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On a more optimistic note (although Viszlas are as dumb as nuts), here's a story:
I had a mate whose lab had a morning routine which included jumping a gate into a field. One day the lab jumped the gate WHICH HAD BEEN LEFT OPEN. He took the lab to the vet who cheerfully confirmed that the lab was blind and could well have been so for over a year. The lab lived a happy life for years after, only bumping into things when in unfamiliar places.
The outcome is not necessarily disastrous.
ColinTheBald-
My wife recounted a story she had seen about a human boy who was gradually losing his sight. On one visit the doctor asked how it felt to now be blind and the boy said “I am not, watch me walk out of the door” which he duly did. The doctor said that was amazing and asked him to repeat this feat, and the boy walked straight into the doctor. The child was convinced he could see but his mental map didn’t include moving objects.
Thankfully Sidney is the more practical intelligent one of our pair of viszlas. If a door is shut he will walk around the house in an attempt to find an open one. Olive is the over entitled millennial, if a door is shut she stares at it performing Jedi mind tricks waiting for a weak minded human to open it.
Thanks to all for the kind words. Fingers crossed we will all learn to adapt and this graduated decline gives him time to learn. The fastest way to tire our dogs is making them do mental work (retrieving items or finding hidden treats) this period of brain work is leaving him exhausted by the evening. But otherwise he is still happy and full of beans.
Have been blocking access to much of the patio, so all he can access is the steps up and down which reduces his chances of falling off the full height.
We will all be ok, and he will be well looked after. It’s just heart wrenching when our worst fear for the one eyed boy was that he could lose the other one.
dancing james
Returned to the vet today. Sidney’s eye pressure is within normal parameters for the moment so the medication is working. However this is just a temporary stay on the problem. Once the medication loses efficacy the pressure will ramp up again and the eye will need removing. Have been told the likelihood is weeks or months not years. The boy is in good spirits, happy and affectionate as always. His eyesight is way worse than it was prior to the episode so perhaps this is just the period where he learns to survive with less eyesight before the total loss.
He is clattering into things and woefully overestimating his abilities. After feeding this morning he raced out onto the patio which has a 1m drop to the ground. I just managed to catch him before he went off the edge.
Doorways are a challenge he either won’t go through or charges too fast and hits the doorframe. Hopefully he will start to moderate his velocity over time.
It’s going to be a learning curve for all of us as to how to manage things now and as they deteriorate.