This is so hard to take and I am going to have to wrap my mind around this and that is today we have confirmed that our little Diggie Dog is now deaf. We didn't recall anyone saying this could be an outcome of his surgery but it appears this is a phenomenon of having surgery on the jaw. We realized that he wasn't hearing us when we tried to wake him up and he didn't even come out of his stupor. We had to lift him up and he woke up. Throughout the day we began to test the theory that he couldn't hear and sure enough, he is deaf. Just breaks my heart and I'm so sad I can't think of anything more awful than this and I don't know why it bothers me so much other than I can't imagine him not being able to hear anything anymore. My husband, ever the optimist, says maybe it will return but I've since read a few research papers that say it is usually permanent. I originally wondered if it was the NSAIDs he was being given for pain, but it seems the surgery is the logical explanation.
He acts like the same dog at times and he is relying on his being able to see our faces to know what we want and what we want from him, but sadly they said that he will lose his sight close up and only be able to see far away so there is that issue coming down the pike. But then again, there are dogs who are deaf and do just fine so I have to remember that it's not that bad a thing. He will always be able to sleep and he will probably stop barking at everything that moves since he won't be able to hear it happening like his sister does. He was always the first to bark and then she would chime in, now it will be just her barking that we will contend with. On one hand it's ok and on the other it's scary, because what if we need his attention right away and he can't hear us? When he was a little puppy he was sitting by a snake in the yard and I caught sight of it and he didn't, and I remember yelling to him, COME MACK and he ran to me...the snake slithered away and he never knew that it was there. What if he can't hear me when I need him to come? What will it be like not to hear our voices saying we love you Mack...all these things are swirling in my mind...I don't like it. I'm sad and this was not told to us as we contemplated his surgery. But I have to tell myself that we would have gone ahead anyway, since this was cancer we were dealing with, not a teeth cleaning procedure. It is what it will be, he will not hear us again and we will have to learn new ways to communicate with him so he knows what we want and how much we love him. Thank God for petting and hugging, those are things he loves.
Who knew we were trying to save his life and would end up with a mangled dog who can't hear us?
I'm still sad.
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