Cujo woke up blind yesterday

My thoughts and prayers are with you--I couldn't imagine. 

 
Keep us updated on how things are going! 

*edited for spelling 

 Hi Juliekay.  I thought these links might be helpful:

http://www.eyevet.info/sards.html

 I have this book and it's excellent!
http://www.amazon.com/Living-Blind-Dogs-Resource-Training/dp/0967225302

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4OyCtuWT2M 

This "guide dog for a blind dog" is from one of our local animal shelters, and the road they're on is five minutes from where I work during the day.  Just goes to show that blind dogs adapt, and some shelter dogs are just naturally adept at jobs you wouldn't even think of!
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/seeing-eye-dog-for-a-blind-dog/3086242211 

We never feel sorry for our handi-dogs.  We just train and manage differently.  The dog's primary sense is smell anyway, not vision or hearing.  So, Callie's suggestion about identifying things with smells is great.  When we do this we use tiny, tiny amounts of essential oils.  Good luck with Cujo - I bet he will do just fine with you helping him. 

 Is there any chance that he may have had a seizure? You said he was afraid to get off the bed, so I'm thinking he may have been in your bed. If that was the case, you'd probably have been awakened if he had had one. Anyway, it is a thought and so I'll tell you of our experience. We had to call our vet, on an emergency vet call one evening, as our dog had a seizure and wasn't coming out of it. He had never had one before. When we got him to the vets, he was still seizing and so they gave him some drugs to knock him out. I left him there and in the morning they called and said he would go right back into the seizure when he started to wake up. We picked him up (knocked out still) and took him to the Vet School a couple of hours away. We left him there and when he woke up down there he was finally not seizing anymore. However, he was a bit unsteady and was blind. He did recoup completely after several days. They never were really sure of what caused his problem and he never had a seizure again. I think he was 6 or 7 at the time.

Poor baby, sorry to hear this. Hope things work out better for you.

Cujo has been checked by the specialist. It is permanent, but not SARDS,  He said it was congential Bilateral retinal detachment. That he had most likely been blind in one eye for months and just starting in the right eye. At least I know he is not in pain, and this is thw worst of it ther is no underlaying disease.  He stated  there was nothing that could have prevented it  that it was just caused by bad genes. To take him home let him adjust and spoil him. No worries about that. He is doing remarkable well . Still scared of the stairs, and I still haven't found any durable  toys that make noise but we are working at it.He also recommended that book Living with Blind Dogs that Spiritdogs recommended.

Also I know where two of his littermates are and told those owners what was going on. He said if they can get them in like within a day of it happening surgury might help.

Thanks everyone:)

I'm sorry that it's permanent but relieved that there are no other underlying problems to worry about. It sounds like Cujo is adapting quite well and I know that must be a relief. You know that saying about God not giving us more than we can handle? Apparently you've impressed him greatly with your nurturing abilities.

cakana

You know that saying about God not giving us more than we can handle? Apparently you've impressed him greatly with your nurturing abilities.

   I couldn't have said it better. I'm sorry it's permanent but at least he's not in pain. The nice thing about dogs is they don't worry about why it happened to them, how they're going to make a living, or being a burden. This is probably harder on you than Cujo; <>.
 

I'm so glad there's no other problem.  I know he will adjust and do fine - my Fergie is just about blind and she runs and plays, and is full of joie de vivre.  At first, she wasn't, but since I haven't moved any furniture, and she knows where stuff is, she does just fine.