Sad animal news

On Thursday night, Steve and I were both completely wiped out by 8:30pm (this is a peak time of year for both of us) and we decided to go to bed really early. When we called Josie to take her out (she lays on the floor between Steve’s chair and my couch), she couldn’t get up. She has never had a single problem with any kind of weakness or weirdness like this. Serena definitely did get progressively worse in this way toward the end, but Josie is like a puppy, always jumping and energetic, zero leg issues ever.

So we were completely perplexed and thought maybe her back legs just fell asleep. We slid her from the wood floor to a nearby rug, no help. We lifted her into a standing position, she just fell back down on her belly.

After maybe 10 minutes we finally got her up, but it was clear something was very wrong. She had no balance and was disoriented and still no leg strength. Completely out of the blue.

We took her to the 24hour vet downtown, and she was slowly improving over that hour, but only a little. The bottom line is she probably had a small brain bleed or clot that caused an inner ear-type issue. The vet did not suggest further testing to isolate exactly what happened, because there really isn’t any treatment either way. She said Josie will slowly get better over the next month, but probably not quite to 100%.

Two days later she hasn’t changed much. We put her on anti-nausea meds because the balance thing can make her feel pretty sick. She has been okay, just a little low energy, slightly drunk version of herself, some wobble and disorientation. But still sweet.

Poor Josie! We were just on vacation, with her jumping in and out of that van all day long. We forget she isn’t a puppy, but is actually more like 12 years old. Compared to Serena she just always seemed so young.

So will keep a close eye on her and hope she heals a little more so she can get around with more confidence (hers and ours!)