By now, most of the people in our circles know our goofy pitsky mix, Karma. She’ll be 9 years old in about a week and while she has slowed down with age, the goofiness she has exhibited since we rescued her hasn’t ever really left her.
Sometimes this goofiness has been sleeping in every weird position her body will allow. We have long joked that Karma must be made of a plasma and not a solid, because solids don’t bend like she can.
Other times, the goofiness meant begging for toys to destroy.
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| Trogdor didn’t last very long against the valiant Karma. |
Once she realized we were her pack, Karma has been so loyal and protective. She regularly forces herself between me and strangers on walks, and even puts Hubs in his place if he tickles me too hard or we play wrestle more than her liking. She has more than once read the riot act to service people who had to enter the house (except for the plumber who took 5 minutes to give her some love. He’s welcome back any time 😉 ).
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| Chair-dog of the Neighborhood Watch |
She was a great packmate and playmate for her sister, Ellie. It was a difficult adjustment for all of us when we lost Ellie. But lots of love, cuddles, and a few extra toys to destuff, and Karma adjusted to being a single dog and started loving getting all the pets and love from both of us.
Back to the goofiness – she’s always been kinda goofy and derpy. She would regularly get so excited, she would trip over her own feet or bounce off of walls or furniture, usually bugling her excitement for the whole house to hear. A few months ago, we noticed the derpy had stepped up its game a bit and she was bumping things a bit more.
Then we noticed she was having trouble with the steps at night, in the dark, when she had been taking them 2-3 leaps at a time for years. But, she was almost 9, she was allowed a misstep or two.
We noticed she was demanding more cuddles. Whining and crying for them, like she NEEDED to be physically touching or near us. Other than her daily walk, she wasn’t going out to bask in the sun like she usually did… but it was getting colder, so that made sense.
She has always been very food motivated, but had never been one to clean her bowl every meal or have a belly alarm when it was dinner time. Yet, once we got the guinea pig, we noticed she had a lot more interest in meal time and started cleaning her bowl regularly. We attributed this to a renewed joie de vivre over having a furry friend in the house again.
But over Thanksgiving, Dr. MIL noticed that Karma had been eyeing her cheese for quite some time (as she has been known to do), but her pupils were still as big as saucers, despite the lamp right behind Dr. MIL’s shoulder. Carefully, Dr. MIL said, “I don’t know what it means in dogs, but you might want to take her into the vet… In people, pupils that don’t react normally can be a sign of retinal problems.”
A few Google searches and a vet visit later, and Dr. MIL was right on the money. Our goofy pup most likely has SARDS or sudden acquired retinal degeneration syndrome. She exhibited lots of the symptoms that go along with the vision loss, including shiny, orange pupils in certain light, increased appetite and thirst, weight gain (despite no change in diet), restlessness and lethargy. Also, SARDS is most likely to occur in female dogs and the average age of onset is 8.5 years. All signs point to yes. From all the research we can find, there isn’t a known cause for SARDS and there isn’t an effective treatment. But the good news is, most owners don’t report a sharp decline in quality of life for dogs with SARDS and she’s not showing any signs of discomfort or pain around her eyes.
Our goofy dog is still goofy, she’s still protective, and she’s still a cuddler, but her needs are different now. She has to trust us more than ever before to help her learn to navigate the world by touch, smell and sound and we have to be her seeing eye people. While she’s not totally adjusted yet, Karma has amazed us at her resilience and willingness to try again and again after she stumbles, bumps things, misses steps or just gets so excited she forgets where she is and has to reorient.
Karma still loves to meet people and have visitors. But for everyone’s safety, we’ve added disclaimers to her collar and leash so people understand she can’t see them. If you come to visit us, please be sure to speak to her, hold down your hand for her to sniff and give her a minute to remember who you are. We are working to make sure the fear of living in darkness doesn’t change our cuddly girl, but know her protective instincts may kick in if we don’t take the right steps to introduce visitors. We haven’t had ANY indication of aggression towards anyone yet, and we want to keep it that way!
It seems this old dog can learn some new tricks yet.
Donita Westman 