Frisco's Health

Jul 7, 2006



Frisco’s health

My boy's health has turned severely worse.

It's been almost a year since Frisco was diagnosed with Horner's
Syndrome, the neurological disorder that is causing his icky eye/head
symptoms. It's usually "idiopathic," which is Latin for "we don't
know what the hell is causing this to happen," and it usually goes
away within a matter of weeks or months. His didn't, but they still
weren't able to identify the cause.

Nonetheless, he was still perky and happy, didn't seem to be in a lot
of discomfort, still wanted to chase the ball incessantly -- same old
boy.

About a week ago, I took him to class with me for the first time in
several weeks. Walking around the building, he seemed a little
disoriented, like he couldn't quite figure out where he was or which
way he should go. He stumbled while walking around outside, and had
trouble jumping into my low-slung little car. His left rear leg
seemed rather stiff and was quivering, so I thought maybe he was
having a bad arthritis attack or something.

Last weekend I took him backpacking with me, and he did pretty well
on the trail, but his stumbling got worse in camp. Still, it wasn't
anything THAT far out of the norm: maybe an inner ear infection, or
some other minor thing. I put him on antibiotics the vet had given me
"just in case," when his eye syndrome started. It didn't help. He was
about the same all week.

Then today I took him to class with me again, to help proctor my
final exam. He was stumbling like a drunkard, and I had to guide him
with the leash. When I got him home, I had to hold him by the
shoulders to keep him upright on the way into the house. Later
tonight, my roommate had to hold him up by the chest in order to get
him outside to pee -- when he tried to stand, he just sprawled and
fell all over the place. Now he can't walk at all, not even with me
supporting all his body weight for him: his legs just won't move the
right way.

I'll be taking him to the vet as soon as I can get him in today. He
doesn't seem to be in any discomfort, is eating and drinking eagerly,
so I hope this will turn out not to be a huge deal. But he is almost
11 years old, as you know. In case it turns out for the worst, I
wanted to give you some warning.

RG