The health of Podo the dog

Hello everyone - thank you for joining me for the weekly update. Unfortunately, this week has brought mostly bad news.

A few days ago I woke up and half of my dear beagle Podo’s face seemed like it was stuck in place. One of his ears isn’t moving, one of his eyes isn’t blinking, and half of his mouth is now prone to drooling in a way it never has before.

The day this started, we went to the ER. We spent 12 hours there, from 930pm to 10am. His bloodwork, x-rays, urinalysis, and all other tests the ER was able to do indicate that his general health is good. The tests he’s failing are neurological. There are reflex tests - sort of like when you hit the human knee and the leg comes up. One of them is tapping a spot just in front of the dog’s eye. In his unaffected side, tapping that spot causes him to blink. In the affected side, it doesn’t. In his unaffected side, moving an object toward his face as if it’s going to bonk him causes him to blink. In the affected side, it doesn’t.

In terms of treatment, right now we’re manually lubricating his eye that doesn’t blink. He seems more wobbly on his feet. We have a referral in at a neurologist, and are waiting for an appointment. At least he’s eating again. I am physically and emotionally exhausted.

This reminds me of when I injured my eye earlier this year. In the span of 24 hours, so, so much can change. As soon as I injured my eye, I knew that a new era of my life had been set into motion. That’s how I felt when I saw Podo’s face, half paralyzed. When we went to bed the night before, he was just a normal dog. The next day, I knew that a new timeline had started.

He’s a great kid, and I will do everything I can to give him the best life I can from this point forward. Over the span of his almost-five year life, I’ve spent a grand total of ~10 days apart from him. He is part of me. Now, we’re venturing into the unknown. Wish us luck.