Millie was about seven years old when her mom, Nikki Geddis, and other family members realized something wasn’t quite right. Millie seemed to be having trouble seeing.
Perhaps the worst part is that some of Nikki’s friends and family thought they were crazy for spending so much money on Millie, because “she’s just a dog.” Of course Nikki viewed Millie as a member of the family, so she was going to do whatever she could to help Millie.
Here’s Millie’s story in Nikki’s own words…
Millie is now 10 years old. We started to notice signs when she was about 7 that things weren’t right. I noticed at night she was having trouble finding the edge of the deck to go on the lawn for wees. Then she stayed at my in-laws for a weekend, and my mother-in-law noticed Millie was having trouble finding the kennel at night when it was time for bed. We also noticed her eyes glowed green.
I took her to my local vet who said her pupils were extremely dilated and he suspected PRA (progressive retinal atrophy), but he wanted it confirmed by an ophthalmologist.
We made an appointment and traveled 2 hours (Millie’s longest ever car ride!) to Christchurch where the ophthalmologist was. We had some negative response from family and friends who thought we were crazy traveling that far and spending lots of money on “just a dog”.
At the ophthalmologist he confirmed PRA. He said it was already quite far along, but he was surprised how well she was doing navigating strange places. He gave us some pointers. Once we got home, I started researching on the net and found the Blind Dogs page.
We really haven’t done a lot differently. Millie is very independent and doesn’t like being mollycoddled! We still go on walks. I was lucky enough to win a Julius K9 harness which is helpful for guiding her on walks.
She has our house and yard mapped. We try not to leave toys and so on lying around, but if there are obstacles she just tries different ways to get around… she doesn’t sit and cry.
She still has her sense of adventure and has gotten herself in a spot of bother. Once she followed a scent under a shed on the in-laws farm, but then couldn’t find her way out. It took us an hour to dig her out! On another occasion she got stuck under a woodpile and my father-in-law had to shift the woodpile to get her out. I’m not sure they want her back!
I asked Nikki, “What would you tell someone whose dog is going blind?” Here are her wise words…
If your dog is going blind my response would be to stay positive, dogs are resilient creatures and will adapt to change. Love them and support them but don’t do things for them, they will learn. It is not the end of the world if your dog goes blind, just the start of a new chapter in their life.
