Well, 8 months have gone by and Franklin has adjusted well to being blind. Winter was hard for us because of the lack of interaction and stimulation. A few weeks ago it was beautiful out though, so we spent the day at the dog park and then did a 5 mile hike! The hike was a bit on the difficult side for him, so I think we will stick with paved trails until he adjusts to hiking blind.
About two weeks ago, Franklin had an accident in the house which is NOT like him. Then, a few days later, he had another one. Grant thought that maybe we weren't letting him out enough, but we hadn't changed anything. It slowly got to the point where he was having an accident a day. I called the vet, and because they are so wonderful, they got us in that day.
This visit was much different from our last one. He didn't bump into much at all (and I was there with all 3 boys as well). He followed all my commands perfectly! They took him outside to get a urine sample and he even followed her perfectly.
We were then sent into an exam room to wait, and when the vet came in, she very sweetly said that there was glucose in his urine. Again, I burst into tears, again. Drew was running around clueless, Tater Tot looked at me and said, "Mommy, why are you sad?" And Parker just put his arms around me and held me. I quickly remembered that I was a mother to all 4 of my boys, and had to be strong for all of them and pulled myself together.
She took Franklin back to the lab to do blood work on him and find out exactly what his levels were and what type we are dealing with. She came back in and informed me that it is type 1 insulin dependant and his levels were over 400. This means Rx dog food, NO table scraps from the kids, and 2 shots a day (after his measured out food and exactly 12 hrs apart from each other). We've explained to the boys the have to be extremely careful as to not leave any food sitting out that Franklin can get to, but Drewbie doesn't quite understand, lol.
Strangely enough, the two (blind and diabetes) are not connected. If he had become diabetic, and then went blind, it would make sense, but it is just a medical coincidence.
As I was taking all of this in, the Vet looked at me and said, "Elisabeth, we told you Franklin was blind, you cried and cried, went home, mourned, dealt with it, and then did all the research you could to be the best blind dog owner you can be, and you are. Now you are going to do the same to be the best diabetic dog owner you can be." This seriously made me handle it so much better!
I woke up today still sad, but I know I've handled this so much better. We got his meds and when I gave him the first shot, it didn't even phase him. Our amazing vet even called today to check in on both of us.
I am selfishly very sad because I know this will shorten my time with Franklin, but I know he can still have a very normal life with this.
I am now going to pour myself a glass of Spanish red wine and cheers to my blind diabetic dog who I love very very much!
