Whoa! Didja get the numbers off that truck?!?

November 06, 2001 - 8:24 p.m.

Woof!

I got my older dog a real treat. A new collar.

I had her on a choker collar for the past four years. Bad idea. See my older dog is a Guardian, She saves us from rambling marauders like other dogs, mailmen, birds and airplanes. She scares them off with fits of furious barking and leaping. When doing so she often runs to the end of her Dog Trolley in the back yard. This results in a yank on the neck. She means well but she does herself in.

Last Spring we noticed that she was acting odd. She was off balance. The left side of her face drooped as if she had suffered some kind of a stroke. It got so she couldn�t get up a flight of stairs without falling over.

The vet told us she suffers from Horners Syndrome. What this means is she�s suffered nerve damage, and the muscles that control the left side of her face don�t work anymore. She cannot blink her left eye, and when she drinks she slobbers out the left side. Imagine getting a tooth filled and the Novacaine never wears off. This happens to certain breeds, and can sometimes be brought on by trauma to the neck. The trauma that can be cause by a choke collar.

Oops.

She�s adapting now. She can climb stairs now, and now she�s back to the point where she can play fight with the younger dog again, and she�s getting back down to her fighting weight again. And she�s back to her ferocious guard dog status again.

But her nose is crooked.

the last one -*- the next one