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Waiting at the Rainbow Bridge: September 3, 2011


Jam is Ch. Oak Knolls Strawberry
Jamboree, RN, RA, TT, CGC


Meet Jam, AKA Ch. Oak Knolls Strawberry Jamboree. Jam will be 7 on 12/28. I got him as a finished champion 4 years ago and he's been my constant buddy ever since. Jam would never know it but he came to me at a very low point in my life and made me WANT to train and show in performance again. At first I thought agility, but Jam is afraid of heights. He does love tunnels and jumping and he has a very rudimentary knowledge of the weave poles. Jam does better with obedience and earned his first RN leg after I had him about 7 weeks. We tried some backpacking but about the time I added some weight Jam looked at me and I swear he was saying, "Whoa--this feels like work--where's the sofa?" Never one to overexert himself, that's my Jam. Jam HATES sheep so herding was out too.

The dog that I had originally tagged as my next performance buddy really isn't my performance buddy. He is just my buddy. It didn't take long for me to know that his purpose in my life is far greater than the titles he has earned. I lost nearly all of my possessions as well as the place we called home in June 2008 in the Cedar Rapids, IA flooding. If I hadn't had Jam waiting for me to pick up the pieces and find us a new place to live I don't know if I would have made it out in one mental piece. I love all of my dogs, but Jam is the one that I turn to for emotional support. He isn't a demonstrative dog, he doesn't demand (except at dinner time), he is just quiet comfort. Always there when I need him, even when I didn't know I did.

About a month ago I noticed that Jam just wasn't himself. It's hard to describe because the symptoms are so vague to anyone that doesn't live with him. His whole body is tense and he has sore points all over his spine, but mainly in his neck area. It started by his not wanting to sleep on the bed or the sofa (which is a symptom that ranks right up there with a fever when it comes to Jam), but instead would sleep on the floor with his nose on the floor and his head upright. It is almost like he can hardly hold his head up. He walks around whining (another non-Jamlike trait) periodically and acts like he has a headache. He has also tripled his sleeping time and I find him in the oddest places for Jam, in open crates, in the corner, behind furniture. He is just "off".

I took him to my vet on Tuesday. The first thing that wigged me out was that Jam freaked out when I asked him to walk over to the scale. This is a dog that does anything I ask of him and he's been in this office and been weighed many times. My vet couldn't find any true spinal issues with the exception that his response to spinal exam produced excessive rippling of the muscles on his sides. Jam's response was hypersensitive. My vet was also concerned about some weakness in Jam's rear and when we laid him on his side so doc could take a better look at his rear and legs, Jam freaked out and flailed around and cried and then he had some minor nystagmus (his eyes moving back and forth rapidly) that went away as fast as it came on.

I agreed to some x-rays and left Jam to have that done. My vet called me soon after to tell me that they had to sedate him and said that he did another exam of his eyes to get a better look. He told me that Jam is almost completely blind, that he has no pupillary response to light and in fact his pupils get larger when light is flashed in them instead of smaller. He is not getting any kind of good light reflection in the one eye. At that point he opted not to do the x-rays because he feels it is an eye issue. I love my vet, he's done wonderful things for my dogs and for the rescues, but in Jam's case he can't help him. He recommended an appointment with the vet. ophthalmologist to start, possibly followed by a neuro consult.

Right now I'm in a holding pattern and have been doing doggy massages and keeping Jam quiet with lots of TLC. It's heartbreaking to be working around the house and yard and not be able to look up and see him meandering around or sleeping under his favorite tree or on the sofa.