I adopted her. And I watched her and could tell there were issues. The vet and canine rehab specialist were seeing Cora at her worst. She was scared and overloaded. Yes, that's  an issue but right now her quality of life is ok. Today she spent time exploring the yard after walking down the ramp on her own. Then I decided to try and relax by taking a bath. Cora, blind and tripod though she is, tried to climb in with me. So I let her. It wasn't the relax bath I wanted but she had a blast.

The vet she saw yesterday was an orthopedist. He wasn't a neurologist. I understood what he saw. But it is not even close to time to be thinking about euthanasia. He is concerned because she showed aggression. Probably a fair bit with them. Today my friend came over and Cora was a puppy. She wanted to chew on my friend. She was curious. She wasn't friendly in the normal sense but she certainly wasn't aggressive. It's true, that a week ago she was showing some major aggressive behavior to me when I was trying to put on a halter, get her up the stairs, etc. Yes, that would be a huge problem in a larger dog. I'm working on it and am willing to work with a behaviorist. There are also possibly meds that can help with anxiety and such.  A lot of dogs don't do well with vet exams. There are muzzles and other ways to work with that. Other than gentle, puppy teething behavior it's been almost 2 weeks since she bit me, either through mistakenly getting me when trying to get a toy, or aggression. She *is* learning.

I watched her today and so did my friend. It was good to have that reality check of my friend. He said she seemed happy. She has the occasional accident but she's mostly pottly trained. So she maybe her life will have to be kept simple. Maybe she won't ever be able to go on walks and things like that and won't be able to deal with a lot of out in the world situations. Maybe. If that's the case that's not the end of the world. That doesn't mean she will have no quality of life.

I've been researching and she has many of the symptoms of hydrocephalus. A lot of the information I found on it was pretty grim (worse than the link I found). But if that's the case, it means there are things I can be doing for her now. My vet has been out of town, she gets back next week. I will see her on Thursday and we will talk about this. She is into alternative medicine so she may be able to come up with some options on that end of things. I'm not going to rush Cora to get an mri. It seems like yesterday's experience was traumatic for her and I think there's another route. I am going to ask my vet if we can treat Cora with meds, as if she has hydrocephalus. If she shows improvement, then I'll probably make an appointment with a neurologist. They can do surgery but it doesn't cure it, it just helps the symptoms and life expectancy is pretty short. I would have to think long and hard before doing that.