They explained that all his problems – blind, no smell, inconsistent hearing… are how he was born. They also said that while his jaw is aligned OK, the ligaments are long (?) and therefore his jaw is weak. This is why he has problems eating (when he does concentrate enough to eat) and that is all part of the same thing. I ‘wish’ I could get him to eat soft food. But that’s been impossible so far.
He is as he is, and he won’t get any better – and we are hoping he won’t get any worse.
On the plus side, he hasn’t got any worse since he’s been with us – and he’s actually improved in some areas. Many people only notice there’s a problem when their puppy starts to behave oddly. Whereas Horace doesn’t seem to have degenerated. He’s noticeably better at quite a few things. At the vet today he sat quite happily in my arms for a long time while we were waiting, while in the past he would have made a fuss and been impossible to hold. I can also brush him now, which I couldn’t before.
A couple of months ago, I had said to Ian that Horace was like a little baby. I was comparing him with Charlie who is the same age, and how Horace was just a little baby compared to her. And this is quite a good way to think of him. He’s like a little five week old pup. He plays with his water rather than drink it, it skips through his food, chases his tail, he loves jumping on a leg for a bit of a play-fight, he gets excited by things even though he’s not quite sure why – and he’s nervous by things he doesn’t understand, and will scurry back to where he’s confident.
Now we know that he has a serious condition, it’s changed the way we think of him. Now, it’s amazing that he does what he does – before, it was frustrating that he could ‘only’ do what he does.
I’ve changed his feeding – again – and now hold him while he eats. The aim is for him to concentrate on his food. And this does appear to be working. Originally I didn’t want to do this, as I didn’t want him to get used to always being held to be fed, however now we know what we know, this will be a good thing to do.
We’re actually very lucky that he adopted the puppy training pads so easily – as dogs like Horace are generally impossible to housetrain.
He will go back in two weeks for a review. I must admit, I got a bit lost at this point and I’m a little unclear as to whether he will continue taking the drugs as a preventative thing to stop any increase in swelling or if he is taking them to see if there is any reduction. But we’ll find out in a couple of weeks. Happily, the drugs are only pennies to buy, so if he does have to keep with them, it’s won’t break the bank.