We’ve had a couple scares with our sweet, old Reba. She is currently doing well, considering.

A couple weeks ago, I let her, Asher and Hope out in the morning to potty. They came back inside and then I went outside to do the rest of the chores.

Maybe ten to fifteen minutes later, hubby came out on the porch and motioned for me to come in quickly. Something was wrong with Reba.

She was in the living room circling with her head tilted and her eyes “bobbing” (nystagmus). I picked her up to check her over, then placed her in a crate and covered it so she’d be safe while I contacted the vet.

After arriving safely at the vet (with Reba sleeping the whole way there and much improved), she was given a thorough exam.

Our doctor went over there possible scenarios; vestibular disease (which is common in older dogs and usually improves within 48 hours), a stroke or a tumor.

With vestibular disease the movement in a dogs eyes is usually more horizontal, where with a stroke it’s more likely vertical (from what she told me). Reba’s eyes, by exam time (remember we are over an hour from the vet) were almost back to normal, but with close examination she could see slight vertical movement. She was walking fairly normal with just slight head tilt.

With all that in mind, there was not much we could do but support her. The vet sent her home with some anti-nausea meds. She said that a lot of dogs needed it, as when they would lower their head to eat or drink they would get nauseous and after would not want to eat or drink.

Thankfully, by the time we got home, she was acting fairly normal. I watched carefully when she would hop onto the couch to make sure she didn’t get dizzy and fall off. She drank water, went out to potty and ate dinner just fine. She never got nauseous or went off her food.

Life returned to normal-for the next ten days.

And then it happened again early on a Sunday morning. I heard her pacing around around five-ish in the morning. I got up, turned the light on and found her in the same shape as previously. I put her in the crate to safely rest, and she did quiet down. But about an hour later she started making noise in the crate (I thought maybe she was digging up the bed to make it “perfect”), but when I checked she was circling again. I believe she had a second episode that morning. So I got her out of the crate and we laid on the couch together, snuggles under a blanket until her body returned to normal and she fell asleep.

I’ll be honest, I have considered putting her to sleep because I know this will not improve and she will continue to have these “mini strokes”.

I read an article once that really made me consider these end-of-life decisions we have to make with our pets. That we should let them go “on a good day”. When they have a chronic illness, we (speaking for myself) want to hold on, not for them, but for us. They are not going to get better. They will only get worse, but we have such a hard time letting go of them. And that’s where I’m at. Holding on, because I don’t want to say good-bye.

As my vet said, “are they having more good days then bad? Or if they are having limited bad days, are they severe enough to outweigh the good?”

Right now, she’s having a lot of good days. She is still eating, drinking, napping lots, enjoying going outside and soaking in the sun, getting excited for treats, and loving lots of cuddles and snuggles.

So for the time being, we are enjoying every moment and taking this one day at a time.

Give your pet some extra snuggles today. <3

Her favorite place to be when I’m working is snoozing on my desk.