201228 Fig Newton: Wherein Fig Learns about Gravity

 dec. 28

Fig is okay. He is eating, going outside and wagging his tail (a little) and fiercely scolding Blackie when the big dog comes to visit. These are all good news, because Fig had an accident late Tuesday night. 

He fell all the way down the loft stairs (16 steps) thumpity thump thump thump, and I leapt out of bed cursing and ran to the stairs. He was standing at the bottom looking a little bewildered but otherwise okay. I took him outside, and then carried him back to bed.

The next day he seemed sore and was limping badly on his right foreleg. I felt him all over and although he seemed bruised and tender I didn't feel any bad swelling anywhere, even on his foreleg. He acted shaken, however, and confused. As the day went on we realized he could no longer see! He tried to walk under the table and ran into the cross bar. We contacted a vet: the closest one open on the 24th was 45 minutes away.  But by Thursday morning I had decided his leg was not broken (it would have needed treatment), nor was he showing any symptoms of concussion: he was eating and doing business as usual, so we skipped the vet visit. The vet would not do a phone or zoom consult. 

Fig is blind though and walks into walls and bushes and has walked off the edge of the porch a couple of times (only a 10 inch drop), and still limps a little on that leg. I block the stairs when we are in the loft and carry him up and down. He has climbed up a couple of times on his own but I don't let him if I catch him. He is gradually learning his way around by trial and error (hit and miss - bump!). There is nothing for a vet to do, short of expensive tests and telling us he doesn't know anything: the usual vet experience. And if he does have a brain injury I am not going to consent to surgery! He is not having seizures, or barfing, or visibly bleeding, plus, as I said, he is eating and going out and is not so sore and lets me pet him all over. 

We wonder now if he was blind before he fell down the stairs. He is eleven years old, not old for his size but he has a heart murmur and congestive heart failure and might have had a stroke which affected his sight, and then fallen downstairs. 

Yesterday when he heard the car keys he insisted on going with me wherever I might be going, especially if it was to see Rain. A few days before his fall, Fig actually led me, on foot, the two kilometres to Rain and Tal's farm! They had been here in the car that day, but how does a dog follow the scent of a car? He kept walking and each time I turned back and asked, "Do you want to go home?" He would look at me as if to say, "No, going to see Rain!" and carry on. He turned north at the corner and then, even though I walked on past the farm he turned back after a few yards and headed up the driveway to the house. He bonded with Rain when he was a very tiny pup. We took him with us when I drove Rain to Montreal eleven years ago and she is still his favorite person in the whole world. 

Rain asked (rhetorically) why dogs always get sick on holidays and weekends when the vet is closed! She and Tal have two dogs. I said it was the same with children. It's always Friday afternoon or the middle of the night when you want to take them to the doctor. Sod's law. Every child seems to have meningitis at three in the morning! If you're lucky your partner is rational and talks you down. 

I am not going to worry about Fig. He will soon become capable and confident, as he learns to use his other senses. I expect in a few weeks his blindness will not be an issue. I don't think he will need a seeing-eye dog. I have started to train him with bits of turkey, and he is already using his hearing to better advantage to find me and his nose to find the morsel of turkey in my hand.

Today the wind is howling around the house and the clouds are racing on a south wind. The weather has been running up to plus numbers and plunging to freezing from day to day. It is supposed to rain today and muck up the new snow then drop to minus ten again tonight. Fig and I have walked a short way up the hill and back; lunch is done. I'm going to curl up with a book, and Fig.

Keep well. Thank you for visiting.

Mumma Yaga