Toby has worked for me as my PTSD anxiety response animal for the past 9 years, and has been a vital tool for coping through my daily life. On a fixed income and a very tight budget, as embarrassing as it is to say, most months i cant make ends meet. That said, im unable to afford the necessary Vet appointment Toby needs to address his increasingly itchy skin condition thats spreading over his body. Along with his skin condition he Is having frequent accidents before making it outside to urinate. Accompanied by a potent odor, i believe he has a UTI adding to his discomfort. Any help would make it possible to get my loyal companion the help he desperately needs

He’s a big sweet dog, but his hip dysplasia is causing him real mobility issues now. He can still get around, but he’s uncomfortable and I want to make life as easy as I can for him. I’d like to get him used to a chair before he absolutely needs one ALL the time because I can’t carry him around. The issue is it’s very difficult to find dog wheelchairs that fit his large size. He’s not overweight, just BIG. We bought him a wheelchair but it came with wheels for a small dog so it’s being returned.

Any recommendations are very needed and welcome!

Hey everyone, I have a 5 year old basset that a about a month ago was diagnosed with Glaucoma. It started with her eyes squinting and then when we took her to the vet they tested for pressure but it must have been too early as pressure in eye was still normal so they assumed it was a scratch. a week or so later we went back and they diagnosed her with glaucoma. Fast forward to now her good eye started doing this exact thing yesterday. We immediately that morning made an appointment with the local eye animal specialist. They gave us a crap ton of meds but she is currently blind hopefully only due to the cloudiness, third eye lid, and gunk in her eye. This has been a lot to take in and it hearts my heart to see her like this.

Current meds we have her on is Xalatan, Pred Acetate 1%, Dorzolamaide/Timolol, Meloxican, and Gabapentin.

Any tips on how to handle this blindness for now and possibly the future. And any tips on how to manage glaucoma? Thank you

Mochi came to us with one eye 5 years ago! A few weeks ago, she had emergency spinal surgery that left her paralyzed. She’s handling very well and is very happy back to being active!

hello! i l started working at a dog boarding facility a little while ago and we currently have a senior dog who is deaf and blind staying with us. i take him out to use the bathroom and feed him and im able to hang out with him a few times per day. he howls, cries, and walks in circles pretty much all the time and i really want to know if theres any way i can help make him feel better. im sure he’s really upset and scared and i want to comfort him but im not sure how to do so in a way he understands and doesnt think is scary. does anyone have any ideas on how i could make the whole thing less upsetting for him?

We just got a help em up harness for our dog who is starting to have trouble holding herself up to pee poo. I can’t tell if we have it fitting right. When we put it on our dog she won’t stand up on her own and is constantly falling down. Has this happened to anyone else? Any advice?

Hi, I have a Muffin halo for my slowly going blind baby.

I want to acclimate him to it now so he will be ready when things get worse in a couple of months. But I can't find any training guides for the product. It's crazy. I found videos for how to size your dog, but not how to train them.

Does anyone have a resource for how to train your dog? Or, can share the method they used that worked for them?

Hi all!

My small little friend was diagnosed with PRA a few years ago. One eye is now completely blind, and the other is gradually losing vision as well.

At home, things are mostly okay because she's familiar with the layout. She rarely bumps. However, I've noticed that she's starting to bump into objects more often even on our usual walking routes. It gets worse in unfamiliar environments or when she's feeling anxious.

I'm unemployed right now. so I can spend all day with her. But I don't know how long this situation will last. I'm considering switching to a job that allows remote work, but of course life doesn't always go according to plan.
The other families all work outside during the day.

These are my two main questions.

1. Even after becoming completely blind, do most dogs do okay when they're home alone? She already spends a large part of the day sleeping, but I'm worried there may be moments when a noise or something unexpected startles her and causes anxiety when nobody is around.

2. For those of you who are able to spend most of the day with your dog, what do you do for work? Are you working from home, retired, self-employed, or in some other situation that allows you to be with your dog throughout the day?

Lola is a service dog as well. Clearly blind but her health otherwise is great. she is 8yrs old active as eyes allow her.

