Poor old dogs loosing the plot

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Equi

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My staffy is about to become the grand old age of 13 and despite having IBS has generally had okay health for a staffy. Over the last year or so her hearing has got a lot worse though and shes bordering on deaf but i noticed a few weeks ago her little eyes are getting cloudyish now. She very rarely barks if ever, but today i caught her barking at crows flying over the garden! Im assuming she can't really see what they are and got a bit scared or whatever.

Had her since 8 weeks old and was my first "own" dog, so the fact shes getting on breaks me heart.

She was still on form enough to get one of the chickens though despite not having hardly a tooth in her head! :mad: so no dinner for her tonight.
 
I shouldn't laugh but kudos to the oul doll for gumming a chicken to death!
My dog's uncle is 13 and I just learned that his maternal grandfather reached 15 so fingers crossed I've got my reprobate for a good few years yet!
 
CorvusCorax said:
I shouldn't laugh but kudos to the oul doll for gumming a chicken to death!
My dog's uncle is 13 and I just learned that his maternal grandfather reached 15 so fingers crossed I've got my reprobate for a good few years yet!
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lol i very much think she will live to be 100! She has showed no signs of slowing down at all apart from refusing to go outside if its cold.

As for my poor beloved chicken, she shredded the bloody thing! didn't even bother to take the feathers off this time. Shes only fed chicken as its all she can tolerate, so i think she was peckish and thought "well its chicken...thats fair game" :D
 
I love old dogs. My current oldest is 11 so not quite a veteran but I affectionally refer to him as the disgusting old man as he farts for England, has terrible breath even though his teeth aren't that bad, and constantly runny eyes due to being a cav, but I love him to death and wouldn't have him any other way. His eyes are quite cloudy these days but his vision seems pretty good so I'm not sure if there's a connection with amount of cloudiness and sight loss.
 
Bless her! Old dogs are so precious. My old border collie is 14 years now and almost deaf and not so great on his pins, but still comes out pottering three times a day with the other dogs. I just have to be careful not to overdo it with him. Your SBT must still have some oomph in her to manage to catch and scoff one of your hens!
 
Re the cloudy eyes:
'Nuclear Sclerosis is easily mistaken as a Cataract, which is a different problem that also causes the lens to become cloudy. While a cataract is an abnormality that can cause blindness and inflammation inside the eye, nuclear sclerosis is normal for an older dog, and the condition has minimal effect on vision.'

I looked it up a while ago when my nearly 14 year old's eyes went cloudy. His vision is still very sharp, he can see us from the other side of the field.
 
My old dog (passed away a good 8 years ago now), got very senile when she got older. She was a rescue so not 100% on age but we think she was around 17 when she was PTS. She would walk into a room and just stand there, like she had forgotten why she came in and she would stand in the garden and stare through the patio doors at us, we used to think she wanted to come in and had forgotten to go to the back door but when we opened the door and showed her she could walk through she'd just got back to standing there! No idea why.

She was such a lovely, happy girl and her little senile ways still make us chuckle now.

It's sad when they get older but there's just something about the golden oldies. Yours sounds a character and still full of life, it's lovely to know that you've given them a lifetime of happiness from the start :)
 
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