Video of Tsu'tey chasing the lure!

Got some video of Tsu'tey playing with the lure in the backyard yesterday, he had a blast :)   5 months old and not so graceful but he had fun!

Lure coursing practice

So a quick update, his inner ear problems seem to be much better, he doesn't even really have much of a head tilt that he had after the first time he had some vestibular syndrome problems.  He's still not the most graceful thing in the world and he reminds me very much of a bobble head but he's doing excellent.  We went to lure coursing practice on Saturday (Aug 27) and he tagged along.  I didn't expect much with him but gave it a try with him, he bounced after it a few times (however I think his depth perception is off and he looses sight of things very quickly if they move to fast), so I ran the 300 yard square with him bouncing after me.  I really wish mom had the video camera in her hand as I am sure it was a sight to behold, me chasing the lure, Tsu'tey chasing me.  He has a funny way of running where he just scrunches up his back and bounces along and runs little circles, he's a happy boy for sure!  Now that the weather has been cooler, he has been spending a lot of time playing outside with the little puppies (which he loves, for once he's bigger than someone!), so he really wears himself out while he's out playing with them, so he sleeps VERY good.  So I have been taking him to bed with me, to tired to do much other than just lay down and fall asleep.  His little chewing problem seems to be getting a lot better, he no longer chews on my hair, fingers, hands, face, etc. at night.

No major updates about how his training is going since he hasn't learned much, but now that the weather is cooler, I will be working with him outside on a lead with some treats - he walked pretty good on the lead this past weekend, but if his attention goes elsewhere and he stops, tugging the lead doesn't get him paying attention again, I have to walk over to him and touch him to get him moving again.  He was a very happy boy at coursing practice, of course nothing bothers him so he just pranced around and watched things.  He rode in my lap part of the way home and loves watching vehicles go by, his head snapping back and forth trying to see every vehicle as it goes by :)

Vestibular Syndrome

Okay, so when I started this blog for Tsu'tey, I didn't think we would continue to have issues to post about other than training, etc.  But alas, the vestibular syndrome has started up again.  Our vet did say that if it is an inner ear infection causing his problems (nystagmus, loss of balance, head tilt, etc.) that it may require a longer time on antibiotics but wanted to see how 3 weeks went.  Well, less than 2 weeks after completing his 3 week round of Clavamox the symptoms have come back.  Yesterday he was perfectly fine, playing that afternoon and acting like his normal silly self and when I went to feed dogs around 5pm and I went to put his food in with him, his head was rocking back and forth.  I took him out and the nystagmus is back, loss of balance, wobbling and so on.  I put him down in the kitchen to see how much balance he had and he was pretty wobbly but gained some control over his legs after a minute or two of walking around - he adapts pretty quick.  I gave him a pill for motion sickness since they can get nauseous from all the movement and then helped him eat.  His appetite was great, he ate a big bowl of food but I held his head steady otherwise he couldn't keep his head in the bowl to eat.  I helped him get a drink of water and then finished feeding dogs and sat on the couch with him.  Other than all the rocking back and forth, nystagmus and loss of balance, he seemed to feel fine and keeping his still was the biggest problem.  He wanted to get up and play and move around as he normally does but he wasn't in the condition to do that, so after a while I put him in his crate to lay down and rest.  He napped without a problem and slept through the night.  He seemed better this morning, balance is a bit better, nystagmus isn't as bad, ate and drank fine, when he shook this morning (as most dogs do when they get up in the morning) he was able to keep control of his balance and didn't fall over so that was good.  So as of right now, he's back on Clavamox for 6-8 weeks and see if we can get it completely under control.  He's still the happy, go-lucky, silly little boy that he normally is so it doesn't seem to be bothering him mentally, he doesn't let something like vestibular syndrome get him down :)

Tsu'tey video at 15 weeks old

And another video of Tsu'tey a bit older :)  He was 15 weeks old in this video, playing with his momma GiGi and just running around being a silly puppy, enjoy!

Tsu'tey video at 9 weeks old

So you can better get to know Tsu'tey, I'll post some videos of him.  This one was taken at 9 weeks, having recovered from his illness but still catching up on weight (he had put on a lot of weight since his illness in this video but had yet to return to normal weight).  Hope you enjoy!

BAER test update

Well, we had him BAER tested on Sunday (7/31/2011) and it did confirm that he is indeed deaf in both ears, but possibly has some residual hearing in his right ear, though if he does it doesn't help him at all - though we couldn't confirm if he does have residual hearing or not since his throat was hurting at the time and between his hard swallowing and moving around it was hard to tell. Now to explain his sore throat, we thought maybe he had scratched his larynx or something due to the way he was swallowing very hard and was also inhaling air into his stomach (he would inhale through his nose and into his stomach when he was swallowing hard and I would then have to burp him to relieve the pressure).  But then because of how quickly the symptoms went away we think he might have had something stuck behind his tonsils as he is perfectly fine now.  So as of right now he's doing great, we believe he had/has vestibular syndrome due to an inner ear infection which is why his head still tilts, but that doesn't seem to bother him at all.  The vet that did his BAER testing also thinks that due to his illness when he was little that could have caused the deafness.  So that is where we sit at right now, he's doing great - he's a happy go-lucky little pup who has personality to go around.  Now to work on his attention span so we can do some training, I think that's going to be the hardest part!