First time pet owner btw. I have gotten: Doggles for UV sun etc, a Muffin Halo soon (bumper really). clear paths and all that, I use to let the water dish set out but now I give her a small bowl of water whenever she gets dog food. Went from "daytime" lightbulb to yellow lightbulbs. Her mood/temper are the same sweety pie as ever.

I tell ya at first I was in despair but then saw how with a little adjusting and equipment losing her sight is happily manageable. She is familiar with the back yard and can go in/out the ramp/doggy door with ease. It means to go walking leashed and inside big places and outside with a Halo.

She knows the command UP that kinda works for steps and stairs. THANKFULLY LolaJoy is around 9-12lbs and quiet easily packed around in the "shoulder carrier".

I think everything is gonna be ok. I could use some support I'm goin the right direction. "Nobody told me there'd be days like these....." John Lennon

Hi all. My Rocky is going to be 14 this fall. This past January he lost his eye, he had an ulcer we were treating it and on the revisit to check it the ulcer popped in the waiting room. His eye was removed and he seemed to be doing much better with out it. 2 weeks ago we noticed that his other eye wasn’t doing it thing properly we went to the specialist and he has an inoperable cataract in his one eye , his vision went very fast and now he is pretty much completely blind about a week now. Me and my wife are heart broken we don’t have kids. Rocky is everything to us . We haven’t left him alone yet we have helped by closing off doors to rooms he doesn’t really go into we put carpet runners around the walls of the rooms he goes into on good days he can get out of his bed get his water go to the door to tell us he wants to go out and he will play a little he looks lost by not scared. On most days he will sit in a spot facing the wall or go into the yard and just sit shaking. I’m asking for any tips to help him get his confidence back yes he will be 14 but he’s 30lb of muscle and he has a slight collapsed trech but all other functions are in great shape we tried a halo collar but we weren’t sure if we were putting in on correct we love him very much and don’t want to see him spend the rest of his life laying in a bed scared . He is the most energetic playful funny little boy.

Hello.. My baby suddenly has paralysis in her hind legs.. After fifteen hundred dollars in an emergency vet visit.. They could tell us nothing and referred us to a neurologist.. Which we cannot afford.. I understood. There was a number of things that could cause us.. She does not seem to be in serious pain at the moment.. Is on gabapentin.. I have to express her bladder, of course.. I am just stressed out and my heart is broken.. I am trying to do everything right.. I don't know how she's feeling and what she could talk.. I don't have a lot of resources.. I've invested in a sling.. I have rearranged my house for her.. I have a cart that I pull her around in during the day with me.. and a quiet place for her to rest... I really want to try and give her good quality of life.. But I am so tired.I am so sad.. I love her so much and right now at the moment she is all that I focus on and I am torn.. Again the vet did not give us a whole lot of hope, but at the same time couldn't tell us exactly what was wrong. Even after x ray's blood work and so on.. Any advice?Any support would be so helpful

I've tried sending a private message, but the system won't allow me. Is this because I've just joined the group?

We have a deaf 8/10ish year old Blue Heeler that we suspect was born deaf, her name is Blanche. We adopted her 3 years ago and she has been doing great, such a happy girl. She has had a great quality of life and we did lots of research into how to care for a deaf dog and it's going great. We just took her to an eye specialist because we thought she was getting cataracts. Turns out she has progressive retinal atrophy and will be blind in a year or two. I'm looking for some insight and advice in how to ease her into this next chapter and keep her comfortable and happy. Currently she has trouble seeing in the dark and we take her outside at night with a flashlight which seems to ease some of her discomfort/fear in the dark outside. Any advice would be great, thank you.

Hi all, we normally do road trips with our paralyzed girl. We have an opportunity to try a short flight (~45 mins), so I want to see how our girl does. She’s 22 lbs.

Any soft sided carrier recommendations for in-cabin travel?

I'm struggling a bit here.

I like to vary my dog's diet with different recipes of canned food and kibble (because I surely enjoy a varied diet!), but I know that doing so causes some digestive stress with dogs, which I don't understand because they did not evolve eating the same food every day.

