In fourteen plus years with our dogs, trips to the vet haven’t been too common and for the most part only a few of them have been real emergencies. The usual stuff you might expect, cuts and scrapes mostly. This week however, was a little different. Coming home we were greeted as usual by an excited KiKi at the door, while Leica dozed in my armchair. She sleeps so heavily now she doesn’t always hear us come in and we often have to wake her gently so as not to startle her. As Martha stroked Leica’s ear to wake her, KiKi continued to wag her tail enthusiastically and, turning around hit Leica full in the face. It was immediately clear that something dramatic had happened. Leica is generally quite stoic, seldom making any noise even when she has an injury or suffering discomfort, so when she yelped loudly we knew there was a problem. For a few moments she kept her right eye closed, then tried to stand. When she did, she was unsteady, unsure of her footing and, when she opened her eye, we could see that her eyeball was rotated in the socket and turned upwards quite dramatically.

Many years ago, when she was around two years old she sniffed something in the grass which caused her to sneeze repeatedly and violently and then too we saw her eyes ‘lifted’ in the sockets. A quick shake of her head however, and all returned to normal. This week again, she shook her head briskly and she seemed to have righted the problem, temporarily at least. An hour or so later on her walk, she began to seem disoriented and her eye had again turned quite severely. As we drove to the vet she sat and then lay almost motionless in the back of the car. As Leica approaches 15, she becomes more physically frail obviously and we are concerned for her wellbeing and comfort and I, for my part was concerned that she may have been suffering some dramatic neurological event even as we drove.

Arriving at the surgery, Leica stubbornly refused to budge from the back of the car. The impairment of her vision was only a part of the issue here. With only one functional eye her lack of depth perception would make the jump from the car to the ground difficult to gauge, but more important was the fact that Leica just hates going to the vet. In the midst of all the goings on, KiKi remained quiet and calm. Once again in the waiting area she paid little attention to the other animals even when Leica growled and barked in her fear and disorientation. As Martha headed towards the treatment room with Leica, KiKi almost dragged me along, so determined was she to not let Leica out of her sight. The vet seemed a little put out that we brought them both but to us it was clear that they had no wish to be separated. KiKi stood watching, silent and unmoving as Leica was examined and treated. As it turns out, aside from some swelling there is nothing too dramatic to be found, just the gradual weakening of the muscles in her face through time coupled with the force of the blow from KiKi’s tail conspiring to send us into a panic. Pain killers and eyedrops for a couple of weeks should see her back to normal. In general the vet assured us her condition was remarkably good for her years, now we just have to figure out how to deal with KiKi who seems convinced that Leica’s prescription pills are some magical treat being withheld from her for no good reason.