But my Peanut has been pooping somewhat unpredictably in the past couple of weeks. (Tip: I found a fairly inexpensive Bissell carpet cleaner machine made for pets on Amazon; it's a game-changer if you have carpets like me! I would still like to replace my carpet with wood or vinyl, but at least the pressure is off now.) Would this be more manageable if I kept her food consistent?

Inspired by a recent post. TL;DR suggestions for a harness to help my girl up big stairs

I’ve got a 15 year old 75 lb Dutch shepherd and I need to move into an apartment with a pretty hefty staircase. It’s got the see through slats and is outdoors.

While I could attach a runner to the stairs with traction, it’s still quite an incline. I want to get a harness that will allow me to lift up her back legs or support them comfortably to get her upstairs.

She doesn’t like a lot of pressure on the center of her stomach, so something that focuses on the back legs would be amazing.

Picture of my baby for dog tax.

Second post on this, but the first time I did not receive training tips. Mostly just got comments that dogs will adjust to blindness, but unfortunately that has not been the case.

My Ruby is a 75lb Bouvier Des Flandres just turned four and had to get both of her eyes taken out due to bad genes. (purchased from sandbox puppies). We live in a city and are now moving from my townhome because she is hurting herself on the stairs and will end up breaking her back at this rate.

It has been 3 months, and she is still scared to walk, and panics and tries break out of her harness. She's terrified of new people and dogs, and barks like crazy if anyone gets close. She used to heel perfectly and loved strangers, but shes having a hard time listening to commands because she's scared.

I've done my best to keep people away, use a blind dog sign, etc. I take her on slow walks often but its variable when she starts to panic and thrash around. I feel terrible with how miserable she is, and want to do anything I can to increase her quality of life at all.

If anyone can advise on any of the below I would appreciate it so so so much!!

1. Specialist advice or trainers that specialize with blind dogs.
2. advice on better harnesses for large dogs to help keep them secure
3. advice on reactivity with blind dogs.
4. Toys to entertain blind dogs

Hi everyone! My husband and I adopted a puppy with severe Cerebellar Hypoplasia about 4 months ago and he’s currently around 40 pounds with more growth in his future.

We’re living in a second story apartment until May and have already attempted a couple types of harnesses to carry him.

We first tried a help em up harness but he doesn’t have mobility in his back legs at all and his front legs aren’t strong enough to support his weight so we need more of a full lifting situation that we can take back off once he’s outside.

We also tried a onetigris full lifting harness but it doesn’t seem to fit him correctly at all (we will be taking it to our vet for his next checkup to see if they can help us fit it at all)

We’re about to just try and find a massive hard bottomed tote bag to carry him but I was hoping other people may have suggestions, I’ve only been seeing posts and suggestions for home stair ramps (which we can’t use) or harnesses to support dogs standing that already have slight mobility.

Thank you so much for the help while we navigate this new situation

(PS we do plan to get him a full mobility wheelchair when we have a ground floor apartment or home next year)

hi! my partner & i are moving from texas to spain in about 10 months.

i have a 60 lb paralyzed pitbull (he can’t use his back legs). i’ve done a lot of research already, so i know getting him there will be complicated, finding housing may be challenging (both because he’s a large dog & a pitbull), & i’m aware of the restrictions around pitbull-type breeds, including possible muzzle requirements.

i’d love any honest insight, advice, or encouragement from people who’ve navigated something similar (whether with spain, or another country, or just with any insight at all!)

1. any tips for making the international flight work as smoothly (& affordably) as possible?

2. are there any strategies for finding large-dog-friendly rentals, or is it mostly just a matter of persistence?

3. for those living in madrid with a pitbull (or similar breed), what has daily life been like? i’m okay adapting to things like muzzle requirements, but would love to hear any practical advice or things you wish you’d known beforehand.

i’m feeling discouraged but i’m someone who will figure anything out, so i’ll definitely be figuring this out for potato (pictured). any encouragement will be so appreciated!!!!

I would really appreciate some advice. I am adopting a 9 year old blind dog. The vet says that it is cholesterol and calcium buildup in his eyes, and he needs daily drops. I want to make sure he is not in pain and as comfortable as possible in his new home. Has anybody ever dealt with anything similar?